DM1ST(^18) DAILY MIRROR SATURDAY 17.08.
On this day
TWO YEARS AGO (2017)
32 YEARS AGO (1987)
21 YEARS AGO (1998)
Birthdays
Today’s giggle ■ If you’d like us to mention the birthday
of a loved one, write to Birthdays, Daily
Mirror, One Canada Square, London E
5AP or [email protected]
Actor Robert De Niro is 76.
His boyhood nickname was
“Bobby milk” because he was
so pale. Football idol Thierry
Henry is 42. He is a
basketball fan. Actor Sean
Penn is 59. He was married to
Madonna. Sixth Sense actor
Donnie Wahlberg is 50. He is
Mark Wahlberg’s brother. And
many happy returns to Mirror
readers Neil Revill, from
Chesterfield, Derbys, who is
50, and Barbara Drury, from
Derby, who turns 85 today.
Fourteen people died and more
than 130 were injured when a
terrorist drove a van into
pedestrians down La Rambla in
Barcelona, Spain.
Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess
committed suicide in Spandau
prison, West Berlin, aged 93. Hess
had been held there since 1946,
the only inmate for 20 years.
We revealed the victims of the
Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland,
which killed 28 and injured 220,
among them seven children and a
woman pregnant with twins.
How many photographers
does it take to change a
lightbulb? Just one more... Sean, 59
Robert, 76
Thierry, 42
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TODAY: SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019
stationed in Dresden where he lived with
his wife, Lyudmila and his two daugh-
ters. The marriage lasted 30 years before
Putin confirmed their divorce in 2014.
But in 1999 few Russians recognised
him or even knew who he was. Boris
Berezovsky and his small band of super-
wealthy oligarchs had steered Putin’s
passage through the Kremlin corridors.
They were all convinced that once
Putin assumed the presidency, he would
do their bidding, just as Yeltsin had. Two
decades on, most of those oligarchs are
dead or in exile fearing for their lives.
And the President himself? In terms
of both longevity in office and influence,
he is on a par with Russia’s three over-
whelming leaders: Peter the Great,
Catherine the Great and Joseph Stalin.
He is virtually unchallenged within
Russia and outside he strolls around the
global stage like a Marvel comic hero.
The original political Iron Man, he
fashioned a system dubbed by one of his
admirers as an “illiberal democracy”. His
tough-guy image has spawned wannabes
as far apart as Brazil and Turkey.
Just over a year ago he held a summit
in Helsinki with President Trump. The
body language spoke volumes. In the US,
20 YEARS
M
idnight approached on Decem-
ber 31, 1999. Red Square was
packed. The crowd stared at a
huge screen. As on every New
Year’s Eve, they were straining to hear the
annual presidential message.
Boris Yeltsin, his speech slurred either
due to his heart condition or alcohol,
rarely disappointed. But as the new
millennium dawned, he did just that.
Instead of Yeltsin, an awkward bureau-
crat filled the screen. He wore the kind
of ill-fitting suit that was a hallmark of
the Russian secret police, the KGB.
The man explained that President
Yeltsin had asked him to take over his
duties. The speech continued in such a
wooden manner, it could have been an
episode of Thunderbirds.
In his late 40s, the civil servant tried to
reassure his audience. He promised that
as acting President, he would uphold the
rule of law, freedom of speech and the
right to private property.
This man, Vladimir Putin, had been
appointed Prime Minister the previous
August, 20 years ago this week.
After studying law in his native Lenin-
grad (now St Petersburg), Putin joined
the KGB and for five years in the 80s was
LINE &
SINKER
Putin often
poses topless
to look tough