One of the first interviews of Putin, who had not been on the Internet before.

Фото: Depositphotos

- Vladimir Vladimirovich, is it true that you worked in the State Security Committee? And if so, did Sobchak know about this when he invited you to work?

“I don’t hide it and never did hide the fact that 17 has worked for years in the foreign intelligence service of the KGB.” Another thing - did not advertise it. But Anatoly Alexandrovich knew about the place of my former service. I told him that I was leaving the committee. By the way, by that time (and I received an invitation from Sobchak this summer), I already filed an application and signed it. And I quit as a lieutenant colonel.

- And how did the invitation to work in the mayor's office? Did Sobchak call you?

- My friends from the law school called me and told me that Anatoly Alexandrovich had seen me at one event, he remembered (I was his student at the university) and, because he needed an adviser on foreign economic issues, he inquired about me. I was well recommended at the law school. And I received an invitation to work, to which I responded readily. Under everything that Sobchak did and said as a deputy of the Union for that period of time, I was ready to subscribe completely.

- Isn't that right now?

- After all, he is engaged not only in state activity: he decides on economic issues, the fate of people, and is put in extremely difficult conditions. It is impossible to raise the economy of a small region, provided that the entire economy of the country is rolling down. Everyone has the right to make mistakes. And Sobchak is also a living person. It would be wrong to say that I always agree with Sobchak in everything. What kind of a worker would I be? If everything looked the mayor in his mouth, I think I would not have arranged it.

- But, nevertheless, you head the most important department. And you can’t deny that the mayor treats you well and listens to your opinion. Knowing his temper, this can not be surprising.

- I would not like to discuss now neither the temper nor the manner of Sobchak, although I hear from many that he is too harsh. Here, on the contrary, they tell me that I am too soft in communication. But I can understand when someone breaks down. We now live in such time trouble - there is not enough patience sometimes to punch through some question. Well, no more strength. As for my relationship with Anatoly Alexandrovich - yes, we find a common language with him in business.

- You probably heard the opinion that Putin is the culprit of all the practical things that are happening in the city hall. I don’t know just whether this can be taken as praise, considering who made such an opinion on the television screen.

- Such a statement is simply naive. There are a lot of problems that the mayor and the mayor's office are dealing with and about which I have no idea. However, at the same time something was said about the officers of the current reserve of the KGB. This is also a lie - I am fired from the KGB to the reserve. And I do not work there, and I do not get money there. By the way, I went to the KGB legally and publicly, by distribution after graduating from university.

“Was it a surprise for you yourself?”

- No, I was informed a few months before. I agreed. I worked for some time in various positions - I was offered to go to work in foreign intelligence. I accepted this offer, I graduated from an appropriate educational institution. And all these years he worked in intelligence. Including abroad.

- Why did you agree to work in the KGB?

- You know, I even wanted this. We all lived in a different frame of reference. I went to work not in a politicized organization. If you want, I have been driven by high motives - I thought that I could use my strength there to the maximum and with the benefit for society.

- Hand on heart, do you think why 17 years ago from the KGB called you?

- This is done by the KGB personnel department. I have never worked in this department and I don’t know how they do it. But it is known that there is a long list of qualities that an intelligence officer must comply with: the ability for analytical work, for learning foreign languages, interest in a certain type of activity, and certain problems. I will note that I have always been interested in the problems of the external economy.

- So, they studied you before, and you didn’t know?

- Of course. Intelligence agencies conduct a study of the object in the conditions when he does not know about it. If he knows about it, then he begins to adapt. And to show those sides of character and personality that he wants to convey to the potential consumer of information.

- Do you know the widespread opinion among students that offers, similar to what you received, are awarded to informers?

- I understood the question. Probably, for the work of personnel it would be the easiest move. To establish relationships with someone at a university or at an industrial enterprise, and then when you need personnel, first of all pay attention to those whom you know. So it is possible. But this is not the general way of resolving issues: if you take only people with whom you already have a relationship, you will soon have no one to rely on. To lose such people is to lose eyes and ears.

- You did not belong to those people?

- Do you want to know if I was connected to the KGB before I got into the frames? No, I was not.

- Tell me, was your report on dismissal from the authorities not related to political motives, to disappointment?

- Not. I wanted to do scientific work, write a dissertation on a topic that was close and familiar to me always. Namely, under private international law. I had already begun to take the exams for graduate school and arranged with one professor at Leningrad State University to take me as a candidate. And, in principle, by the time when Sobchak called me, I already got a job at the university. I wanted to work as a lawyer and deal with legal regulation of foreign economic relations.

