A RUSSIAN SPY STORY: Vladimir PUTIN'S TIME IN KGB

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20 March 2024

Vladimir Putin is gearing up to take over as Russia's President for the fifth term, at the age of 71

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Mr Putin worked for the KGB, predecessor to Federal Security Service, before being hand-picked for the Kremlin

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According to a BBC report, he was a street-fighting boy whose early years were spent in communist Leningrad

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He took to judo and that saved Mr Putin from falling into a downward spiral of negative emotions

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In a 2015 interview, he talked about his street-fighting days: "It taught me if a fight is inevitable, you have to throw the first punch"

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After studying at Leningrad State University, in 1975 he went straight into the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB

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Mr Putin was posted at the German city of Dresden in 1985 where he saw first-hand the collapse of a communist state

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He was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but never excelled at the KGB, said the BBC

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To this day, he retains a small circle of KGB colleagues as his closest confidants

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Mr Putin is intensely private about his personal life, and divorced his wife Lyudmila in 2013 after 30 years of marriage

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 ndtv.com