Substance abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Substance abuse - Essay Example There are many ongoing debates in regards to this issue, and this is especially so in particular regards to that of the exact distinction between substance abuse and substance dependence; these are two totally separate issues however they are often confused or considered wrongly as being the same thing. In regards to be able to show a proper example of substance abuse, we will be discussing one movie in particular, 28 days. By thoroughly examining this movie and understanding about the environment, the characters, the situations take place, and all of the related issues in this regards we will be able to come to a much more critical and knowledgeable viewpoint in regards to what substance abuse actually is and what can be done about it. There are many critical issues that will be discussed using this film, and this is what will be dissertated in the following. 28 Days is a movie in which basically what happens is a big-city newspaper columnist is forced to enter a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center after stealing a limousine and crashing it into a house; the main character is Gwen Cummings who is played by Sandra Bullock, who is a Caucasian woman that ends up getting into a car crash on the day of her sister’s wedding, and she is then given a choice between either going to prison or going to a rehab center, and so she ends up choosing the rehab center. However, she is not exactly willing to admit that she has a problem with alcohol, and so at the beginning of the rehab center program she is quite negative and is extremely resistant in regards to taking part in any of the treatment programs that they have to offer. However, after a certain point she starts to realize that she does in fact have a problem, and that rather than simply using alcohol she does in fact have an addiction, and she then gradually begins to re-examine her life and she becomes willing to at least give it a try and get herself help and get better.

Unit9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Unit9 - Essay Example The course met my expectations as I was set on learning about analysis of policies and the in-depth detail was provided. The progress so far has been overwhelming. I did not expect that at this point I would have made much progress and learnt the much I have but the truth is that am way ahead and am immensely impressed by this progress. Despite the overwhelming progress and the making of leeway in the course, I still wish most of the concepts about the public policies analysis could have been carried out in slower manner to give time to really understand them since they impact directly on our day to day lives. All in all, the much taught though shallow still was good. To those students undertaking this course next year, I would advise them to start early preparations of trying to understand (though not fully) the main concepts in the course. This is in order to enable them have many questions which in the end makes the course be detailed with as many real life examples as possible hence making the course much more relevant to them. More interactive time and open forums with the tutor where debates about the course topics would have arisen and therefore made the course less intense would have been appreciated. This is because interactive time provides an avenue and time to get up close with the course instructor and hence opening communication channels to the shy students who are not so comfortable in intense classroom lectures and do better in an open forum sort-of discussion. Reuters. â€Å"Consumer Spending Rises as Jobless Claims Hold Steady.† The New York Times, 30th August, 2012. Retrieved from:

Literature Review - Business Schools Role in Society Essay Example for Free

Literature Review Business Schools Role in Society Essay Introduction Since 2007, the people of this planet have been living on 150 percent of its natural resource capacity (WWF, 2010). Increase in consumption does not show any signs of slowing down, as a consequence of emerging third world countries. The role that business schools play in this situation and its importance cannot be understated (Financial Times, 2010). In order to save this planet, we need to create a sustainable business environment, where corporations put ethics and social responsibility in front of profits. We need to switch the focus of all businesses from shareholders to stakeholders. Can this actually be taught? Or do governments need to legislate such actions? This topic is especially interesting because of the weight of our future that lies within this. If we do not change the way we teach students about core values of our society, the future of our planet may become very undesirable. These sources were acquired mainly from the EUR sEURch engine, as well as reading several articles from global news agencies in order to grasp a certain overview of this topic. * * * Literature Investigation * Addressing Concerns Raised by Critics of Business Schools by Teaching Multiple Approaches to Management (Dyck, B et al. 2011) 0 This article is a study about two ways of teaching management at classroom level. The article mentions concerns from other researchers about the way management is being taught in today’s universities. The authors argue that today’s students have a materialistic-individualistic point of view during their studies, and that these characteristics are consolidated during their time in the business study. These arguments are supported by an experiment. The authors indicate that there is flaws in the way business schools teach, and therefore actions should be taken. Others reject this and say management is an objective science. * This article might help to understand how business schools can change in order to make students more focused on stakeholders and ethics than shareholder profits. The article was published in a