From the KGB to the Kremlin, the rise of an apparatchik
Vladimir Putin: the spy they didn’t like(April 8, 2013)
Vladimir Putin entered the intelligence services in 1975. Far from being a hero, Agent Putin had a dull career in the KGB. At the height of his career, between 1984 and 1990, he officiated undercover as director of the German-Soviet Friendship House in Dresden, then in East Germany.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, Vladimir Putin faced zero danger! Being stationed in Dresden, East Germany, was about as risky as the mission of a French in Limoges or Perpignan.” (Valeri Shiryaev, ex-KGB)
Vladimir the Terrible (December 16, 1999)
In 1997 Vladimir Putin joined the Kremlin as deputy head of the presidential office to Boris Yeltsin. He took over as head of the Russian internal intelligence service (FSB) the following year. In August 1999, Boris Yeltsin appointed him Prime Minister.
Vladimir Putin first appeared on the cover of L’Express on December 16, 1999. The world discovers this disturbing Prime Minister for whom the annihilation of Chechnya takes the place of a program. Cold, determined, he proved popular in his country.
“Six months ago, this character who likes austere suits, black raincoats and seems to wear a mask all the time – when he speaks, not a feature of his face moves, except the lips – was practically unknown in Russia . […] Devoid of charisma, reluctant to perform in public, his gaze empty as a glass ball, he betrays his membership in the brotherhood of the shadows. Lieutenant-colonel of the Soviet KGB, he served for fifteen years the first directorate – foreign intelligence.
Cover of L’Express n° 2528 of December 16, 1999.
THE EXPRESS
putin supertsar(January 29, 2014)
On the eve of the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Vladimir Putin is proud, sure of his strength and dreaming of rebuilding a political and economic empire that will restore Russia to greatness.
“At the start of his third term, two years ago, some predicted his “death”. Vladimir Putin seemed finished – at least, seriously weakened by months of demonstrations whose slogans castigated his party as that of “thieves and crooks”. […] “He is suspended, he will not last two years”, swore in chorus analysts and opponents. Here we are: two winters later, the President of the Russian Federation is more solidly installed than ever behind the high walls of the Kremlin, the former palace of the tsars. And, judging by his Olympic form – he swims and rides every day – he is alive and well.”
The Express of January 29, 2014.
The Express
Putin, the autocrat
Tsar Putin’s Hunts (August 7, 2003)
Several wealthy oligarchs are in the sights of Russian justice. The proceedings against them seem directly inspired by the master of the Kremlin. For very political reasons.
“Rare are the peaceful summers in Russia, where a singular law of the playoffs weighs on the summer truce, deemed conducive to putsch attempts, crises and disasters of all kinds. This year, the specter of instability is making a comeback with the offensive of the general prosecutor’s office against Yukos, a powerful oil group whose boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 40, is the richest man in Russia, at the head of a fortune estimated by the American magazine Forbes to some $8.5 billion.”
Putin returns to the country of the Soviets(December 5, 2012)
Forward to the past! Since the former KGB officer once again became master of the Kremlin, the repression against the opposition has redoubled. Shadowing, arbitrary arrests, draconian laws, tracking down “foreign agents”… The ghosts of the USSR are still on the move.
In London, small murders between Russians (May 8, 2013)
Psychosis among the opponents of the Kremlin installed in the British capital: the suspicious death of the oligarch Boris Berezovski, found hanged, brings up other cases and other corpses. In this bad thriller, they wonder: tomorrow, whose turn?
In Russia, Navalny is back in force to face Putin(October 15, 2020)
His failed poisoning gave Alexei Navalny a new political stature. The number 1 opponent to the regime is preparing for a return to Russia which hardly enchants the Kremlin.
Alexei Navalny will finally be arrested on January 17, 2021.
Russian opponent Alexei Navalny during a demonstration in Moscow on July 20, 2019.
afp.com/Maxim ZMEYEV
Putin’s Wars
Cold War return (November 25, 1999)
Two months after the entry of Russian troops into Chechnya, André Glucksmann alerted “When in the east Prime Minister Putin, hero of the hunt for bandits “even in the toilets”, pulverizes the house, and, in order not to miss his targets, bombs the district, annihilates the city, it passes. A new iron curtain falls on Europe. On one side the space where the States are required to protect civilians, on the other a zone of shooting with will, where nothing is prohibited to zombie tenants of the Kremlin. […]
Is the European community issuing a diplomatically measured remonstrance? The Russian authorities come immediately to wipe their feet there.”
Why Russia Threatens Us(August 21, 2008)
The punitive expedition carried out against Georgia goes far beyond the case of the pro-Russian separatists. Moscow wants to recover its rank and bring all its weight to bear on its former areas of influence. Not only in the Caucasus. A challenge all the more serious for the West as the Kremlin, sure of its strength, does not fear isolation.
L’Express of August 21, 2008.
The Express
Mikheil Saakashvili: ‘Putin won’t stop there’ (September 4, 2008)
The Georgian president confides: “What I overestimated was the ability of the West to stop the aggression. I never thought that NATO forces or the American army would land here. But I have always believed that the West can warn Russians against the unacceptable.”
“Moscow wants to freeze the situation in Crimea” (March 19, 2014)
“We always say that the Russians think like chess players. And it’s true! They push their pawns, like the strategists of the First World War who, leaning over a map of the world, planted small flags The Russians, too, have planted a flag in Crimea: this allows them to put pressure on the Ukrainian government”.
Putin and Europe
Hello ! Vladimir? Here Angela (February 26, 2014)
On Ukraine, Berlin navigates between dialogue and firmness with regard to Moscow. One certainty: the Chancellor is the only European to be heard by Putin.
“Putin is fighting against you Europeans”(April 1, 2015)
While the ceasefire hangs by a thread in Ukraine, its Prime Minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, warns against the project of “global destabilization” led, according to him, by the Kremlin.
“Putin’s next objective? There are several. Divide the European Union. Obtain the lifting of economic sanctions against Russia. Turn the Ukrainian problem into a permanent headache for Europeans and, thus, reduce the support of the world to Ukraine. Provoking social unrest. Generating political instability. Intimidating Ukrainians with the threat of imminent military action.”