| When Russia’s president started out, he was seen as a pro-Western, reach-across-the-aisle type. This week, a Russian ruling party member proposed a constitutional amendment to “reset” President Vladimir Putin’s presidential term, which could help him stay in power until 2036. Putin’s already the second-longest-serving leader in modern Russian history, trailing only Josef Stalin. During those 20 years, Putin has become a bugbear to the Western world, positioning himself as one of its top geopolitical and ideological foes. Some politicians and commentators have even gone so far as to accuse the Russian president of waging a global crusade to undermine the very foundations of Western liberal democracies. But Putin wasn’t always regarded as someone hostile to the West or liberalism. In the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin worked as a deputy for one of Russia’s most notable reformist politicians: St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. The future president’s work helping foreign investors endeared him to Western diplomats and businesspeople in the city, who viewed him as a sympathetic problem solver. | 
