THE ACTOR and THE SPY

As missiles fall on Ukraine and Russia makes nuclear threats, the world seems closer to global peril than it has at any time since the Cold War. And at the centre of it all are two unlikely adversaries: Putin, a dictator billionaire and former spy, and Zelensky, a onetime actor, comic and anti-corruption crusader whose courage has earned him a place in his people’s hearts and the history books.

WORDS by NICK BRYANT

ON December 31, 1999, as fireworks went off over Sydney Harbour to usher in a new millennium, word came through from the Kremlin in Moscow of a change in leadership that would dramatically alter the course of the 21st century. A former KGB spymaster by the name of Vladimir Putin would become the acting President of Russia. Back then, the most immediate risk to the world seemed to come from what was called the Y2K bug, a flaw in computer operating systems that threatened to wreak global havoc. Little did we know that Putin posed a far greater threat to the international order, and would go on to become the mastermind behind so much misery and murder. From Chechnya to Crimea, from Syria to the cathedral town of Salisbury in…

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The Australian Women's Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2022

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