Original subtitles

I'd rather not talk about this.

My name is Menashe Mendel Freidzon, or simply Max.

I was born in St. Petersburg.

I was introduced to Putin when I needed to register a branch office.

If you approached an official, you knew it would cost you.

So I was introduced to Putin...

...and we talked about international cooperation.

Then he simply wrote down a figure.

Without a word, he wrote it on a piece of paper.

Ten thousand dollars.

He is shaped by two mindsets: a criminal's and a KGB officer's.

The KGB permeates his thinking. They don't teach the Ten Commandments.

The situation was extremely tense and worrying.

-So that's when you met Putin? -Yes. I remember it very well.

My name is Leonid Dobrovolsky.

From 1990 to 1992, I worked in Leningrad's city administration.

We were all working on the ground...

...simply trying to obtain enough food for the day.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade said a contract was about to fall through.

It involved a shipment of 50,000 tonnes of potatoes from Germany.

I had to contact Gorbachev quickly and get the go-ahead.

Only Sobchak could arrange that.

After a while, a man came out of the office...

Putin came out of Sobchak's office.

I knew he existed, that he was Sobchak's assistant.

He was wearing a tracksuit and looked completely ordinary.

You see men like that... everywhere on the street.

I explained what the problem was.

He thought for a moment. "Wait here." Then he went back into the office.

Five minutes later, he came back out. "It's sorted."

"The order has been issued." And indeed it had.

He made himself indispensable.

He was always there when he was needed.

He could quickly win over the person he was talking to.

But he was actually quite reserved. There was a certain distrust about him.

You got the impression...

...that he feared some kind of trap.

-Was that because of his KGB days? -I think so.

If you grew up in Leningrad, surrounded by ruined buildings...

...the memory of the siege weighed heavily on you.

It was constantly present in everyone's mind.

Someone described it as a minefield in the brain.

If you stepped into it, it exploded and everything went to hell.

My name is Philip Short. I was a Moscow correspondent in the 1970s...

...from 1974 to 1976.

Ten or twelve years ago, I realized...

...that Putin was the most interesting person in the world to write a biography of.

He didn't do very well at school at first.

-Russian television. -Please, come in.

I know all about it, because I've been to their home.

I went there to get to know the family.

I wanted to understand their living conditions and family. You see all sorts.

The entrance was awful, with rather steep stairs. They had no hot water.

His parents had Vladimir late in life. He was everything to them.

"My mother fussed over me," Putin has said.

His father was stern and quiet, and didn't show his feelings.

But he treated his son well and loved him.

Putin was spoiled as a child.

So when he started primary school, he caused trouble.

His first teacher told her successor, "Keep an eye on Putin. He's naughty."

Eventually, he had a teacher who really liked him and became his mentor.

Something I noticed immediately was his exceptional memory.

It was very sharp.

He liked his teacher and started working harder.

At around twelve, he really underwent a transformation.

I gradually changed and began studying harder.

A lot of things changed.

Putin is a classic example...

...of a self-made man.

He created himself.

As a teenager, Putin hung around courtyards. His parents barely brought him up.

My name is Mikhail Zygar. I'm a writer and journalist.

I haven't lived in Russia since 2022.

That year, I was branded a "foreign agent"...

...and in 2024 I was sentenced in absentia to eight and a half years in prison.

Putin's teenage gang terrorized the neighborhood and extorted money.

Leningrad's postwar children grew up largely left to themselves.

Almost all their parents were deeply traumatized.

Growing up in those courtyards clearly left a strong mark on him.

Almost all the young people in Leningrad back then...

...were hooligans. But those who practiced sambo ranked highest.

The youngsters wanted to fight, and training became a way to discipline them.

There were many clubs like that.

This is sambo training.

The coach, Anatoly Rakhlin, became his mentor.

"Volodya" Putin was never afraid to take on a match...

...no matter who his opponent was.

Which is stronger, a truck or a car?

He would fight anyone.

He was very resilient. He really was.

