FACTBOX-Russia's powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin

April 6 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will defend his handling of the economic crisis on Monday when he takes questions from lawmakers in parliament.

Here are some key facts about Putin.

* Putin was born on Oct. 7, 1952 in St Petersburg, then called Leningrad. A former spy in East Germany, he rose to head the KGB's successor organisation, the FSB, before being chosen as prime minister by the late President Boris Yeltsin in August 1999.

* He became acting Russian president when Yeltsin stepped down on Dec. 31, 1999. He was elected president in March 2000 after a huge public relations campaign.

* During his eight years as Kremlin chief until 2008, he crafted a political system hugely dependent on his own personal authority. The opposition was sidelined and the Kremlin imposed tight control on the media.

* Putin presided over the longest Russian economic boom in a generation, helped by high prices for oil, gas and metals. Russian GDP totalled $1.7 trillion in 2008, up from less than $200 billion in 1999 and many millions of Russians saw their living standards rise.