• “Vladimir Putin — yes, he was an officer of the intelligence services, but he was not a KGB investigator, nor was he the head of a camp in the gulag. As for service in foreign intelligence, that is not a negative in any country — sometimes it even draws praise. George Bush Sr. was not much criticized for being the ex-head of the CIA, for example.â€
“Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible — a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.â€
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, author of “The Gulag Archipelago,†now required reading in Russian schools.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-alexander-solzhenitsyn-i-am-not-afraid-of-death-a-496211.html
Putin is restoring, all right, or trying to restore the former USSR, as far as being KGB officer, regardless where he served he served and evil and murderous regime. And his being stationed in East Germany to wine and dine the arriving Soviet dignitaries is hardly a foreign intelligence service. That should answer the Putinista that posted right after your post that somehow the KGB was just technocratic or functional. Tell that to the millions that perished in the Gulags.
Regretfully, at the end of his life Solzhenitsyn went full bore pro-regime.
I’m with you - just because Obama tells Americans to HATE PUTIN because of his so-called ‘anti-gay’ agenda DOES NOT mean that I’m going to listen to Obama.
I can make my own assessment - and I have.