What did Putin do as a KGB agent?
"Russian word" Oleg Jegorov, | 08. 08. 2017
KGB agent Vladimir Putin, the future president of Russia, spent five years in Dresden in East Germany. Here's what we know about this period of Putin's career.
- The secret agent can never be ex-says the Russian proverb, and Vladimir Putin is, in all likelihood, a living example that she is true. He was from 1975-1991. He was an agent of the KGB. He does not talk much about his career in the KGB, nor about the years he spent in Dresden (1985-1989) as an agent in East Germany. Almost nothing is known about the operations in which he participated as an agent of the external intelligence service. However, some data are known, and the site "Russian word" has published them in its text.
"A pretty routine job"
Putin was a very young agent (33 years old) when sent by the KGB leadership to East Germany. He was already married (now his ex-wife) Ljudmila and had one child - his daughter Maria (younger daughter Yekaterina was born in Dresden in 1986). After finishing his training at the Academy of Foreign Intelligence in Moscow, Putin could choose (since he spoke German) would he wait a few years to direct him to West Germany or immediately go to East Germany. He chose this other.
In a book of interviews with Russia's first man, Putin talks about how KGB agents were interested in gathering all information related to a strategic opponent, thinking about NATO. The Russian president modestly characterized his work as a "rather routine job" and outlined his activities at the time: recruiting informants, collecting data and forwarding them to Moscow.
In an interview for state television "Russia 24" in 2017 Putin said that all his work in the external intelligence service was closely related to the illegal, i.e. Secret agents. Since Putin himself was the legal agent of the KGB, this means that he communicated with illegal residents and helped them stay connected with the "center".
The impression is that now Putin as president speaks of a period spent in Germany as something that he remained in a good memory, and that he does not forget his old colleagues. For example, in 2017, he personally visited his former chief Lazar Mojsejev, a former KGB representative in the State Security Service of East Germany, and congratulated him on his 90th birthday.
Beer and neighbors from Stazia
Putin (now ex-wife) Ljudmila in the interview said that their family was thrilled with German cleanliness and organization. As far as Putin is concerned, he admitted that he received 12 kilograms in Germany thanks to the German beer he consume while resting after a hard working day in the KGB. Upon his return to Russia he lost excess pounds, perhaps because the Russian beer in the 1990s was not so good.
According to Ljudmila, they organized family lunches, which were also invited by Putin's colleagues and Germans. Of course, there were also several agents of Stasi, because the USSR and East Germany were allies, and members of the East German secret police lived in Putin's neighborhood.
A Russian leader says his family did not live luxuriously. They only managed to save money for the car, which in the socialist countries at that time was rare. Ljudmila stated in the interview that she had the impression that the agents of Stasi had higher salaries than KGB agents.
Putin and a crowd of disgruntled Germans
However, the Stazes went badly in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and the unification of Germany began. On December 5, 1989, Putin saw that a crowd of angry citizens were attacking a German state security building located on the same street as the KGB headquarters, and he realized that his staff would be attacked. He tried to establish contact with KGB administration in Moscow, but nobody answered him. Then Putin independently withdrew a determined move.
Zigfrid Danat, who was in that crowd, remembers that a Russian officer came out of the building and approached the closed gate. He told the crowd that people had to leave the facility because it was a Soviet territory and armed security was ready to shoot if someone broke in. Danat says that this KGB member was polite and spoke German well. These words calmed the crowd (no one wanted bloodshed) and everyone left the KGB headquarters alone.
Vladimir Putin (and he was that officer) did not have much time to enjoy the triumph. Within days, he and his colleagues have destroyed all KGB-related material in East Germany. The most valuable documents were sent to Moscow, and everything else was burned. "We ate them day by day," Putin said. "We burned so much of the paper that the oven was ruined." Shortly afterwards, Putin left his Dresden with his family. His mission was completed, as was the presence of the KGB in Germany.
http://www.blic.rs/vesti/svet/cime-se-bavio-putin-kao-agent-kgb-malo-pio-pivo-malo-spaljivao-dokumenta-uobicajene/kzxjczjhttp://