journal called Business and Society Review. It holds many references, where three of them are from Harvard Business Review. It was published 2011, therefore its currency cannot be questioned. Arguments are supported by an experiment. However, only one experiment was conducted which included a relatively small sample. The role of business schools in society (Cornuel, E 2005) The main subject of this article is very closely related to arguments stated in the introduction. It underlines the important role that business schools play to raise awareness of corporate social responsibility. It briefly mentions the need of humbleness in today’s business schools. Published in The Journal of Management Development in 2005, the importance and relevance of this article has become more of a current interest after it was published. Although the arguments are logical, this source does not provide sufficient support for its arguments. However, it does discuss interesting points and views within the subject. The author is Eric Cornuel, an Affiliate Professor at HEC, and Director General CEO of EFMD. The non-profit turn and its challenges for business schools (Cornuel, E Kletz, P 2011) Here, the researchers describe the challenges that business schools are facing today. Aiming towards the increase in demand for managers with an education in non-profit organizational management. The increase in large foundations (Bill Melinda Gates Foundation for example) is supposedly one of these demand shifters. The recent financial crisis is also argued to be one of the reasons for the movement towards education for non-profit and sustainability management at top business schools. There are two different models in how to change the curriculum in order to fill this need. The Double Standard Model, which argues that non-profit organizations should be managed differently than ordinary businesses, while the Business-Driven Model argues the opposite. Same author as in the previous source, Eric Cornuel, together with Pierre Kletz, Mandel Leadership Institution, Jerusalem, Israel. This research paper was published in the Journal of Management Development in 2011. This source gives meaningful insights to how and why business schools should make changes in their curriculum. Strategy Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility (Porter, M Kramer, M R 2006) This article was published in the Harvard Business Review in 2006. It is about how corporations can benefit from corporate social responsibility, instead of seeing it solely as a cost. One of the two authors is Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, one of the world’s most famous economists. This source is highly reliable because of two reasons. 1. Reputation of the author. 2. For the fact that it was published in one of the world’s most prestigious journals. It provides useful information for my future arguments, when it comes down to what business schools and businesses can gain from increasing CSR, and thereby improving global sustainability. Conclusion These articles all have one common argument. Business schools have to change. The disagreements lie in how this change should be executed, and what result that is to be expected from it (Financial Times, 2008). They all agree that business schools have a major impact on society, and therefore a great responsibility. Most researchers focus on how corporations must change, consequently leading to a change in demand for young managers with special skills in that area. Hence provoking the change of the business schools curriculum. This could be seen as delegating the responsibility of change to those corporations. As shown in the recent financial crisis, greed can make top executives act unethically, with no sense of corporate social responsibility. Should corporate social responsibility be legislated in order to achieve global sustainability? What role do business schools play in this? How can business schools act to ensure a positive future for our planet? Bibliography WWF 2010. Human demand outstrips natures supply, viewed 14 April 2012, http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/demands_on_our_planet/ Financial Times, 2010. Schools ignore sustainability revolution, viewed 17 April 2012, http://search.proquest.com/docview/756187538 Dyck, B et al., 2011, ‘Addressing Concerns Raised by Critics of Business Schools by Teaching Multiple Approaches to Management’, Business and Society Review, Volume 116, Issue 1, pp. 1 – 27, viewed 17 April 2012, retrieved from Wiley Online Library database. Cornuel, E 2005, ‘Role of Business Schools in Society’, The Journal of Management Development, Volume 24, Issue 9, p. 819, viewed at 17 April 2012, retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete database. Cornuel, E Kletz, P 2011, ‘The non-profit turn and its challenges for business schools’ Journal of Management Development, Volume 30, Issue 5, pp. 483 – 491, viewed at 17 April 2012, retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete database. Porter, M Kramer, M R 2006 ‘Strategy Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility’, Harvard business review, Volume 84, Issue 12, p. 78, viewed at 17 April 2012, retrieved from Business Source Premier database. Financial Times, 2008. The importance of sustainability, viewed 16 April 2012, http://search.proquest.com/docview/229149506 Self Reflection I approached the writing of this essay by and initial review if my previously submitted work, in order to grasp the full context, but also to see where I wanted to go and remind myself of the opinions I had while writing. I mostly free wrote for quite some time, and then later putting it all together with more approvable sentences in an academic sense. My biggest struggle was to get all the sources together to create some sort of an overview of the topic, since many of the articles were devoted to certain specific topics. I (hopefully) overcame this by reading a lot of different sources, and making connections to my own topic. I learned that starting an essay by free writing is the best approach for me personally, although a lot of time has to be dedicated to editing in the end, especially in the sense of making it all stick together as a whole piece. *

