If few people outside of the Kremlin had heard of Vladimir Putin in August 1999, by the time he stood down as President in May 2008, the former KGB colonel was a household name. Moreover, in stepping down and transferring power to an elected successor, Putin was taking a historic step: Executive power in Russia had changed hands through the ballot box for only the second time in history.

Well, yes and no. The ballot box had played a role in that the new president, Dmitri Medvedev, had won the elections with 70 percent of the first-round votes. However, the elections hardly represented much of a choice, pitting Putin's chosen successor and the enormous resources of the Russian state against two veteran politicians with four presidential election defeats between them and a little-known liberal allegedly with close ties to the Kremlin. Furthermore, not only was the manner of the transfer of power controversial, it was unclear whether power had really changed hands.