Vladimir putin biography the kgb

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Putin: the young spy‍

Born in October , Putin was raised by complex, nuanced, war-weary parents in St. Petersburg, previously known as Leningrad. His father was a submariner and assigned to a WWII sabotage squad working for the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

His mother, Maria, almost starved to death during the day Siege of Leningrad and buried two of her three young sons before she gave birth to Putin at age  
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Initially, his parents weren’t on board with Putin’s plan to join the KGB - his father had almost died while working for the secret police - but, even as a teenager, Putin was single-minded.

Former German teacher Vera Dmitrievna Gurevich noted “he never forgives people who betray him or are mean to him”.

Sergei Roldugin, a cellist and godfather to one of Putin’s daughters, described him as a tenacious bulldog. “He has a terribly intense nature, which manifests itself in literally everything,” Roldugin told journalists. “Don’t forget: He was the Judo champion for Leningrad in ” 

Putin has an 8th degree black belt in judo, a sport that teaches the importance of efficiently using leverage and balance against challengers. Winning at judo is about anticipating your opponent’s next moves.

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KGB spy school ‍

Putin’s KGB career began with six months of agent training in the late s where he learned basic spy skills like how to recruit sources. He also perfected his German language skills and worked in counterintelligence tracking suspected spies. Along the way, Putin was exposed to a myriad of KGB espionage gadgets including spy cameras used to gather kompromat - compromising information.

Retired KGB Colonel Michael Frolov, a former instructor of the Andropov Red Banner Institute, described Putin as a steady, sharp-witted student prone to wearing a three-piece suit even if it was 85 degrees ​​Fahrenheit outside. He was assigned to the St. Petersburg KGB branch responsible for harass

President of Russia (–, –present)

"Putin" redirects here. For other uses, see Putin (disambiguation).

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October ) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since , having previously served from to Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from to and again from to He is the longest-serving Russian president since the independence of Russia from the Soviet Union.

Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He resigned in to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In , he moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and then as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in August Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin became acting president and, less than four months later, was elected to his first term as president. He was reelected in Due to constitutional limitations of two consecutive presidential terms, Putin served as prime minister again from to under Dmitry Medvedev. He returned to the presidency in , following an election marked by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in

During Putin's initial presidential tenure, the Russian economy grew on average by seven percent per year, driven by economic reforms and a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas. Additionally, Putin led Russia in a conflict against Chechen separatists, re-establishing federal control over the region. While serving as prime minister under Medvedev, he oversaw a military conflict with Georgia and enacted military and police reforms. In his third presidential term, Russia annexed Crimea and supported a war in eastern U

Four years later, Chechen rebels took 1, hostages, most of them children, at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. When Russian special forces stormed the building, people died. It later emerged that Russia had intelligence of a planned attack but had failed to act.

The first years of the Putin presidency were both bloody and turbulent, but the Russian economy was doing well, buoyed by high oil prices.

He won public support for taking on the billionaire oligarchs who had run rife in Russia in the s. Summoning them to the Kremlin, he said they could keep their money as long as they kept out of politics and backed him.

He acted fast against those who didn't, such as Russia's then-wealthiest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested at gunpoint and jailed in Siberia.

Russia's president had something of a honeymoon with the West. He was one of the first foreign leaders to ring President George W Bush after the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks on the US. He even helped the US launch its ensuing campaign in Afghanistan.

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy," said President Bush.

But Vladimir Putin soon became disillusioned with the US and its allies. Relations with the UK soured when a former KGB agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London using radioactive polonium A UK inquiry found later that the Russian leader had "probably approved" the KGB attack.

On a visit to the Munich Security Conference in , Putin made his feelings towards the US clear.