Essay --

â€Å"Demaryius Thomas is at the 20, the 10, TOUCHDOWN! The crowd goes wild! The Denver Broncos are going to the Super Bowl!† exclaimed, the newscaster. This wonderful image has been in the dreams of every Denver Broncos’ fans for over a decade. It has now become reality, for the Denver Broncos are participating in Super Bowl XLVIII. This paper’s main focus is to provide information on the Denver Broncos history, players, coaches, its super charged offense, and the Broncos’ road to the Super Bowl. According to Broncos history, the Denver Broncos first joined the National Football League (NFL) in 1960 with a dismal season winning only four out of the 14 games under the helm of Head Coach Frank Filchock. It took 17 years until the Denver Broncos made it to their first Super Bowl XII. Colorado embraced this team and nicknamed them the â€Å"Orange Crush† named after their perilous defense. Led by head coach Red Miller and quarterback Craig Morton, unfortunately they lost to the Dallas Cowboys in a 27 to 10 game. The Denver Broncos fans had to wait another 9 years for the next three Super Bowls under the direction of Head Coach Dan Reeves and with Colorado’s most iconic quarterback, John Elway in 1986, 87, and 89. Quite surprisingly, the Broncos lost all three Super Bowls (XXI, XXII, and XXIV) in the 80’s. Finally in the late 90’s John Elway near retirement led the 1997 and 1998 Broncos to their first two consecutive Super Bowl wins (XXXII and XXX III) under Head Coach Mike Shanahan. Presently, the Denver Broncos are the American Football Conference (AFC) Champions winning the game against the New England Patriots on January 19th, 2014. John Fox the 14th head coach of the Denver Broncos with a 24-year coaching career has won 112 gam... ...chdowns, nearly 4,000 receiving yards. This is his first Super Bowl appearance. Minnesotan, Eric Decker number 87 in his 4th year with the Denver Broncos scored 33 touchdowns, and 3,000 receiving yards. In week, 13 of the 2013-2014 season Decker earned the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award after scoring four touchdowns in a single game. To summarize, the Denver Broncos are on pace to becoming the best team in the history of the NFL. Consequently, on February 2nd, 2014 the Denver Broncos must face off against the Seattle Seahawks, the best team in the NFC at Super Bowl XLVIII. This highly anticipated game will decide the fate of which team can claim they are the World Champions. It will take the entire Denver Broncos team, coaches, players, and fans to conquer the mighty Seahawks and claim their prize in the history books as the best team in the world.

Marketing and Department

Project title: MUJI Introduction The head office of MUJI is from Japanese company, RTOHIN KEIKAU CO. , LTD. , and it is a new life style store and advocate simple, nature, texture life philosophy. Also, provide high quality and reasonable price product that related with life, and not waste the material to care about the product’s eco. Flowchart * Human resource department * Distribution department * Quality check department * Marketing department * Finance/ Accounting department * Information technology department * Administration department Japan head office * Engineering department Purchasing department * Productive department * Research & Development department * Creative department * * Human resource department * Distribution department * Quality check department * Marketing department * Finance/ Accounting department * Information technology department * Administration department Japan head office * Engineering department * Purchasing department * Productive departmen t * Research & Development department * Creative department * Front- stage Front- stage Back- stage Back- stage Service delivery system Service delivery system Other contact points Other contact pointsCashier center, Warehouse, Fitting room, Display area (window display), delivery team Cashier center, Warehouse, Fitting room, Display area (window display), delivery team Service operations system Service operations system Cabinet, Burglar alarm, Clothes chest & stand, Refrigerator, Showcase, Display rack, Spot light, Leaflet tray, Telephone, Computer system, Barcode, etc. Cabinet, Burglar alarm, Clothes chest & stand, Refrigerator, Showcase, Display rack, Spot light, Leaflet tray, Telephone, Computer system, Barcode, etc. Other customers Other customers The Customer The Customer Other customersOther customers Advertising Promotion sale MUJI card Miscellaneous e-mail, mamil, phone calls, etc. Websites Exposure product of seasons Advertising Promotion sale MUJI card Miscell aneous e-mail, mamil, phone calls, etc. Websites Exposure product of seasons Customer service associate, Cashier, Supervisor, Storekeeper, Security, Customer service hotline Customer service associate, Cashier, Supervisor, Storekeeper, Security, Customer service hotline Front stage Backstage Customer action Employee action Phone/ internet contact Make recommendation Arrived store Pay Delivery Recorded & follow upCustomer service CS associate, Security Cashier Enter data Register data Distribution Sent out Front stage Backstage Customer action Employee action Phone/ internet contact Make recommendation Arrived store Pay Delivery Recorded & follow up Customer service CS associate, Security Cashier Enter data Register data Distribution Sent out Most of the customer are having connect with company is they come to the store. But MUJI also provide a delivery ordering service to customers. When the total price over $3001 that the delivery charge will be free but if below $3000, it will take $120 for the charge.And have other three types of