Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t always have such an estranged relationship with the West. In fact, Putin got his start in politics by working for Russia's pro-Western liberals during the 1990s.

A �on an often overlooked chapter in Putin's biography.

In 1990, a 37-year old Putin returns to his hometown of Leningrad after working for the KGB in East Germany. Putin soon reconnects with his former law professor, Anatoly Sobchak, who had become a prominent liberal figure in Leningrad politics during the final years of USSR.

In June 1991, Sobchak becomes the first democratically elected Mayor of Leningrad (though he soon changes the city’s name back to St. Petersburg). Shortly after taking office, Sobchak appoints Putin as one his deputies.

Sobchak and Putin face their first major test in August 1991, when a group of communist hardliners launched a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Although it initially seemed that the coup would succeed, Sobchak and his team threw their weight firmly behind Gorbachev.

St. Petersburg ends up becoming a major center or resistance to the coup. As a later profile in the Washington Post notes, Putin played an important role in ensuring Sobchak’s security during this crisis. In the end the coup against Gorbachev fails.

The fact that Putin sided against the 1991 coup is noteworthy since many believe that the Russian president is on a mission to resurrect the USSR.

Putin certainly regrets the geopolitical collapse of the USSR, but it’s also true that he sided against Soviet hardliners in 1991

The fact that Putin sided against the 1991 coup is noteworthy since many believe that the Russian president is on a mission to resurrect the USSR.

Putin certainly regrets the geopolitical collapse of the USSR, but it’s also true that he sided against Soviet hardliners in 1991

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in Dec. 1991, Putin begins courting American and European companies to St. Petersburg. Let’s look at what some Westerners who met Putin during this time period have to say about the future Russian president.

One of the most interesting personal accounts was written by @EvansinAmerica, who served as U.S. Consul General in St. Petersburg from 1994-97. Evans tells a wild story of how Putin helped rescue two American investors from local mobsters.

Another fascinating account is by Graham Humes, who was director of CARESBAC, a DC-based nonprofit. He also had a positive personal experience with Putin, who apparently helped him overcome Russian bureaucracy.

Final testimony in Sharon Tennison, who has helped organize people-to-people diplomacy events between the US and the USSR/Russia since the 1980s. Here is what she says about her personal encounter with Putin in 1992.

The main takeaway I get from these testimonies is that back in the 1990s: 1) Putin had a pretty good working relationship with the Westerners in St. Petersburg, 2) Did not have a reputation for revanchist, hardline political views.

Putin did not give many interviews in the 1990s, but when he did, he echoed the standard liberal talking points of the time. Here is an interview from 1996 in which Putin warns Russians against accepting an "iron fist" in exchange for stability.

Putin's time as in St. Petersburg came to an end in 1996, when Sobchak lost his re-election bid. From there, Putin moved to Moscow, where he quickly moved up the ranks before being appointed Russian President Boris Yeltsin's successor on December 31, 1999.

It's important to note, however, that many of Putin's colleagues on Sobchak's team in St. Petersburg went on to join him in the Kremlin and remain in positions of power to this day. See Dmitry Medvedev, Alexei Kudrin, Viktor Zolotov, etc.

This raises an obvious question: How did Putin and his associates go from being pro-Western liberals in 1990s to being completely estranged from the West in 2022? Why did their relationship with the West change so dramatically?

This is a massive topic better suited for a book than a Twitter-thread, but it's a question we should be asking ourselves. Especially right now -- when tensions between Moscow and the West are at their highest since probably the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Claiming that Putin has always been dead set against the West and the concept of democracy itself is the fashionable thing to say right now.

But is that actually true? I think Putin's early political career paints a more complicated picture of the man.

We can't change the past, but asking why Putin turned against the West is important for the future. Even if Putin is succeeded by a more pro-Western, democratically minded leader, what is to say this person won't also become disillusioned with and estranged from the West?

After all, as Mark Twain is reported to have said, "History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes."

END OF THREAD.

Pretty accurate narration of events culled from Twitter: https://twitter.com/dimitriasimes/status/1521925191328219138?s=21&t=xrfcvMV9Jx0VuqwoRNHWjQ

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Addendum: all the so-called “Russian Oligarchs” were created by the west via IMF and World Bank when they had access to Russia during Yeltsin’s era and auctioned most of Russia’s assets to a select few who’re mostly Russian Jews. Putin exiled most of them - save for a select few like Abramovich who bought into his vision of Russia’s future. And that’s why he started having friction with the western elites that run the deep states.

Their plan is to have Russia weak, poor and destroyed. And Putin didn’t buy into that. I think the big fallout started after Putin gave his speech in Germany in 2007 where he scolded them.

What broke the camel’s back is the anti-gay law that Putin passed.

Great read for anyone interested in factual history and overview of events.

Vladimir Putin is a demagogue just like Donald trump

Tired of the whole putin and Ukraine issues

God1000:
Vladimir Putin is a demagogue just like Donald trump

Lol, false.

Too intelligent to be compared to a doofus like Trump. He’s a liberal conservative and he doesn’t even rule with an iron fist.

Senile Biden and useful tool like Obama are more of a demagogue than Putin will ever be.

Tonypens48:
Tired of the whole putin and Ukraine issues

It’s a necessary event as the world shifts. Someone has to do the fighting, killing and dying for a reset and that’s what’s happening in Ukraine.

It’s going to happen in multiple folds - Taiwan is next. And there will be another big war in the Middle East.

The west wants to control ,dominate ,and extort everyone,and that is what Putin stands against hence the bitter rivalry from the west led by US.

The west is the aggressor