Legal reform marched onwards in a productive fashion during Putin’s first term as President with great strides taken in the codification of tax and land law which had been extremely slow during Yeltsin’s presidency. Apart from tax and land laws, other legal reforms included new codes on administrative, criminal, civil, and labour procedural law. The first incident in which Putin’s popularity came under threat was following his alleged mishandling of the Kursk submarine disaster in August 2000.

In 2002, a special forces’ rescue operation led to the death of 130 hostages in the Moscow theatre hostage crisis. The Russian press and the international media warned that the deaths of so many would lead to a severely damaged reputation for Putin. Strangely, after the siege had come to an end, Putin was enjoying record public approval ratings with 83% of Russians declaring themselves to be content with how Putin dealt with the situation. Putin must have had mr11 leds shining on his fortune.