Photo: Alexander Astafiev
Director of Foreign Intelligence Service Russia (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin said he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 1980. He said this on the YouTube channel “Soloviev Live”.
According to Naryshkin, Putin is now working in detail on the documents he receives from the SVR. The head of state takes notes and gives instructions for further study.
Naryshkin added that the conversation is “in the same language”. “And for all employees, it is clear evidence that our work is in demand,” he said.
At the same time, Naryshkin admitted that he could never have imagined taking over his current post. According to him, during his school years he read Julia Semenov's novel “Major Whirlwind”. Then he couldn't even imagine that he would one day be lucky enough to congratulate the prototype of this protagonist Alexei Nikolayevich Botyan on the centenary.
Vladimir Putin was also an intelligence officer. From 1985 to 1990, under the auspices of the first KGB headquarters, he worked in Dresden in the GDR as director of the local USSR-GDR Friendship House.