On October 1, Vladimir Putin was made a permanent member of Russia's Security Council. How many years ago was that?

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28 years ago, on October 1, 1998, Putin was head of the FSB when Boris Yeltsin made him a permanent member of the Security Council. Ten months later Yeltsin named him prime minister. Putin has run Russia as president or prime minister ever since, outlasting every US president from Clinton to Biden. A 2020 constitutional rewrite reset his term count, so he can legally stay until 2036, when he will be 83.

Putin passed Leonid Brezhnev's 18 years in office on September 12, 2017. Stalin, at 10,636 days in charge, is the only Soviet or Russian leader still ahead of him, and on his current track Putin passes him in 2028.

Vladimir Putin has run Russia for 28 years. Only Stalin ruled the Kremlin longer.

Source: Federation of American Scientists, FSB history; Washington Post and Statista (tenure comparison); Bloomberg · checked Sep 2026