The most pernicious and pervasive of the myths the west believes about Putin is the Russian president’s persona as the consummate spook and spymaster. What is clear is that we seriously misunderstand Putin’s relationship with his own intelligence services. While still at school, he went to the regional headquarters of the Soviet KGB in Leningrad, as St Petersburg was still known then. By his own admission, he joined the KGB because of the rich tradition of Soviet spy stories, films and television programmes. As one former Russian spy told me, the intelligence agencies have learned that “you do not bring bad news to the tsar’s table”.

Source: The Guardian June 20, 2019 10:42 UTC