He had qualities that suited martial arts.

Putin concealed his emotions. He always has.

He was unpredictable and became very good at it.

He became junior champion at sixteen, and later Soviet champion.

Vladimir Putin, judo champion

His coach, Anatoly Rakhlin, was perfect as a patriotic mentor.

It's very telling that practically all the judokas from his school...

...automatically got extra work as stuntmen.

Vladimir Putin himself did stunt work in the television series The Siege.

Rakhlin became a kind of commander to Putin. He got him off the streets.

Rakhlin also noticed that Putin had little awareness of risk.

Putin was very cautious, but once he had made up his mind...

...he took risks and fought to the end.

He never gave up.

At sixteen, he knocked on the KGB's door and said, "I'm going to work for you."

My name is Sergei Zhirnov. I was born in Moscow in 1961.

I served in the KGB from 1984 to 1992.

I left Russia in 2001 after a dispute with my former employer.

The KGB was a prestigious organization.

The KGB expanded under Yuri Andropov, who later became general secretary.

They sought talented young people who didn't necessarily belong to the elite.

Throughout the 1960s, most boys wanted to be cosmonauts.

But then intelligence officer became the most prestigious profession.

A whole series of films appeared, trying to rehabilitate the KGB's image.

Putin watched Seventeen Moments of Spring.

It portrayed spies' extraordinary exploits during the Second World War.

It captured Putin's imagination.

He says he went to the KGB the next day and offered his services.

The officer there was indulgent and encouraged him to study law.

Leningrad University was highly prestigious, and admission depended on connections.

It was a huge gamble. His parents were against it.

He said his chances of getting in were about the same as going to Mars.

Putin got in, but not because he was clever...

...or particularly interested in laws and legal studies.

He probably got a place through his martial arts connections.

I had to go and persuade his parents to let him go to university.

The important thing was that he was training to become a spy.

Putin attended some of Sobchak's lectures...

...but with 150 students, you hardly recognize someone sitting at the back.

Besides, Putin usually arrived late.

I remember Putin knocking on my door and asking me to sign some papers.

I signed them, and then we never saw each other again.

I've spent most of my life working in intelligence.

I was deputy head of the KGB in Leningrad.

Putin wasn't an intelligence officer working abroad at that time...

...he was working against his own country's citizens.

He has tried to conceal this...

...but he belonged to the Fifth Directorate, which monitored dissidents.

In 1976, two artists and dissidents, Volkov and Rybakov...

...staged a performance on the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

They put up a huge banner with meter-high letters along the River Neva.

They wrote: "You can crucify us, but you can never shackle our souls."

Putin carried out searches and had them arrested.

One was sentenced to six years in prison, and the other to seven.

Putin denies involvement with the Fifth Directorate. He doesn't want it publicized.

I was basically an ordinary employee.

But there is a report...

...signed by Lieutenant Putin.

Despite his denials, it proves...

...that he worked as an informer and spy against dissidents in St. Petersburg.

I began studying international relations in 1978 and studied French.

In 1980, the Olympics were held in Moscow.

We language students were assigned to telephone inquiries.

A Frenchman called. He was pleasant, and we started talking.

I talked to him for two hours.

Then a man arrived in a black Volga. He was a caricature of a KGB officer.

He was a drab, unremarkable man.

Of course, I didn't know it was Putin.

He showed his red KGB ID and said, "Come with me."

With the flashing lights on, we drove to KGB headquarters on Dzerzhinsky Square.

Once we were in the interrogation room...

...I noticed that Putin enjoyed his power.

"How could you have an unauthorized conversation with a foreigner?"

"What did you talk about?" It was an interrogation.

He clearly wanted to bring charges.

He wanted to prove himself and get transferred to Moscow.

I said I had a fellow student named Andrei Brezhnev.

Putin paused and asked if the surname was a coincidence.

"No, no. They're related. He's the general secretary's grandson."

That was the end of the interrogation.

Today, we know that Putin was sent back to Leningrad.