charge, like bridge/tunnel toll, labor charge, assembly charge, that will charge when different situation happened. And must remember that does the large packing furniture can be moved to the designated location or not so need to careful of this. Also, MUJI have cooperation with Hang Seng Bank that created a MUJI card that to attract consumers. Using MUJI card at MUJI can earn $5 MUJI dollars for every spending of $100 and can use the MUJI dollars when you use the MUJI card to buy at MUJI next time to enjoy double benefits.The responsibility range of each department Back stage department Human resource Staff is very importance of a company because if you don’t have any staff or they didn’t like the company, will make company’s quality down and nothing can do without staff. So that the most importance thing of human resource department has to do is how company keeps outstanding staff in company and recru it some outstanding people outside to join the company. And the mainly job of the department are including, compensation & benefits, staffing & selection, and training & development.Distribution Distribution department need to help picking and packing goods, delivery goods, physical storage planning, physical storage planning, may facilitate the movement of materials. And the department is being an important charter in the company because the company sales are directly related to the speed of delivery goods. Quality check When product finishes production and delivery to Hong Kong, will have a check in lab for testing its different kind of quality, like safety, health, practicability, etc.And they not only do the checking in lab, they also need to go to stores to have a random check to make sure the products have the high quality provide to customers. Marketing When the product start the production process, marketing department also need to start thinking about the compan y marketing strategy to defined the target market of the product, then find out the most suitable way for sell. Also, the marketing strategy must including promotion plan, like new product exhibition, advertising, sale, distribute leaflets to potential consumer, etc. AdministrationAdministration department is a department that sundry duties in a company. They need to arrange the appliances, like stationery, and buy the appliances, like water dispenser, keep in good repair of office, for example, clean the windows or rug, contact with the security of building, response company pantry and the document sending. Finance/ Accounting The mainly job of the department would be properly to help company manage the affair of finance, handle and calculate each department of company, defined the future development plan from the account, make sure the money enough to un the business and have great management system to manage and protect company’s asset. Information Technology Help to desig n and create company website, then need to manage the website, provide technology of computer science that to maintain or upgrade office computers or company system. Back-stage department (Japan head office) Purchasing Purchasing department is searching manufactory, material suppler, then inquire about price, negotiated price, makes contract with suppler, tracking warehousing, manage the inventory, processing the defective products, etc.They have to help the company to find out the cheapest price and have good quality company to be the suppler because the material cost may increase when contract higher price with supplier then the selling price will also follow to increase so it is very important to the production. Productive The job of the deportment is to manage, control the time to finish the product on time, control the cost of the production. They will subscribe guide line about the standard of product to let manufactory to follow, include following: quality, specifications, qu antity, deadline, method of using science.Creative Creative department’s staffs must have many creative ideas to help company design a new, useful and special product that can have good selling number. But their design still need keep company style and control the quality. Research & Development This department’s mainly job is collect data for research, basic research and applied research, then by the result to think about how to develop the products and fits to market. Front-stage department Sales The mainly job of sales department is make marketing department creates marketing strategy plan to operate.Also, the department staffs are selling products at retail store and answer customers inquire. They need to know all detail of the product that which in their response area. And they must have good communication and selling skills. Public relationship A good business image is rely on good public relationship department because it is a department that response to pro vide positive image to public, like send out declare when having any bad in that country or update the positive news to consumers, etc. Customer ServiceThe mainly work of the department is handle daily running of customer service, like receive customer order and follow up the order, and provide good service to customer, answer customer’s inquire or complaint. Security It’s a most important deportment of a company because it is related to safety problem. Their job is make sure all the staff and company’s safety, have temporary problem solving sills, for example, something have been stolen or company on fire, so they response to follow the timetable to make one’s rounds of inspection and general security’s job.Conclusion MUJI is one of the company that provide high quality service, and they are not only focus this way, they also focus on resource of Earth, environment, recycle problems and it’s store image of ‘sample style’ can at tract many different age group people to visit. But one of thing that MUJI need to improve is their Hong Kong MUJI website is too simple that not enough information to show consumers.

