Vladimir Putin began his professional life as a mid-level official in the KGB, which was the Soviet Union's secret police and intelligence agency. It was something like the CIA in the United States. It is unclear what exactly he did during his time with the organization, but it is certain that he served in East Germany performing tasks related to economic intelligence and supporting illegal Russian intelligence officers. And in 1998, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin, head of the Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the KGB. So the fact that Putin was a former KGB officer and head of the Federal Security Service seemed to offer him a great advantage in using the intelligence services to his own and Russia's advantage. However, the initial phase of the Ukrainian war and the attack on Moscow by the Islamic State cast doubt on Putin's experience and competence in the use of Russian intelligence services. So the questions are: why are the intelligence and Secret Service agencies so important to Russia? But why did they fail incredibly in Ukraine and in the recent attack on Moscow after being alerted?

Sources of interest:

- Dylan, H., Gioe, D. V., & Grossfeld, E. (2023). The autocrat's intelligence paradox: Vladimir Putin's (mis)management of Russian strategic assessment in the Ukraine War.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1...

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