And one more, no less important. To continue working at the KGB at a certain level, I needed to move to Moscow. And buy a cooperative apartment or rent for 300 rubles per month. I have two small children, old parents. They are for 80, we live together. They are blockades, where to take them from their native city? Throw them could not. And here the work was, let's say, a little different. And then I decided to leave at all. When the proposal was made to go to the city hall, all the more.

- Interesting. And from the outside, your coming to the mayor’s office looks to many as if the KGB has introduced its employee into the city administration.

- How could the KGB implant me if I was fired? In addition, now because there is no longer the monster, which we used to talk about.

- Do you also consider the KGB a monster?

- Of course. The fact that the staff of the committee as a whole has ceased to correspond to the tasks for which it was created is a fact. It needs to be reconstructed. And they do it. And then, I worked in foreign intelligence, I had no relation to internal political problems.

- Intelligence in the KGB - is it the elite?

- Yes, it happened. Even geographically, it is located in Moscow so far from other services that they practically do not communicate. Yes, it is not encouraged.

- You do not repent of their past?

- Not. I do not repent. Repent - of crimes. I did not commit any crimes. And do not make excuses. Although it is always easier to make excuses than to take a decisive step. I made it.

- And agreeing to this conversation - too. And yet you, too, will not argue: your example confirms the rumors that Sobchak is recruiting former communists and former KGB agents into his team. What do you think, what will be the reaction of our foreign partners if they find out about the place of your former service? Would that hinder business?

- The current US president is a former director of the CIA. So what - it bothers him? I am also a former. Former employee, former communist. Why should it interfere with my work?

- What do you think, do you meet your positions, do you have enough knowledge and strength?

- In any case, my current business lies in the sphere of my professional interests. I have always been involved in international relations. By the way, my thesis is also entitled The Principle of Most Favor of Foreign Trade. The service in intelligence, in the KGB gave me a lot. In a purely educational sense. I know German well, I understand English. The information that I have today helps a lot. Feeling absolutely confident. Including in the problems of our business people. After all, having stopped working in the KGB, I, as a lawyer, collaborated in various economic structures. Difficulties in the implementation of today's functions do not feel completely. As far as I correspond to them, the mayor or vice-mayor will determine. While we work in agreement.

- How much did your former service provide you financially?

- I have basic things. There is a car. Unfortunately, not very good anymore - Volga 72 of the year. Together with my wife, family and parents I live in an 54-meter apartment. In the old fund.

- We can assume that it is difficult to bribe you. And for blackmail there is an opportunity. For example, I heard that someone tried. Separate names were called. How do you generally develop relationships with deputies?

- I would not like to talk about cases of blackmail, but I will not deny them. I will also say that they did not attack him. And they tried to blackmail me with belonging to the KGB. There are examples of another order: some of the deputies constantly appear here, pushing through various projects. There was a case when one of the deputies on behalf of the City Council signed a million contract with an Austrian company. Nobody authorized it, nobody discussed the terms of the contract, did not get acquainted with the proposal of the company ...

And, nevertheless, I believe that the Council must exist: to assist and direct the activities of the administration. It is necessary to follow the path of separation of powers - world practice has shown that this is a productive path. And we are convinced of this from our own experience. Let's say there are negotiations with Estonia. Extremely sensitive questions about the fate of the Russian-speaking population are being resolved. So, the deputy of Petrosovet and Russia, Yuri Mikhailovich Nesterov, an extremely sane person, helps a lot with this. We have a good relationship with the planning and budgetary commission of the City Council: there are intelligent, hard-working people. Together we prepared the regulations on the monetary fund and, to be honest, this is basically this job. We have a routine, and they think over the general line of development in this area. People are different, and in the Council, too.

- People are really different. And they react differently to your recent past. Have you heard about the requirements of a ban on certain professions and positions for the former Chekists, with whom Memorial acts?

“Why not raise the question of removing all Communists and the military from the Council and at the same time from the Council?” After all, it was the army and the party that recently attempted a coup. The logic is the same. Or in one case, we talk about each one specifically, and in the other - all in a heap?

If we talk about the officers of the existing reserve, the personnel officers of the KGB worked and work in civilian institutions. So do all the security services of the world. Our difference is that our employees are all visible. You will never declassify their Western colleague; he works in conditions of heightened conspiracy. What we can not do (because of funding) and inappropriate (in any case, until recently). Under the conditions of a totalitarian system, it was enough for everyone to say: “Silence!”. And now, when they are no longer silent, everything has surfaced. But, I repeat, no special service of the world works without such agents. So it was, it is and it will be so. But this does not concern me anymore - I repeat, I was fired from the KGB ...

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