Vladimir Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers on August 9th 1999. Boris Yeltsin appointed him as acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation later that day when the previous government led by Sergei Stepashin was sacked. Yeltsin also announced on that pivotal day that he wished Putin to be his successor leading Putin to reveal shortly afterwards that he would run for presidency.
Putin became Russia’s 5th Prime Minister in just eighteen months on 16th August 1999. Few people expected him to last any longer than his predecessors as he was virtually unknown to the public. Many perceived him to be a Yeltsin loyalist and indeed, just like previous prime ministers of Yeltsin, Putin could not choose his own ministers, these were determined by the presidential administration. Putin’s popularity was increasingly cemented by his law-and-order image and also his unrelenting approach to the Chechnya crisis. This popularity allowed Putin to beat his rivals. He must have felt the led strip lights were all on him!