An Explanation of Unicode Character Encoding

For a computer to be able to store text and numbers that humans can understand, there needs to be a code that transforms characters into numbers. The Unicode standard defines such a code by using character encoding. The reason character encoding is so important is so that every device can display the same information. A custom character encoding scheme might work brilliantly on one computer, but problems will occur when if you send that same text to someone else. It wont know what youre talking about unless it understands the encoding scheme too. Character Encoding All character encoding does is assign a number to every character that can be used. You  could make a character encoding right now. For example, I could say that the letter A becomes the number 13, a14, 133, #123, and so on. This is where industry-wide standards come in. If the whole computer industry uses the same character encoding scheme, every computer can display the same characters. What Is Unicode? ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) became the first widespread encoding scheme. However, its limited to only 128 character definitions. This is fine for the most common English characters, numbers, and punctuation, but is a bit limiting for the rest of the world. Naturally, the rest of the world wants the same encoding scheme for their characters too. However, for a little, while depending on where you were, there might have been a different character displayed for the same ASCII code. In the end, the other parts of the world began creating their own encoding schemes, and things started to get a little bit confusing. Not only were the coding schemes of different lengths, programs needed to figure out which encoding scheme they were supposed to use. It became apparent that a new character encoding scheme was needed, which is when the Unicode standard was created. The objective of Unicode is to unify all the different encoding schemes so that the confusion between computers can be limited as much as possible. These days, the Unicode standard defines values for over 128,000 characters and can be seen at the Unicode Consortium. It has several character encoding forms: UTF-8: Only uses one byte (8 bits) to encode English characters. It can use a sequence of bytes to encode other characters. UTF-8 is widely used in email systems and on the internet.UTF-16: Uses two bytes (16 bits) to encode the most commonly used characters. If needed, the additional characters can be represented by a pair of 16-bit numbers.UTF-32: Uses four bytes (32 bits) to encode the characters. It became apparent that as the Unicode standard grew, a 16-bit number is too small to represent all the characters. UTF-32 is capable of representing every Unicode character as one number. Note: UTF means Unicode Transformation Unit. Code Points A code point is the value that a character is given in the Unicode standard. The values according to Unicode are written as hexadecimal numbers and have a prefix of U. For example, to encode the characters we looked at earlier: A is U0041a is U00611 is U0031# is U0023 These code points are split into 17 different sections called planes, identified by numbers 0 through 16. Each plane holds 65,536 code points. The first plane, 0, holds the most commonly used characters and is known as the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Code Units The encoding schemes are made up of code units, which are used to provide an index for where a character is positioned on a plane. Consider UTF-16 as an example. Each 16-bit number is a code unit. The code units can be transformed into code points. For instance, the flat note symbol â™ ­ has a code point of U1D160 and lives on the second plane of the Unicode standard (Supplementary Ideographic Plane). It would be encoded using the combination of the 16-bit code units UD834 and UDD60. For the BMP, the values of the code points and code units are identical. This allows a shortcut for UTF-16 that saves a lot of storage space. It only needs to use one 16-bit number to represent those characters. How Does Java Use Unicode? Java was created around the time when the Unicode standard had values defined for a much smaller set of characters. Back then, it was felt that 16-bits would be more than enough to encode all the characters that would ever be needed. With that in mind, Java was designed to use UTF-16. The char data type was originally used to represent a 16-bit Unicode code point. Since Java SE v5.0, the char represents a code unit. It makes little difference for representing characters that are in the Basic Multilingual Plane because the value of the code unit is the same as the code point. However, it does mean that for the characters on the other planes, two chars are needed. The important thing to remember is that a single char data type can no longer represent all the Unicode characters.

