>People who get all their knowledge of world affairs from Newsweek do tend to forget that Putin learned his craft from Yuri Andrapov. But the folks who follow such things knew who Putin was long before he had much of a public profile and back when power struggles usually ended in a cellar in the Lubyanka.
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>I am somewhat comforted that he seemed to come from the cynical rather than ideological wing of the KGB and that in the case of Islamic fundamentalism we have somewhat common interests. If 911 had happened in Moscow Afghanistan would be glowing in the dark.
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I was always dismayed by Bush's statement that he had "looked into Putin's eyes". I did too, and I kept seeing KGB.