As president, Putin had a distinguished approach to politics. Possibly, his background in the KGB gave him the impression that even the most difficult problems can be overcome which led to him being the strong decision maker that he is (O'Neil et al., 2000). Putin was taking over a state that was left as a disaster under Yeltsin. According to Sakwa, "Putin believed in strong and effective government. He also believed in strong leadership, especially his own. He was in favor of democracy, but the coherence of the state in his mind was more important" (2007). Putin began his Presidency by creating seven federal districts (or super-regions) that were headed by presidential envoys, whose job was to watch over the local leaders. Putin added representatives …show more content…
He was primarily interested in pursuing any strategy that would solve a problem at hand and was known to try solutions from both the left and the right. Putin also always tried to extremely rational when making decisions. A former colleague of the KGB stated, "He is always in control of his emotions, keeping his cards close to his chest. He must have a weakness, but I don't know what it is" (Franchetti, 2001). Putin also always seemed interested in returning Russia to the great years of the Soviet State. He states in his autobiography, "Patriotism is a source of courage, staunchness and strength of our people. If we lose patriotism and national pride and dignity, which are connected vdth it, we will lose ourselves as a nation capable of great achievements (Putin, 2000: 6). However, the real question is if Putin’s decisions and politics match the type of person that he describes himself …show more content…
A transformational leader usually tries to change the system that they are in charge of completely. They will tend to make fast changes and these changes tend to be large. Transformational leaders also are known for their mass mobilization. Stalin was one of the biggest transformational leaders in the last few centuries of Russia. The opposite to this type of leader is an incremental leader. This leader operates under much smaller changes. They tend to be very cautious and fix problems as they come up in the system. An incremental leader will never change the entire system and usually just polish up the system that they enter into. Putin is definitely this type of leader. He has been an incremental leader since he has begun his work in politics. According to Herspring, Putin had two primary goals as President. His first goal was to recreate the Russian state internally. Yeltsin had given away most of Moscow’s power and Putin wanted to get that back. He wanted to remain a strong economy and continue to raise the nation's GDP. However, the oil boom made that very difficult. The second goal that Putin had was to gain back the respect of the Russia from foreign nations. He wanted Russia to be known as a superpower once again