THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY-JUNE 2026 53 FEATURE When Vladimir Putin returned to St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) from East Germany in 1990, there was little about him that caused the U.S. consulate general (CG) in Leningrad to identify him as the historic figure he would become. But U.S. interactions with Putin described in the CG’s telegraphic reporting from 1991 to 1993 do give a sense of the man and his rising star. Consulate officers described a man who, as chief of staff, quickly made himself indispensable to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and was a key player in foreign investment and St. Petersburg real estate. Putin met visiting senior U.S. officials and traveled to the United States several times, but he was considered abrasive and corrupt. Despite negative impressions of Putin among consulate staff, within Russia Sobchak’s star was fading while Putin’s only grew brighter. Putin first appears in a consulate report of Identifying future national leaders early is no simple task. Once-classified cables share U.S. diplomats’ early views on a much younger Vladimir Putin. BY DAMIAN LEADER Damian Leader, PhD, is a retired career Foreign Service officer and former deputy director of Russian affairs at the State Department who later taught in New York University’s graduate program in international relations. The opinions and characterizations in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. government. FIRST CONTACT Uncle Sam Meets Vladimir Putin SERGEY KOMPANIICHENKO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Mayor Sobchak’s inaugural reception in June 1991. The reporting officer details a side conversation with a Sobchak aide, who said: “Another real winner in the recent election was Sobchak’s chief of staff Vladimir Putin. … Putin has been a Sobchak aide dealing largely with foreign delegations since early this year. Previously Vladimir Putin circa 1990 in Leningrad.
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