re: #396 pingjockey

IIRC, wasn’t Putin in the old KGB? Between Russian public sentiment and Putin wanting to hammer the terrorists, this has the potential to become very ugly, very fast. I have no idea as to the state of the Russian army. As in how fast they can mobilize, etc..

Yes, he was also a chief official in the FSB, where he assisted in bringing down a major prosecutor who was going after Yeltsin’s daughter and associates for corruption. Fellow was videotaped with a prostitute, Kremlin-affiliated TV broadcast it, next month Putin and this other fellow held press conference announcing it’d been analyzed and the guy was definitely the prosecutor. Also pulled some much more significant shenanigans to get himself where he very quickly came to be.