Putin holding gold
With only one year left until the end of Vladimir Putin's third presidential term, Sputnik sat down with a number of Russian political analysts to talk about the Russian president's major achievements throughout his latest presidency and his possible steps in the year to come.

The third presidential term of the Russian leader will be remembered for his successes in the foreign policy arena and for a number of unsolved issues in the country's domestic issues, namely in its economy, Russian political analysts told Sputnik.

Among President Putin's major achievements, they noted the breakdown of the US monopoly to interpret international law at its own discretion. In addition, they said that the Russian leader is now perceived around the world as a value-oriented politician from the conservative wing.

However they added that the successes in his foreign policy have complicated the implementation of his electoral economic agenda.

The President, they suggested, will use his remaining year in office to work out a coordinated socio-economic program, facilitate the development of the Russian regions and to further rotate high-ranking personnel.

Nikolai Mironov, the Director of the Center for Economic and Political Reform points out the evident geopolitical emphasis of Putin's third presidential term. He also singled out some the key accomplishments as well as some complications of the president's foreign policy.
Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a crowd on May 9, 2014, celebrating the 69th anniversary victory over Nazi Germany and the 70th anniversary of he liberation of the Crimean port city of Sevastopol from the Nazis
"The reunification with Crimea, the re-tuning of Russia's foreign policy, attempts to find new partners are among the achievements. Quite complicated relations with the West and the US have forced the president to re-orient his policy towards the eastern partners," he told Sputnik.

"The ongoing Ukrainian conflict and attempts to establish peace in the area portray the president as a peacemaker and as a person who tries to defuse these conflicts while advancing national interests," he said.

Russian political analyst Dmitry Badovsky of the Moscow-based Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies Foundation also called the reunification with Crimea a "conceptual and emotional keynote" of the president's third term.

He further explained that the scale and the effect of this move gained geopolitical as well as domestic political strategic importance.

Meanwhile, President of the National Strategy Institute Mikhail Remizov noted in his conversation with Sputnik that during President Putin's third term Russia has become a major league political state, and earned the right to define the rules of the game in global politics.

The decision over Crimea and the launch of Russia's campaign in Syria have broken the unspoken rules of the game in the world order, which have been in place since the end of the Cold War, and which gave US the monopoly on political interventions, re-drawing borders, the legitimatization and de-legitimatization of regimes around the word and on the interpretation of international law, he said.

"Russia has aspired to being a full-fledged sovereignty, not satisfied by a sovereignty of a second-level," he noted.

He also said that the Russian leader is now perceived in the world as a value-oriented politician from the conservative wing.