The Rise Of Putin: Joining The KGB

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

*Declassified Club exclusive: ⁠⁠SUBSCRIBE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to listen to the full series* How did Vladimir Putin rise from a nobody in St Petersburg to the most powerful man in Russia? Did he always crave the power of public office? Or was this relentless determination beaten into him by the KGB? Listen as David and Gordon are joined by one of the world's foremost experts on Russian organised crime, author and podcaster, Mark Galeotti, to discuss the rise of Putin and his unorthodox time in the KGB. ------------------- THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026: Buy your tickets to see David and Gordon live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 31 January: https://www.livenation.co.uk/the-rest-is-classified-live-tickets-adp1627115 ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ - go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, quarterly livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ⁠ ------------------- Email: [email protected] Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Social Producer: Emma Jackson Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com.
0:17.3	Music Well, welcome club members, secret squirrels, to a very special mini-series that we have for each and every one of you, because we are going to pair the wonderful series that we have just
0:40.8	started this week on Putin's chef and so much more.
0:45.2	You have Genni Progoshin, which has its own sort of wild contours, and we are going
0:50.4	to be talking over the next three episodes for club members in this little mini-series
0:55.5	on Vladimir Putin. And in particular, what we thought we do for all of you is to go a little
1:03.5	bit deeper into the kind of parallel story of Vladimir Putin intertwined with that of
1:10.4	Afghani Progoshin. There's overlap with Leningrad and St. Petersburg,
1:15.9	the emergence of a young and, as we'll see, maybe relatively forgotten KGB officer called Vladimir Putin,
1:24.8	and we are going to talk about how he sort of ascends through
1:28.6	the ranks of the KGB and Russian politics in the 1990s to become Russia's leader.
1:36.9	But Gordon, you and I are not going to do this alone.
1:40.3	That sounds like too much for us to carry, too much of a burden.
1:43.2	So we are joined for the next three episodes by a very special guest.
1:47.5	That's right.
1:48.2	Our very special guest is Mark Galliotti.
1:51.3	Mark Galliotti is one of the leading experts on the worlds of Russian organized crime
1:58.6	and the Russian security services and what goes on at the heart of the Kremlin.
2:04.1	Mark, welcome to the Declassified Club.
2:07.2	It's great to be here and joining you.
	...

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