Anyone who wants to understand Vladimir Putin today needs to know the story of what happened to him on a dramatic night in East Germany a quarter of a century ago. It is 5 December 1989 in Dresden, a few weeks after the Berlin Wall has fallen. East German communism is dying on its feet, people power seems irresistible. Crowds storm the Dresden headquarters of the Stasi, the East German secret poli
![Vladimir Putin's formative German years](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/8241c910beaf2c974e95d57ebfdb5ec6227dac7c/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Fnews%2F1024%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2F81939000%2Fjpg%2F_81939748_putin_uniform304.jpg)