Word: kgb
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...held on March 26. Famed for his tough stance against Chechen separatists, Putin is confident in his new post. Unlike Yeltsin, Putin is a relatively youthful 47 years old and doesn't have to worry about his own health in addition to that of his country. The former KGB insider is a career opportunist whose first act as prime minister was to offer Yeltsin immunity from prosecution...
...Year?s day hangovers to find themselves ruled by a man who has never given a press conference and whose official biography is only eight lines long. Even those who have probed the background of acting President Vladimir Putin have turned up little about his days in the KGB, his attitude to political and economic reform in Russia and his relationship with the country?s shadowy financial oligarchy...
...Even close friends who?ve worked with him for years say they don?t know him very well at all," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. "He rose quickly in the KGB in the '80s, but by doing what he was told rather than by distinguishing himself. He?s awkward in public and extremely reluctant to talk to the media. And he studiously maintained a low profile until last August, when he seemed to appear from nowhere to be named Yeltsin?s heir...
These things we do know about Putin: He's 47, married, joined the KGB?s foreign intelligence directorate after graduating college in 1975, and - officially, at least - spent most of his KGB career stationed in East Germany monitoring political attitudes there. He returned to Leningrad in 1989, where he took up a position at the State University and developed a close relationship with key reformist figure Anatoly Shobchak, who in 1991 became the city?s mayor and appointed Putin to various key administrative posts. Having proved himself a capable manager in St. Petersburg (Leningrad?s original name, restored after...
...Putin?s years in the KGB, followed by his association with some of the key reformers in the post-communist period raise more questions than they answer. "Although some now say Putin was involved in economic espionage in Western Europe, others say he was a low level political commissar type keeping an eye on the loyalty of Soviet staff," says Meier. "Then there?s a big question mark over his mission in St. Petersburg - whether he, as he claims, had turned into a liberal democrat determined to push the reform program, or had been sent there to keep...