Boris Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin to his position on New Year's Eve 1999.
Posted by The Pete Quiñones Show, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 85%
The Pete Quiñones ShowOct 1, 2026
Multiple reliable sources report that on December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned and named Vladimir Putin acting president, which matches the claim's New Year's Eve 1999 appointment. Putin had been appointed prime minister earlier, on August 9, 1999, so 'his position' is read as the acting presidency; the claim's extraction faithfully follows the passage.
What was said
… He spoke German without an accent, a bunch of other languages, and he started off at a relatively minor position in the St. Petersburg bureaucracy. Um, he learned political economy from experience, from the ground up, so by the time Yeltsin had appointed him New Year's Eve '99, 2000, he knew the inner workings of the country, the army, what the problems were, and the basic foundation, the ideology that he was going to have to, ah, layout to unify the country. And while it's general, and I have some criticisms about it, um, whatever Putin's ideology is, it's worked. …
The Pete Quiñones Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Reuters reports that Yeltsin declared his resignation on December 31, leading to Putin becoming acting president.[1]
Supports. AP's photo caption and the New York Times (Jan 1, 2000) both report that Yeltsin announced his resignation on Dec. 31, 1999, naming Putin acting president.[2][3]
Supports. Encyclopedia and other accounts state that on New Year's Eve 1999 Yeltsin stepped down and named Putin acting president.[4][5]
Context. Putin was first appointed prime minister on August 9, 1999, so the New Year's Eve step was his elevation to acting president rather than his first appointment.[1][6][7]
Sources
7 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 4 not rated, 1 tier 2
- 1Timeline - New Russia president brings familiar facereuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2Key events in Vladimir Putin's more than two decades in ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3The Overview: Yeltsin Resigns, Naming Putin as Acting Presidentarchive.nytimes.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Vladimir Putinencyclopedia.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5After 25 years, Putin faces the trap of successionplatformraam.nl · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6Vladimir Putin has dominated Russia for 20 years. Will he ever step down?cnn.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
- 7A Timeline of Putin's 2 Decades in Power - The Moscow Timesthemoscowtimes.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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