Russian President Putin talks about his job as a taxi driver

“It is enough to look at what is currently happening between Russia and Ukraine and what is happening at the borders of other countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Putin said during a televised meeting with the heads of the intelligence services of former Soviet countries. All of this, of course, is the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Putin continued: “We have turned into a completely different country. What was built over 1000 years is largely lost,” he said, noting that 25 million Russians in the newly independent countries suddenly found themselves isolated from Russia, part of what he called a “great human tragedy.”

Putin also described for the first time how he was personally affected by the difficult economic times that followed the Soviet collapse, when Russia suffered from hyperinflation.

“Sometimes (I) had to work two jobs and drive a taxi,” the Russian president said. It is unpleasant to talk about this but, unfortunately, it happened