In 2003, Polish media reported that KGB defector Victor Suvorov (Vladimir Rizun) found documents and pictures in London which show that the Russian president’s father served in the Nazi-collaborating army led by Russian general Vlasov. Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin was apparently captured by British forces, but not before he helped crush the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. (In the photo above, Putin’s father is identified as the man on the far left.) Russian media spun the story to say that Putin Sr. was really like beloved Soviet fictional television hero Otto von Stirlitz, a Russian agent who had infiltrated the Nazi security service.