Vladimir Putin Bio KGB Agent to Russian President

Vladimir Putin is a Russian politician and former KGB intelligence officer currently serving as President of Russia. Elected to his current and fourth presidential term in May 2018, Putin has led the Russian Federation as either its prime minister, acting president, or president since 1999. Long considered an equal of the President of the United States in holding one of the world’s most powerful public offices, Putin has aggressively exerted Russia’s influence and political policy around the world. Vladimir Putin Fast Facts Full Name: Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinBorn: October 7, 1952, Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia)  Parents’ Names: Maria Ivanovna Shelomova and Vladimir Spiridonovich PutinSpouse: Lyudmila Putina (married in 1983, divorced in 2014)Children: Two daughters; Mariya Putina and Yekaterina PutinaEducation: Leningrad State UniversityKnown for: Russian Prime Minister and Acting President of Russia, 1999 to 2000; President of Russia 2000 to 2008 and 2012 to present; Russian Prime Minister 2008 to 2012. Early Life, Education, and Career Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). His mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova was a factory worker and his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, had served in the Soviet Navy submarine fleet during World War II and worked as a foreman at an automobile factory during the 1950s. In his official state biography, Putin recalls, â€Å"I come from an ordinary family, and this is how I lived for a long time, nearly my whole life. I lived as an average, normal person and I have always maintained that connection.†Ã‚   While attending elementary and high school, Putin took up judo in hopes of emulating the Soviet intelligence officers he saw in the movies. Today, he holds a black belt in judo and is a national master in the similar Russian martial art of sambo. He also studied German at Saint Petersburg High School, and speaks the language fluently today. Putin and his parents in 1985, just before he went to Germany. Laski Diffusion / Getty Images In 1975, Putin earned a law degree from Leningrad State University, where he was tutored and befriended by Anatoly Sobchak, who would later become a political leader during the Glasnost and Perestroika reform period. As a college student, Putin was required to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union but resigned as a member in December 1991. He would later describe communism as â€Å"a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization.† After initially considering a career in law, Putin was recruited into the KGB (the Committee for State Security) in 1975. He served as a foreign counter-intelligence officer for 15 years, spending the last six in Dresden, East Germany. After leaving the KGB in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he returned to Russia where he was in charge of the external affairs of Leningrad State University. It was here that Putin became an advisor to his former tutor Anatoly Sobchak, who had just become Saint Petersburg’s first freely-elected mayor. Gaining a reputation as an effective politician, Putin quickly rose to the position of first deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg in 1994.   Prime Minister 1999   After moving to Moscow in 1996, Putin joined the administrative staff of Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. Recognizing Putin as a rising star, Yeltsin appointed him director of the Federal Security Service (FSB)—the post-communism version of the KGB—and secretary of the influential Security Council. On August 9, 1999, Yeltsin appointed him as acting prime minister. On August 16, the Russian Federation’s legislature, the State Duma, voted to confirm Putin’s appointment as prime minister. The day Yeltsin first appointed him, Putin announced his intention to seek the presidency in the 2000 national election. While he was largely unknown at the time, Putin’s public popularity soared when, as prime minister, he orchestrated a military operation that succeeded resolving the Second Chechen War, an armed conflict in the Russian-held territory of Chechnya between Russian troops and secessionist rebels of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought between August 1999 and April 2009.   Acting President 1999 to 2000 When Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned on December 31, 1999, under suspicion of bribery and corruption, the Constitution of Russia made Putin acting President of the Russian Federation. Later the same day, he issued a presidential decree protecting Yeltsin and his relatives from prosecution for any crimes they might have committed.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While the next regular Russian presidential election was scheduled for June 2000, Yeltsin’s resignation made it necessary to hold the election within three months, on March 26, 2000.   At first far behind his opponents, Putin’s law-and-order platform and decisive handling of the Second Chechen War as acting president soon pushed his popularity beyond that of his rivals. On March 26, 2000, Putin was elected to his first of three terms as President of the Russian Federation winning 53 percent of the vote. Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin at Putins Kremlin inauguration ceremony. Laski Diffusion / Getty Images First Presidential Term 2000 to 2004 Shortly after his inauguration on May 7, 2000, Putin faced the first challenge to his popularity over claims that he had mishandled his response to the Kursk submarine disaster. He was widely criticized for his refusal to return from vacation and visit the scene for over two weeks. When asked on the Larry King Live television show what had happened to the Kursk, Putin’s two-word reply, â€Å"It sank,† was widely criticized for its perceived cynicism in the face of tragedy.   