Vladimir Putin will order assassinations in Europe if Russia takes control of Ukraine, a former KGB officer has said.
Maj Gen Oleg Kalugin, who is safe in the US, told the Sunday Mirror Putin would seek revenge for the sanctions imposed by Europe.
He said: “The Russians would not dare mount assassinations in the USA but because Europe has, over decades, shown weakness they assess it’s possible to do it in Europe.”
Gen Kalugin was Putin’s boss when he ran the KGB's Leningrad office.
He said: “I did not see him as particularly talented. It was the mayor of Leningrad who singled out Putin as a reliable lackey for Boris Yeltsin [then Russian leader] so he got transferred. The rest is history.
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“You need to understand Putin’s psyche. He is deeply lonely. His wife left him and his daughters cut themselves off. He has delusions of grandeur and massive megalomania.
“Breaking diplomatic relations with Russia is essential. When Russians see Putin has turned the motherland into a pariah state, this will ruin his reputation inside the country. Then it’s up to his generals.”
Putin has a long background with the KGB.
According to the Kremlin website, Putin wanted to work in intelligence “even before he finished school”, and volunteered at 16.
He holds a law degree from Leningrad State University plus a doctorate in economics, and was picked from 100 or more students for the KGB.
Pavel Koshelev, a college classmate and fellow KGB officer, said: “His most outstanding trait, I would say, was his fighting spirit and his strong will to achieve his goals.’’
In the late 1980s, Putin was posted to Dresden, East Germany, reportedly to work in counter-espionage.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he rose to become head of the KGB’s successor, the FSB, and then Boris Yeltsin’s successor when he resigned in 1999.
Putin said his KGB career prepared him for presidency.
