Russia 1917 to 2008

1917: October Revolution. Bolsheviks take over Moscow.
1922: Russia joins the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1991: Soviet Union collapses. Russia becomes independent.
1992: Russia takes up seat of Soviet Union in UN.
1996: Boris Yeltsin re-elected for another term.
1998: Yeltsin dismisses Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and appoints first, Sergey Kiriyenko and later, Yevgeniy Primakov. I
1999: Yeltsin sacks Primakov and appoints first, Sergey Stepashin and later, VladiImir Putin. Yeltsin resigns and Putin takes over as acting president.
2000: Putin elected president.
2002: Chechen rebels' seizure of a Moscow theatre results in the death of more than 120 people.
2003: Putin-backed United Russia wins landslide victory in parliament elections. i 2004: President Putin re-elected. More than 330 people killed when siege at school in North Ossetia ends in bloodbath. i
2005: Chechen separatist leader Asian Maskhadov killed in a military operation. Billionnaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky sentenced to nine years in jail for tax evasion and fraud.
2006: Russia's most-wanted man, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, is killed in a military operation. Putin critic and former Russian security service officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, dies in London due to radioactive poisoning ..
2007: Former President Yeltsin dies. United Russia party wins a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.
2008: Dmitry Medvedev takes over as President from Putin, who becomes Prime Minister. War erupts between Russia and Georgia