October 23, 2002, as many as 50 armed Chechens, claiming allegiance to the Chechnya Islamist separatist movement, took 850 people hostage in Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater. An estimated 170 people died in the controversial special-forces gas attack that ended the crisis. While the press suggested that Putin’s heavy-handed response to the attack would damage his popularity, polls showed over 85 percent of Russians approved of his actions. Less than a week after the Dubrovka Theater attack, Putting clamped down even harder on the Chechen separatists, canceling previously announced plans to withdraw 80,000 Russian troops from Chechnya and promising to take â€Å"measures adequate to the threat† in response to future terrorist attacks. In November, Putin directed Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to order sweeping attacks against Chechen separatists throughout the breakaway republic. Putin’s harsh military policies succeeded in at least stabilizing the situation in Chechnya. In 2003, the Chechen people voted to adopt a new constitution confirming that the Republic of Chechnya would remain a part of Russia while retaining its political autonomy. Though Putin’s actions greatly diminished the Chechen rebel movement, they failed to end the Second Chechen War, and sporadic rebel attacks continued in the northern Caucasus region.  Ã‚   During the majority of his first term, Putin concentrated on improving the failing Russian economy, in part by negotiating a â€Å"grand bargain† with the Russian business oligarchs who had controlled the nation’s wealth since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Under the bargain, the oligarchs would retain most of their power, in return for supporting—and cooperating with—Putin’s government.   According to financial observers at the time, Putin made it clear to the oligarchs that they would prosper if they played by the Kremlin rules. Indeed, Radio Free Europe reported in 2005 that the number of Russian business tycoons had greatly increased during Putin’s time in power, often aided by their personal relationships with him.   Whether Putin’s â€Å"grand bargain† with the oligarchs actually â€Å"improved† the Russian economy or not remains uncertain. British journalist and expert on international affairs Jonathan Steele has observed that by the end of Putin’s second term in 2008, the economy had stabilized and the nation’s overall standard of living had improved to the point that the Russian people could â€Å"notice a difference.† Second Presidential Term 2004 to 2008 On March 14, 2004, Putin was easily re-elected to the presidency, this time winning 71 percent of the vote.   During his second term as president, Putin focused on undoing the social and economic damage suffered by the Russian people during the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union, an event he called â€Å"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century.† In 2005, he launched the National Priority Projects designed to improve health care, education, housing, and agriculture in Russia. On October 7, 2006—Putin’s birthday— Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist and human rights activist, who as a frequent critic of Putin and had exposed corruption in the Russian Army and cases of its improper conduct in the Chechnya conflict, was shot to death as she entered the lobby of her apartment building. While Politkovskaya’s killer was never identified, her death brought criticism that Putin’s promise to protect the newly-independent Russian media had been no more than political rhetoric. Putin commented that Politkovskaya’s death had caused him more problems than anything she had ever written about him.   In 2007, Other Russia, a group opposed to Putin led by former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, organized a series of â€Å"Dissenters’ Marches† to protest Putin’s policies and practices. Marches in several cities resulted in the arrests of some 150 protestors who tried to penetrate police lines. In the December 2007 elections, the equivalent of the U.S. mid-term congressional election, Putin’s United Russia party easily retained control of the State Duma, indicating the Russian people’s continued support for him and his policies. The democratic legitimacy of the election was questioned, however. While some 400 foreign election monitors stationed at polling places stated that the election process itself had not been rigged, the Russian media’s coverage had clearly favored candidates of United Russia. Both the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concluded that the elections were unfair and called on the Kremlin to investigate alleged violations. A Kremlin-appointed election commission concluded that not only had the election been fair, but it had also proven the â€Å"stability† of the Russian political system.   Second Premiership 2008 to 2012 With Putin barred by the Russian Constitution from seeking a third consecutive presidential term, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected president. However, on May 8, 2008, the day after Medvedev’s inauguration, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia. Under the Russian system of government, the president and the prime minister share responsibilities as the head of state and head of the government, respectively. Thus, as prime minister, Putin retained his dominance over the country’s political system.   In September 2001, Medvedev proposed to the United Russia Congress in Moscow, that Putin should run for the presidency again in 2012, an offer Putin happily accepted. Third Presidential Term 2012 to 2018   On March 4, 2012, Putin won the presidency for a third time with 64 percent of the vote. Amid public protests and accusations that he had rigged the election, he was inaugurated on May 7, 2012, immediately appointing former President Medvedev as prime minister. After successfully quelling protests against the election process, often by having marchers jailed, Putin proceeded to make sweeping—if controversial—changes to Russia’s domestic and foreign policy.  Ã‚   In December 2012, Putin signed a law prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens. Intended to ease the adoption of Russian orphans by Russian citizens, the law stirred international criticism, especially in the United States, where as many as 50 Russian children in the final stages of adoption were left in legal limbo.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The following year, Putin again strained his relationship with the U.S. by granting asylum to Edward Snowden, who remains wanted in the United States for leaking classified information he gathered as a contractor for the National Security Agency on the WikiLeaks website. In response, U.S. President Barack Obama canceled a long-planned August 2013 meeting with Putin.   Also in 2013, Putin issued a set of highly controversial anti-gay laws outlawing gay couples from adopting children in Russia and banning the dissemination of material promoting or describing â€Å"nontraditional† sexual relationships to minors. The laws brought worldwide protests from both the LGBT and straight communities.  