Vladimir Putin is not Russian, he still sees himself as a Soviet citizen. The ideology preached then is still deeply rooted in him.
This was stated to the newspaper De Volkskrant by Susan Miller, a former CIA employee who worked in the Russian capital Moscow. The American intelligence agency realized that Putin was dangerous as soon as he took office. The reason: he sees himself as a Soviet citizen, writes Focus.de.
Former CIA intelligence officer Susan Miller believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union. She was in Moscow when Putin's political career began. She recounts her impressions of that time.
Putin became Russia's prime minister in August 1999, a surprise to many observers, and a few months later became president. "He was a complete stranger to us then," Miller says. She says that even then, the Americans knew they were dealing with "the worst," because Putin came from the KGB department tasked with protecting the Soviet Union from external and internal threats. "They persecuted their own people. And they were considered particularly loyal to the Soviet authorities."
“Putin wants the Soviet Union back, and nothing will stop him. He doesn't care about the loss of human life. Putin is not actually Russian, he is a Soviet citizen,” says Susan Miller.
Not only is the existence of Ukraine at stake, but also that of the former Soviet republics.
Miller recounts a conversation with Kazakh intelligence officers last year. When asked what their biggest fear was, one of them replied: “That they would take us over.” Miller initially thought the Kazakh was referring to China. “But he was referring to Putin because he knows what he is like.” The Kazakh said he sees subversion and influence in his country aimed at turning people to Russia.
The former CIA officer does not believe the war in Ukraine will end soon, because for Putin, human life is of no importance, even to his own soldiers: “For the West, human life is very valuable. Even a reason to end a war. Not for Russia“.
There are statements by Putin that clearly show that he mourns the collapse of the USSR. The Russian president calls this event the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.
The Russian president deliberately seeks elements of Soviet history for his propaganda. For example, in May of this year, Putin again placed a relief of Stalin in the Moscow metro and renamed the Volgograd airport to “Stalingrad“. In addition, Putin appropriates the fight against fascism in World War II for his own purposes. He compares the war against Ukraine to the fight of the Red Army against Nazi Germany. The president claims that the Ukrainian government under the leadership of Volodymyr Zelensky is Nazi.