Now we have the news from the German press. The Bild newspaper, notorious for breaking news, has published this photo. They claim this is an ID from the security service of East Germany from the Cold War era. It's easy to recognize Vladimir Putin in the photo. They say it was issued at the end of 1985. It was extended once every three months until the end of 1989. They refer to the head of the archive of the Stasi Dresden department, who on the one hand is surprised, but, on the other hand, fans the flames saying the president of Russia, when he worked as a KGB officer, was in contact with people in gray and actively helped them to recruit agents. Long story short, it's an attempt to expose Putin as an agent of the GDR's secret service. The so-called domestic liberal media continued the story. Shall we believe that?
Anastasia Ekimova will tell us.
- Anastasia, good evening.
- Hello.
- Where did the ID come from? How did it wind up with the journalists?
- I don't believe, but it was in the archive all this time and then unexpectedly wound up at the Bild newspaper.
It never happened and here we go again. Notorious for its constant desire to spit in eternity, the German tabloid Bild published its usual sensation. The headline is "KGB Spy in Dresden: Secret Passport Discovered, Issued to Putin."
Mikhail Lyubimov, ex-colonel of intelligence service: "We were in close contact with the excellent East German Stasi secret service headed by Mikhail, we called him Misha, his real name was Wolf. He spoke Russian excellently. We got very valuable data from them. This was one of our primary tasks and the reason why our department was deployed in the GDR, including comrade Putin as well."
The fact Putin worked in the GDR is widely known. The close cooperation between the Moscow and Dresden secret services is known as well. The Ministry for State Security of the GDR, also known as the Stasi, was created after the Soviet MGB in 1950, so both socialist secret services could share the data they obtained.
Andrey Vedyaev, historian of secret services: "In order to perform its service functions, they had to move around a lot. That's why they were given IDs of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. This is quite a common procedure. But it's quite interesting that the ID was found in the archive and wasn't lost"/
According to Bild, the ID was issued on December 31st, 1985. This coincides with the time that Putin started serving in Dresden. The ID was allegedly extended every three months for four years, which is logical because the demonstrated ID is no "secret passport" as experts say but a pass of a sort. By the way, ex-head of the Dresden service, Konrad Felber, told the German journalists a person with such an ID was permitted on Stasi premises.
Svetlana Tumanova, KGB ex-officer: I saw the document.
- By the document you mean this exact ID, right?
- Yes. Using this we could go through secret corridors where ordinary employees weren't allowed. I think they were either returned when the mission in the GDR was complete and our staff moved out or this is a copy of the ID. I think the latter is true — this is a copy of the documents issued in 1985.
The fact the document wasn't kept classified is partially confirmed by its good condition. When the Stasi headquarters were captured during the coup in 1989, all the documents were destroyed. Some were shredded, some were torn by hands. It means the pass could have been handed over later after the owner's completion of service who apparently didn't think it was a secret at all. The ID was in the archive for years and now they are revealed so unexpectedly.
Waldemar Birkle, Pforzheim City Council Deputy: "They'd better find Mrs. Merkel's passport, as she is suspected of working for the Stasi. They should publish this instead of focusing on Vladimir Putin because our people know a lot about politics. They just laugh at it. When it rains, they say it's Putin's fault".
By the way, the German tabloid's sensational article only has partial public access. There are only several lines, just to heat up interest. The full version that says there's no sensation or disclosure is available only for the premium subscription. In other words, first you pay, and then you find out there's nothing beneath the bright cover.
By the way, the Stasi had a maxim — "there's no unimportant information". Well, Bild knows.
- Anastasia Ekimova on the manipulation of the facts.
