World Trade Center in New York unleashed the implementation of the new doctrine. The war in Afghanistan started on 7 October 2001 and continues today. Under the pretext of the presence of weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq War was launched on 20 March 2003 and lasted until 18 December 2011. Vladimir Putin replaced Boris Yeltsin as President of the Russian Federation on 31 December 1999, and was elected to that post a few months later in 2000. He initiated a series of reforms of Russian governing institutions and launched a ferocious war in Chechnya. A few years later, he restored the pride of the average Russian citizen and brought Russian diplomacy and military back on the world scene. The rise of China as the world's second economic powerhouse and its military build-up led to the emergence of a new multipolar world.