Ex-Prime Minister Stepashin: after becoming director of the FSB, Putin went to St. Petersburg weekly to see his father

The current President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, in the late 90s, holding the position of director of the FSB, traveled every week to St. Petersburg to the sick father.

This was stated in an interview with the TASS news agency by former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, who at that time held the post of Interior Minister.

He recalled the fact that after being appointed head of the FSB, Putin's only request to the then president of the country, Boris Yeltsin, was permission to travel to St. Petersburg every weekend.

In response to a request to explain the purpose of these trips, Putin, according to Stepashin, spoke about his father's serious condition. And this was not at all a public relations game for the sake of political PR.

"His father was seriously ill, and he came every weekend. And, in fact, I was an orderly for two days. It's not a game. This is such a person," the former prime minister and Interior Minister recalled.

Earlier, EADaily reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law obliging operators to disconnect communications at the request of the FSB. The document says that in this case, operators will not be responsible for communication outages.