Meanwhile, under Putin's rule, Russia also improved ties with other members of the world community, actively exerted its influence on hot issues such as nuclear issues in Iran and on the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East peace and Kosovo's independence, and strengthened its role in international organizations such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

"Russia is in the midst of one of the most difficult periods in its history. For the first time in the past 200-300 years, it is facing a real threat of sliding to the second, and possibly even third, echelon of world states," Putin said in a document issued just before he assumed the presidency in 2000.

However, in May Putin might leave his office fairly content with his efforts to have taken Russia back to the center of the world stage and reached many of the goals he set eight years ago.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2008)