The interrogation did him more harm than good.

He seemed to be stagnating.

One disadvantage was that he was unmarried, so he couldn't be posted abroad.

They worried that unmarried men might become entangled in love affairs.

He was told he had to marry to go abroad. And have children.

That's what he had in mind when he got married.

It worked out...

...so he was sent to Moscow to train at the Andropov Institute.

After university, I served in the KGB and trained at the Andropov Institute.

They gathered 300 people in one place.

I spotted a familiar face and said, "Haven't we met somewhere?"

Putin's body language confirmed it. "Yes, we have."

It had taken nine years in counterintelligence and the political police...

...before he got there. He had lost nine years.

I smiled sarcastically and said:

"Well, you see, now we seem to be on the same side of the barricades."

He realized once and for all how important it was to lie all the time.

He had a good chance of being sent to the West and fulfilling his dream.

But there were certain little things...

...that actually matter for a would-be spy.

They counted against him.

With his long coat and folded umbrella, he made a slightly odd impression.

During the holidays, he went to Leningrad and walked around town with a friend.

Someone picked a fight with them. "Hooligans," Putin has called them.

On the metro, Putin got into a fight and actually broke someone's arm.

Come on. Your man doesn't want this.

Some instructors felt he had little awareness of risk.

He wasn't cautious enough.

According to one assessment, he let his emotions influence him...

...and risked making irrational, emotional decisions.

That could endanger him and the KGB. That's why he didn't become a spy.

Everyone in the Soviet system probably understood that change was coming.

The main task of the KGB offices in East Germany's districts was...

...to recruit sources among foreign university students...

...who could later be used as secret agents in the West.

They tried to plant a spy in an arms factory in Munich.

It was a tedious assignment for the KGB officers...

...because they usually found there was no interest in espionage.

One of his colleagues described how dull life was at that little KGB outpost.

Even Putin himself has said he was no James Bond.

In Dresden, he went into hibernation. He slept through the winter.

But Putin built relationships there that have mattered throughout his life.

Putin was good at making older people think he was pleasant and promising.

His boss in Dresden...

...was a man named Lazar Matveyev. He liked Putin.

Vladimir Putin is second from the left. I'm sitting in the front row.

My German friends and I helped him with practical matters.

We got Putin's daughters into a German kindergarten.

Matveyev saw Putin's potential and later helped him in his career.

They led a comfortable life.

A room in our basement had become vacant...

...so we fitted it out as a sauna.

On our days off, we traveled to Czechoslovakia.

This picture was taken in Prague.

He drank a lot of beer and put on weight. He achieved nothing of significance.

It fits perfectly with the Soviet vision of happiness.

He had a meaningless job that demanded nothing...

...but guaranteed a comfortable life.

My name is Erich Schmidt-Eenboom. I've been in contact with BND veterans.

They had reliable intelligence about what was happening in Dresden.

Since the early 1980s...

...Germany's intelligence service, the BND, had had an informant inside the KGB in Dresden.

Her code name was Lenchen, but her bust size earned her the nickname "The Balcony."

She was something of a shoulder to cry on for Putin's wife...

...who complained when her husband had beaten her or been unfaithful.

BND personnel have confirmed that Putin fathered a child outside marriage in Dresden.

But of course, for such sensitive information, I needed another source.

I met Hans-Georg Wieck in Berlin.

I met Wieck, the former head of the BND.

I said, "On Monday, a story is coming out about the BND agent in Dresden."

He laughed. "Ah, Lenchen!"

"Ah, Lenchen..." That gave me confirmation from the very top.

But no one has managed to locate her.

There was a friendship association between the KGB and the Stasi.

It consisted solely of Stasi and KGB officers.

My name is Douglas Selvage. I'm a historian at the Stasi Records Archive in Berlin.

I research the relationship between the Stasi and the KGB.

Vladimir Putin's Stasi file consists of scattered documents and photographs...

...in various Dresden district folders, as well as Putin's famous Stasi ID.

