Article: RUSSIA - Putin's Background.

Putin was born to Communist parents on Oct. 7, 1952 in St. Petersburg, then Leningrad. He graduated with a doctorate in law in 1975 and then joined the KGB. For nine years he worked for the internal affairs department in KGB's Leningrad branch. From 1984 to 1990, he was a KGB officer in Dresden, East Germany. In late 1990 he joined politics as an aide to and a protege of St. Petersburg's liberal mayor Anatoly Sobchak. In 1994 he became the first deputy head of the St. Petersburg government, under Sobchak.

In 1996 Putin in Moscow ended up being in charge of the Kremlin's ties with Russia's 89 regions. In that position he gained a reputation as a tough ...

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