Vladimir Putin worked in the mayor's office in St. Petersburg under Anatoly Sobchak.
Posted by The Pete Quiñones Show, Checked
- Sources
- 6 support
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 90%
The Pete Quiñones ShowOct 1, 2026
Multiple tier1 and unrated sources (Reuters, BBC, and several biographical and news sources) report that Putin worked in the office of St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak in the early-to-mid 1990s, as his deputy and aide.
What was said
… So Putin, taking over, he was actually appointed because Putin didn't support the, you know, the National Bolshevik coup just a few years earlier. He was able to work in the mayor's office in St. Petersburg, and then, once Anthony Sobchak lost the election there, he went to Moscow and went to Moscow, and he didn't talk much about ideology. He was in the security services, and that's where his friends came from. In other words, they didn't need the billionaires to finance them. …
The Pete Quiñones Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Reuters factbox states Putin returned to St Petersburg and worked with mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and was appointed to the city's external relations committee in 1991.[1]
Supports. BBC reports that in the early 1990s Putin worked in the office of St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.[2]
Supports. RFE/RL and DW report Putin began his political career in Sobchak's mayoral office and was one of his deputies from 1991 to 1996.[3][4]
Supports. The Independent and Wikipedia-derived sources describe Putin going to work for Mayor Sobchak as his deputy after leaving the KGB.[5][6]
Context. Sources note Sobchak lost the 1996 mayoral election, after which Putin moved to Moscow / the Kremlin, matching the passage's sequence.[1][5]
Sources
6 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 tier 1, 4 not rated
- 1Factbox - Who is Vladimir Putin? | Reutersreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2Vladimir Putin: I moonlighted as a taxi driver in the 1990sbbc.co.uk · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 3Teflon Putin? Over 20 Years In Power, Scandals Don't Seem To Stick To The Russian Presidentrferl.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Putin: How a spy rose to power and held on to itdw.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Putin dismays reformers by backing tainted St Petersburg bossindependent.co.uk · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 6Anatoly Sobchak - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · not rated · cited for: supports
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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