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| 2000, Feb. 6 |
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| Russian troops took control of Grozny. Although fighting continued in the region, the Grozny takeover was a huge military and political victory for Russia and for Pres. Putin, whose hard-line stance against Chechnya had greatly improved his political popularity. | 1 |
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| March 26 |
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| Running on persistently vague campaign promises about specific reform policies, Pres. Vladimir Putin defeated ten opponents and won his first presidential election. Garnering 53 percent of the vote, Putin moved to centralize power in Moscow by diminishing the influence of local and regional governments and Russian business leaders. Meanwhile, the Center-Right Unity Party most closely associated with Putin allied itself with the Communists in the Russian legislature. Announcement of the multiparty pact prompted nearly one-fourth of the Duma to walk out of the Russian Parliament building in protest. | 2 |
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| April 14 |
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| The Duma approved the second Strategic Arms Reduction Talks Treaty (START II). | 3 |
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| April 21 |
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| The Russian Parliament ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which renounced the testing of nuclear weapons throughout the world. | 4 |
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| May 17 |
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| In a surprising decision by the Duma, a set of Putin-supported legislative changes that diluted the authority of Russia's 89 regional governors and local legislative leaders was passed by a cautious parliament. The laws were modified so that, instead of filling the seats themselves, local legislatures would elect senators to represent them in the upper house of Parliament, known as the Federation Council. The new legislation also gave Putin the power to remove governors and dissolve local legislatures if they violated the law. | 5 |
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| June |
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| Vladimir Gusinsky, media tycoon and owner of Russia's only independent television network, was arrested for his alleged embezzlement of government property. Gusinsky's station had criticized the Kremlin for its harsh policies in Chechnya. Other millionaires came under investigation in the mining, oil, and auto industries and faced government prosecution for alleged tax violations. | 6 |
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| Aug. 12 |
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| Off the northern coast of Russia, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea; all 118 sailors aboard perished. Raising questions about Russia's political and military stability, the international community severely criticized Moscow's handling of the disaster. The accident was the worst Russian peacetime naval catastrophe in history. | 7 |
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