Page 5 - Vladimir Putin: Russia's Autocratic Ruler

of 2022. His willingness to use crushing violence “You must under-
against his supposed enemies—including even stand, [Putin] is from
threats of nuclear strikes—makes him one of the the K.G.B, lying is his
most dangerous leaders in the world. profession, it is not a
sin.” 2

Rise from Obscurity — Sylvie Bermann, former
French ambassador to
Western experts on the Kremlin—Russia’s ver- Moscow
sion of the White House—say that Putin’s lies
about Bucha, and about Ukraine in general,
come naturally to him. As a former agent of the KGB (the Soviet
Union’s intelligence service), lies, half-truths, and cover stories
were his stock-in-trade. “You must understand, he is from the
K.G.B, lying is his profession, it is not a sin,” says Sylvie Ber-
mann, who served as French ambassador to Moscow from 2017
to 2020. “He is like a mirror, adapting to what he sees, in the way
he was trained.” 2
His rough upbringing in Leningrad gave no sign of any special
destiny. As a KGB offi cer posted in Dresden, East Germany, in
the late 1980s, he witnessed fi rsthand the sudden collapse of the

Ukrainian law enforcement place
the bodies of civilians killed by
Russian occupiers into body bags.
The Russian soldiers attempted to
burn the bodies to hide their crimes.