WI: Volodymyr Putin - President of Ukraine

In 1999 an individual named Volodymyr Putin seizes power in the Ukraine. His personal characteristics match those of Vladimir Putin from OTL - except he is from the Ukraine and is a Ukrainian nationalist.

Russia meanwhile contnues to be ruled by Boris Yeltsin at least for the foreseeable future.

What happens?
 
What if it's 1994 instead? Or even 1991? Putin starts getting Ukrainian oligarchs in line just at the time Russia loses the First Chechen War.

Come on, ir really is an interesting piece of Alt history.
 
In 1999 an individual named Volodymyr Putin seizes power in the Ukraine. His personal characteristics match those of Vladimir Putin from OTL - except he is from the Ukraine and is a Ukrainian nationalist.

Russia meanwhile contnues to be ruled by Boris Yeltsin at least for the foreseeable future.

What happens?

Yevgeny Primakov or Alexander Lebed become Russia's president on a strong anti-corruption platform (the former said he had cells open for all the criminals), Primakov would be the local equivalent of Jacques Chirac really.

Anyway, back to the point, Putin was good at bringing the oligarchs to heel under his rule and was almost like the Tsars in terms of power accumulation. But the issue is how he ends up in the Ukraine..... Putin returned to his city of birth from East Germany and become involved in local policies there with Sobchak when he was mayor and made his way up by almost pure chance and Yeltsin wanted to protect the "family" with someone who would acquiesce with the oligarchs. The Siloviki presumably provided him with the convenient spring board for political ambitions and this would be diametrically different in the case of the Ukraine I'd say.
 
You misunderstood me a bit. Not how would Putin end up in Ukraine - what if he was born in the Ukraine and choose political career there instead (after collapse of USSR everyone could choose citizenship of any republic IIRC.)
 
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