Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin supplemented his income by becoming a cab driver.
“Sometimes I had to make extra money,” the Russian leader said in a documentary film, according to a state-run Russian news agency
Vladimir Putin, a former KGB security agent, has already voiced regret for the Soviet Union’s dissolution, but this time he claimed the breakup was still a “tragedy” for “most citizens” three decades later.
He also said, “I mean, earn extra money by car, as a private driver. It’s unpleasant to talk about, to be honest, but, unfortunately, that was the case. “
The quotes were obtained from Channel One’s upcoming documentary film “Russia: Its Recent History.”
The breakup of the Soviet Union coincided with the transition of newly independent Russia from communist to capitalist. Hence, resulting in a period of acute economic instability that pushed millions into poverty.
Putin, a staunch supporter of the Soviet Union, was in shock when it fell apart. He was describing it as “the greatest geopolitical calamity of the twentieth century.”
Because taxis were scarce in Russia at the time, many private citizens offered rides to strangers to make ends meet. Thus, the Russian leader Putin also worked as a cab driver.
Some people would even use work vehicles, such as ambulances, like taxis.
In the early 1990s, he did work in the office of St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.
He claims he left the KGB during the August 1991 coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. It led to the Soviet Union’s dissolution.
Putin’s comments come as critics accuse him of orchestrating a Ukrainian invasion to revive the Soviet Union.
Kremlin slammed the plan as fearmongering by the West. Moscow maintained that it would only strike its neighbor if Kyiv or another country provoked it.