The KGB and the Stasi had a kind of professional network...

...in which Soviet friends were awarded decorations.

It is a great pleasure to honor our Soviet brothers-in-arms.

We warmly welcome and congratulate them.

The bronze Medal of Merit for the People and Fatherland: Major Vladimir Putin.

Dear comrades:

Every day, we feel that we are living through extremely turbulent times.

The East German government was heading for collapse.

Putin has said he realized the system was ripe for change.

Yesterday, in East Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden and other cities...

...a total of 10,000 people demonstrated for reform.

There were huge demonstrations throughout East Germany.

The protests had spread across Germany.

They spread to Dresden.

The Politburo's Schabowski has just announced...

...that GDR citizens may now pass through all border crossings...

...between the GDR and West Germany.

West Berlin, less than twenty-four hours ago. A symbol is conquered.

Hundreds of Berliners spontaneously storm the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

In Dresden, there was a huge demonstration outside Stasi headquarters...

...which was close to the KGB.

The crowd grew and stormed Stasi headquarters.

They tried to contact Moscow.

Putin asked, "What are Moscow's orders?" The officer replied, "Moscow is silent."

It was painful. Putin felt the country had lost its grip.

It shook him for life.

They barricaded themselves inside their premises.

They took the weapons out of the safes and began burning papers.

It was the beginning of the end for the KGB and Soviet army's presence in East Germany.

It's a really interesting story.

Putin was desperately looking for work.

He turned to one of his advisers from Dresden.

His former boss, Lazar Matveyev, recommended him for an assignment.

There is little doubt...

...that they wanted to place him close to Anatoly Sobchak.

Sobchak was an important, promising liberal leader.

...do everything to ensure Leningrad proves itself ready...

...in the struggle for freedom and democracy!

In 1992, I was working in Leningrad's city administration.

Sobchak had just become chairman of the city council.

Sobchak had become very popular.

He was very incisive in his criticism...

...of the Soviet economy as it actually functioned.

Please answer: When have you lied?

He was head of the Department of Economic Law.

He was always on television, wearing an unusual checked jacket.

He looked modern.

Sobchak became a superstar out of nowhere...

...on the same scale as Yeltsin and Sakharov.

The KGB felt that the liberal leaders close to Yeltsin...

...posed a greater threat to the system than the dissidents.

They wanted their own people, with the KGB mindset...

...to stay close to the politicians and hopefully influence them.

Putin was lucky. When Sobchak taught at university in Leningrad...

...he was one of Putin's law professors.

Who could get close to Sobchak without arousing suspicion?

They concluded that Putin was the man.

After Dresden...

...Putin worked for the security service in the university administration.

Sobchak was looking for an assistant and ran into Putin.

"I remember you! Come and work for me."

The KGB had arranged for Putin to get close to Sobchak.

Sobchak didn't choose to work with KGB people himself.

The KGB supplied people from its own ranks.

The KGB devised the operation as follows:

"I join the movement in the role of a well-known democrat."

Free elections are one of democracy's greatest achievements.

"But in reality, I have my own ulterior motives."

What was it about? I would call the operation "Trojan Horse."

Sobchak was a very astute politician, but apparently not much of an administrator.

We'll sell the footage to television news, to the program 600 Seconds.

He needed technocrats like Putin to keep the machinery running.

Look how hard up the mayor is. He's gnawing on bones!

A typical bureaucrat in the Soviet Union is very cautious...

...and tries to avoid decisions he might later be held responsible for.

Putin has learned to make important decisions himself.

As early as 1990, they began selling off natural resources in St. Petersburg.

Metals, timber and petroleum products were sold in exchange for food.

In theory, this document set the process in motion.

In exchange for various raw materials...

...they were supposed to receive food from various European countries.

Here is one such document.

"Timber and wood products: 750,000 cubic meters."

"Petroleum products—diesel, gasoline and fuel oil: 150,000 tonnes."

"Scrap metal: 30,000 tonnes."

