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Very interesting post! Funny, I had read that Putin was favoring the SVR, (from which he purportedly came over the GRU which has about five times as many case officers abroad then the SVR) over the GRU and essentially making the GRU subservient to the SVR. Your theory about Putin being former GRU throws a different light on this analysis. I am curious--whatever caught your eye about Putin as far back as 1997?

I am curious--whatever caught your eye about Putin as far back as 1997?

You kidding? Look at him! He's ever so dreamy ...

I'm thinking of maybe starting a Pootie-Poot "Day in the Life" thread. What do you think?

(Don't worry ... he didn't catch my eye in '97. That's the beauty -- despite one's prowess in the martial arts or on the slopes -- of being a bureaucrat so cold fish cardboard that the West figures you're just some functionary Company Man to whom they can relate who's been tapped to put a sane face on the Yeltsin years while punching up Russia's military resolve. I don't think their collective works quite the same as our collective ... in between Cult of Personality figures, anyway.)

Your theory about Putin being former GRU throws a different light on this analysis.

I'll see what else I can find in the stacks to support this. GRU is far more interesting to me than KGB.