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Journalism of Courage
Russian strong-man Vladimir Putin has been accused of being a “wife-beater and a philanderer” by German spies when he worked as a KGB agent in the German city of Dresden,a leading German paper reported today.
The Russian prime minister allegedly had a string of flings while he was himself a spy in Dresden in the late eighties,Germany’s biggest paper ‘Bild’ was quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Mail’ here.
Files from West German spy agency BND published in the German media claim an interpreter agent befriended Putin’s wife Lyudmila,now 53,who poured her heart out about her marriage.
She allegedly told the agent that her husband used “domestic violence and (had) numerous sexual affairs”.
Putin,59,who is expected to return to power next year,headed Soviet intelligence operations in the East German city from 1985 to 1990.
The files were discovered by BND expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom,author of several books and papers on the spy agency.
Bild said,”This report gives added nourishment to the rumour that (Putin) left in his black Volga limousine in the spring of 1990 allegedly leaving an illegitimate baby behind.”
Lyudmila once damned her husband with faint praise by confiding to a friend: “At least he doesn’t beat me.” And Putin has been quoted in the past as telling a friend: “Anyone who can spend three weeks with Lyudmila deserves a monument.”
Putin’s chief spokesman said he had “no comment” on the reports,the daily said.
Schmidt-Eenboom was researching the intelligence coup of placing an agent inside KGB headquarters for his doctorate when he came across the information about Putin’s extra-marital affairs.
An unnamed senior intelligence expert in Germany said,”He is on the money on this. And I personally have it on authority from two previous presidents of the BND that Putin was a sexual player during his time in Dresden.”
The interpreter agent,a Baltic Russian with German roots identified only as Lenchen Sch,became a pal of Lyudmila and visited her at the flat at 101 Raderbergerstrasse that she shared with her husband in the city.
German intelligence files claim Putin enjoyed secret liaisons behind the back of wife Ludmilla.
The paper said Lenchen – codenamed ‘Balcony’ – became a shoulder to cry on for Ludmilla as she poured her heart out about her then 33-year-old husband’s alleged infidelities and abuse.
