A KGB man to the end: the rise of Putin
The origins of Vladimir Putin’s worldview—and the rise of Russia’s new ruling class are detailed in Catherine Belton's book about the president's spymaster past.
Vladimir Putin has been moving the pieces around the board since 1989. David Rowe
It was December 1989, the Berlin Wall had fallen, and in Dresden, crowds were gathering outside the headquarters of the Stasi, the East German secret police, shouting insults and demanding access. Nearby, frantic KGB officers – the Soviet advisers whom the Stasi had long referred to as "the friends" – were barricaded inside their villa, burning papers.
"We destroyed everything," remembered one of those officers, Vladimir Putin. "All our communications, our lists of contacts and our agents' networks … We burned so much stuff that the furnace burst."
Atlantic
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