For Russians, the sandy-haired, once-obscure bureaucrat was their country's new revolutionary. Putin strongly reigned in the financial mafia, enforced law and order, cracked the whip to get people to pay their taxes, and generally begun to put the economy back on the rails.
However, a report in the Guardian towards the end of last year claimed that Putin was the richest man in Europe. And that, too, by alleged embezzlement. Soon, Moscow was agog with reports of Putin's hidden wealth in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, a landlocked principality in central Europe located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland.
Critics say the wave of re-nationalisations under Putin transformed his associates into multi-millionaires.
Quoting sources at the President's office, Russian political expert Stanislav Belkovsky told a German newspaper that after eight years in power, Putin had secretly accumulated more than $40 billion -- a sum would make him Russia's and Europe's richest man.
Reports say the news of the alleged financial dealings at Kremlin leaked out after a fight between a group led by Igor Sechin, Putin's influential deputy chief of staff, and a 'liberal' clan, that includes Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's hand-picked successor.
Putin, however, remained unfazed.
Image: US President George Bush and Putin at the leaders'swansong summit by the Black Sea in April.
Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: The Russian President's home page
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