"Rare-earth metals such as tantalum, niobium, gadolinium, etc.: 14 tonnes."

Just imagine: rare-earth metals.

The total was 124 million dollars.

Here is the document with Putin's signature.

The licenses were illegal.

As the mayor's assistant, he had no authority to sign them.

Things aren't going too badly on the work front.

We have the information here. In the first quarter of 1992, St. Petersburg will receive...

He commissioned a film about himself, which was shown on St. Petersburg television.

The shipment includes 25,500 tonnes of meat.

Butter: 7,800 tonnes.

In the film, Putin describes how much food he is going to bring in:

Sunflower oil... He really laid it on thick.

All of those 124 million dollars vanished without a trace.

They vanished without a trace. In exchange for all the materials I listed...

...not a single gram of food arrived.

No deliveries arrived, but the licenses were issued and the money disappeared.

The city could have received enough food to ensure its residents were fed...

...for a year and a half to two years. But the food never came.

There was a total collapse. There was no state funding at all.

We had to act. Certain things had to be paid for immediately.

If you had accounts in Liechtenstein, you could pay straight away.

Did Putin personally profit from this?

I don't know. I don't know.

Logically, he could have.

The report's recommendations read:

"1. Refer the investigation to the city prosecutor."

"2. Remove V. Putin and A. Anikin from their posts."

Sobchak was advised to dismiss Putin.

But Sobchak refused.

It took me a while to realize that Putin was actually Sobchak's fixer.

My name is Franz Sedelmayer. I moved to Russia in the late 1980s.

There, I set up a joint venture...

...with the police in St. Petersburg, which was then called Leningrad.

Putin headed an agency...

...that registered both foreign and domestic companies.

He often came to visit, and I served him Bavarian beer and food.

We developed a really good relationship.

Vladimir Putin ensured that the very first two foreign banks...

...were granted banking licenses in St. Petersburg.

That success opened up the possibility...

...for anyone who had made illegal money there to transfer it abroad safely.

That was the main purpose of those two banks.

How did you find out that Sobchak had enriched himself through Crédit Lyonnais?

Sobchak used Crédit Lyonnais to transfer his cash to Paris.

If you live in a country like Russia, without a proper legal system...

...you try to get to the West with your wealth.

There, you enjoy the protection of the rule of law. Your money is safe.

-Did Putin help create the system? -Absolutely.

Sobchak defended Putin:

"Yes, we made mistakes. I ask you not to dismiss him."

If Putin had been dismissed, he would have been put on trial.

Then he would never have become Russia's dictator.

You could say this St. Petersburg model, raw materials in exchange for food...

...was, in a sense, a blueprint for Putin...

...for how the system could be scaled up.

But it was also the fall from grace, because he saw you could get away with it.

When you make the people around you so vulnerable to blackmail...

...while allowing them to profit so handsomely...

...combined with growing power...

...then this system seems to work.

People say, "He was never particularly ambitious."

He was ambitious, but he concealed it extremely well.

Sobchak had two other assistants.

Putin carefully and ruthlessly managed to get them dismissed.

Yuri Shutov was later imprisoned.

He remained in prison after Putin became president, and died there.

The city administration was emptied of people...

...who had been elected through the city council.

They were replaced by former Party officials.

People from the "nomenklatura."

-From the KGB? -From there too.

They were people he trusted, men his own age.

They had similar backgrounds in the intelligence services.

Putin and his KGB colleagues are soldiers of the Cold War era.

They also suffered a crushing defeat in the Cold War.

KGB ideology is based on the Versailles syndrome. They want revenge.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, all of them...

...have cherished a dream of taking revenge on the West for their defeat.

Putin's extensive St. Petersburg network followed him to the presidency.

They occupy key positions and hold power in their hands.

The St. Petersburg group is exactly the same group he surrounds himself with today.

That special operation...

...he carried it out brilliantly. Absolutely brilliantly.

Translation: Maria Kapla and Karin Werge Hjerpe Svensk Medietext for SVT