He’s always been known as being a “good bureaucrat” during his KGB days. Never heard he was supposedly some super spy. Some Westerners who don’t understand the KGB might have assumed he was a spy, but as far as I know he was never billed to have been one.
If the Czars still ran Russia, he would have worked for the Okhrana.
Thats what I’ve always read about him too since he’s been in charge of Russia. I don’t know if he put out any kind of propaganda in Russia about his KGB days though.
THe hype that I heard was he is some kind of chess genius and knows how to move the pieces to his advantage. We have recently been told he does not use the internet or email. His failure to modernize will be the end of him. Already this lack of computer skills puts him hours behind in transmitting important info or orders. Activity on the battlefield waits for no man, especially one who is several hours behind in giving orders.
Putin recruited and ran spies when he was stationed in East Germany. That seems to be how he was involved in the spook world.
Here’s a WaPo piece from 2000 that offers some background on him:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/russiagov/putin.htm