New Documentary Reveals How Vladamir Putin Became President of Russia

Daily Mail: New Channel 4 documentary reveals troubling story of how Vladimir Putin rose to become Russia's mobster in chief

* Documentary reveals how ex-spy Vladamir Putin became President of Russia
* Putin was posted to Dresden in East Germany in 1985 with his wife and daughter
* He was offered job in President Yeltsin's legal department when his ascent began

Short of stature and with a strangely expressionless face, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin seemed the image of a boring bureaucrat when he was elected Russia's third president 20 years ago.

Yet today Putin has become the Godfather of a vast Mafia state – and to do that he has combined the dirty skills of a former spy with a close knowledge of Russia's violent underworld, according to a new three-part documentary that starts tomorrow night on Channel 4.

Putin: A Russian Spy Story shows how much of the Russian's political career was informed by his time as a KGB officer in the late 1980s – and, later, as a fixer at the heart of corrupt local politics and the criminal underworld of St Petersburg.

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WNU Editor: What caught my attention in the above report was this sentence ....

.... He has established and enjoys the support of a network of some 1,000 very wealthy individuals who rely on him for their riches and status.

I would also add the support of the Russian Orthodox church playing a part in keeping Putin in power. this support base also reminds me of China. I have said it a few times in this blog, but a China is structured in the same way where about 800 affluent families provide the support base for President Xi and the Communist Party.