So many ways to answer this so understand this answer I give is not a true answer but instead only a partial answer and the true answer is including lots of things I am not going to say for this partial answer is only part of a greater whole.

Sparknotes is not truth after all.

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Remember I am not an expert on this and I can link to experts but all the experts will give you biased stories / timelines.

But the short of this is this.

1975-1991 Putin worked for the KGB as a foreign intelligence official who eventually became a Lt. Colonel in the KGB (a big deal rank but not the biggest deal rank.)

1990 to 1996 Various Lennigrad jobs. Note Lennigrad is also known as St. Petersburg and was renamed again in 1991. Putin was a person who assisted St. Petersburg democratically elected mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Putin held several jobs during these 6 years, and note there is a 1 year overlap between KGB and him assistant Antaoly Sobchak. Oh yeah Putin was investigated during this time for all these shady stuff involving money and the investigators recommended he be at least fired due to this corruption Putin was not fired. Putin was one of the two main deputies of Sobchak but he had several official job titles besides deputy of the Mayor.

1996 Mayor Antaoly Sobchak lost his re-election. Antaloy Sobchak offered Putin a job but Putin turned his mentor down and forged his own path moving to Moscow.

1996 to 1999 Putin had several jobs in the Russian Government, but in 1997 Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy chief of Presidential Staff, then first deputy in 1998, followed by appointing Putin in charge of FSB (the successor of the KGB) followed by Yeltsin appointed Putin as Prime Minister August 1999 (Prime Minister is 2nd in control after the President) during this August 1999 Yeltsin also announce he wanted Putin as his successor and Putin announced his future intentions for running for President democratically.

Only for Yeltsin to resign the Presidency 3.5 months later and this made Putin the acting president. The intended 2000 Presidential Elections was moved up earlier because of Yeltsin resigning. Oh the first executive order Putin signed as acting president was to order the government to not press corruption charges on any former Presidents of Russia and their family (Yeltsin was the only former president.) Now Putin was also being investigated for corruption but these charges were dropped in 2000 after he became president by an election 5 months earlier.

(note 1999 was a big deal due to the terrorist activities in Russia and it is believed this is why Putin rose so much in the opinion polls between 1999 to 2000. These events are known as the "Second Chechen War." Wars / Terrorism galvanizes and make salient a specific style of politician who promises certain answers to real problems.)

Once Putin became president he went after the Oligarchs between 2000 to 2004 and he "humiliated" specific Oligarchs and it is believed quid pro quo that Putin got half of the wealth of the Oligarchs he did not target and now there is an incestous relationship between the "loyal and obedient Oligarchs" and certain parts of the Russian government that keep both sides wealthy.

I will skip lots of stuff that happened after 2000 for you asked about the rise of Putin and not what Putin has done since then.

This video below is of course biased but it is good information to explain the rise of Putin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxMWSmKieuc

There was so much wrong that happened from Russia from 1990 to 2000 (so much shit went down, ask Tom for he will give better answers than I) so that it is understandable how Putin rose to power even if I find the stuff Russia has been doing from 2000 to 2018 a lost of so much potential. Then again I say this as an outsider who does not live in Russia and only has a passive knowledge of Russia culture so "not my circus, not my monkeys." I have complaints about inner Russia politics but also recognize that people have the right to decide their own government against my complaints for that is the importance of self determination.

Understand my complaints of Russia is how Russia now impacts everyone else for I recognize that Russia has been so messed up that I do not have a true understanding, a systematic understanding of how Russia has been messed up for a long time. And they have the right to their own affairs involving trying to get out of the mess of history of the decisions made by people not themselves.

Until their actions start to influence non Russians of course, especially my country the US but also to a lesser extent other people that are not Russia and not the US.

Oh the US / NATO is partly to blame for the state of US / Russia affairs of how we see each other.