''In November 1989, as the Berlin Wall was coming down, a KGB
officer stationed in Dresden was hurrying to destroy thousands of secret
documents inside the agency’s compound. He later recalled
that East German citizens were trying to overrun the facility as he
shoveled top-secret files into the fire so quickly that the furnace
burst. A decade later, that KGB officer, who considered his service to
the Motherland a sacred sacrifice born of devout patriotism, became the
leader of all Russia: President Vladimir Putin.
Putin was relatively unknown outside of Russia when
President Boris Yeltsin surprised the world on New Year’s Eve, 1999, by
resigning and appointing Putin as his immediate successor. Inside
Russia, though, Putin had advanced to the highest echelons in the state
security apparatus, renamed the Federal Security Service, or FSB. In his
inaugural New Year’s presidential message, Putin assured Russian citizens
that “freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the press,
the right to private property—all these basic principles of a civilized
society will be reliably protected by the state.” His actions soon
suggested otherwise. Russia was then ranked higher than China on Freedom
House’s civil liberties score, about level with Brazil, and was approaching parity with India—all considered members of the “BRIC” group of..''
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