SERVICE – The former KGB, trained to penetrate deep into Western administrations, has followed the same path as Vladimir Putin. He explains to us how the Russian president is likely to think and act, and why he is stubborn in Ukraine.
LE FIGARO. – What kind of KGB officer was Putin? Can his training, which you also followed, explain his current behavior?
Sergei Zhirnov. – In the KGB, we spent our time lying. This was the basis of trade. However, I would like to return to the biography of Vladimir Putin. Sent to Leningrad (today St. Petersburg), he first served in the political police for nine years, and then in counterintelligence, and then was sent for twelve months to the Andropov Institute in Moscow. It was there, in the “School of the Forest”, that real spies, who were called “scouts”, were selected, brought up and trained. Only the latter were sent abroad. I went there myself before being sent to France to infiltrate the ENA.
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At the end of this year of training, the instructors declared him unfit, as they were recognized as incapable of correctly assessing the decisions he made and their consequences for him and for the KGB. So we sent him back to Leningrad before…
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