*SAINT PETERSBURG: Declassified KGB documents on display in Russia describefuture President Vladimir Putin as a “conscientious and disciplined” spy atthe start of his career.*
“Comrade Putin… is constantly raising his ideological, political andprofessional level,” said the one-page document released to Russian media,written while the intelligence agent turned politician was in his 20s.
Now 67, Putin worked for the secret service from the mid-1970s and wasposted in Dresden, then East Germany, from 1985 to 1990, as Soviet powerwas crumbling.
In the Kremlin he has surrounded himself with many former employees of thesecret service and the FSB, the successor to the KGB, remains a powerfulagency.
The KGB profile is part of an exhibition at the Central Archive ofHistorical and Political Documents in Russia’s second city of SaintPetersburg, featuring other declassified files.
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The young Putin also received “congratulations from his seniors” in theorganisation “for his well organised work and results,” the document said.
In 2016, Putin — who has been in power as president or prime minister fortwo decades — revealed he had kept his USSR Communist Party membership cardfor sentimental reasons. -APP/AFP