Ã‚   In December 2017, Putin announced he would seek a six-year—rather than four-year—term as president in July, running this time as an independent candidate, cutting his old ties with the United Russia party.   After a bomb exploded in a crowded Saint Petersburg food market on December 27, injuring dozens of people, Putin revived his popular â€Å"tough on terror† tone just before the election. He stated that he had ordered Federal Security Service officers to â€Å"take no prisoners† when dealing with terrorists. In his annual address to the Duma in March 2018, just days before the election, Putin claimed that the Russian military had perfected nuclear missiles with â€Å"unlimited range† that would render NATO anti-missile systems â€Å"completely worthless.† While U.S. officials expressed doubts about their reality, Putin’s claims and saber-rattling tone ratcheted up tensions with the West but nurtured renewed feelings of national pride among Russian voters.   Fourth Presidential Term 2018 On March 18, 2018, Putin was easily elected to a fourth term as President of Russia, winning more than 76 percent of the vote in an election that saw 67 percent of all eligible voters cast ballots. Despite the opposition to his leadership that had surfaced during his third term, his closest competitor in the election garnered only 13 percent of the vote. Shortly after officially taking office on May 7, Putin announced that in compliance with the Russian Constitution, he would not seek reelection in 2024.   President Trump and President Putin Hold a Press Conference in 2018. Chris McGrath / Getty Images On July 16, 2018, Putin met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, in what was called the first of a series of meetings between the two world leaders. While no official details of their private 90-minute meeting were published, Putin and Trump would later reveal in press conferences that they had discussed the Syrian civil war and its threat to the safety of Israel, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the extension of the START nuclear weapons reduction treaty.   Interference in 2016 US Presidential Election During Putin’s third presidential term, allegations arose in the United States that the Russian government had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.   A combined U.S. intelligence community report released in January 2017 found â€Å"high confidence† that Putin himself had ordered a media-based â€Å"influence campaign† intended to harm the American public’s perception of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, thus improving the electoral chances of eventual election winner, Republican Donald Trump. In addition, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating whether officials of the Trump campaign organization colluded with high ranking Russian officials to influence the election.   While both Putin and Trump have repeatedly denied the allegations, the social media website Facebook admitted in October 2017 that political ads purchased by Russian organizations had been seen by at least 126 million Americans during the weeks leading up to the election. Personal Life, Net Worth, and Religion Vladimir Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva on July 28, 1983. From 1985 to 1990, the couple lived in East Germany where they gave birth to their two daughters, Mariya Putina and Yekaterina Putina. On June 6, 2013, Putin announced the end of the marriage. Their divorce became official on April 1, 2014, according to the Kremlin. An avid outdoorsman, Putin publicly promotes sports, including skiing, cycling, fishing, and horseback riding as a healthy way of life for the Russian people.   While some say he may be the world’s wealthiest man, Vladimir Putin’s exact net worth is not known. According to the Kremlin, the President of the Russian Federation is paid the U.S. equivalent of about $112,000 per year and is provided with an 800-square foot apartment as an official residence. However, independent Russian and U.S. financial experts have estimated Putin’s combined net worth at from $70 billion to as much as $200 billion. While his spokespersons have repeatedly denied allegations that Putin controls a hidden fortune, critics in Russia and elsewhere remain convinced that he has skillfully used the influence of his nearly 20-years in power to acquire massive wealth.   A member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Putin recalls the time his mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed by a Bishop and wear it for his safety. â€Å"I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since,† he once recalled.   Notable Quotes As one of the most powerful, influential, and often-controversial world leaders of the past two decades, Vladimir Putin has uttered many memorable phrases in public. A few of these include:   â€Å"There is no such thing as a former KGB man.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy dont want to learn it themselves.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Russia doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. It destroys them.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"In any case, I’d rather not deal with such questions, because anyway it’s like shearing a pig—lots of screams but little wool.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"I am not a woman, so I don’t have bad days.†Ã‚   Sources and References â€Å"Vladimir Putin Biography.† Vladimir Putin official state biographyâ€Å"Vladimir Putin – President of Russia.† European-Leaders.com (March 2017)â€Å"First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russias President Vladimir Putin.† The New York Times (2000)â€Å"Putin’s Obscure Path From KGB to Kremlin.† Los Angeles Times (2000)â€Å"Vladimir Putin quits as head of Russias ruling party.† The Daily Telegraph (2002)â€Å"Russian lessons.† Financial Times. September 20, 2008â€Å"Russia: Bribery Thriving Under Putin, According To New Report.† Radio Free Europe (2005)Steele, Jonathan. â€Å"Putin’s legacy is a Russia that doesnt have to curry favour with the west.† The Guardian, September 18, 2007Bohlen, Celestine (2000). â€Å"YELTSIN RESIGNS: THE OVERVIEW; Yeltsin Resigns, Naming Putin as Acting President To Run in March Election.† The New York Times.Sakwa, Richard (2007). â€Å"Putin : Ru ssias Choice (2nd ed.).† Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9780415407656.Judah, Ben (2015). â€Å"Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell in and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin.† Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300205220.