Soldier, spy: more details of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Soviet past revealed

Vladimir Putin has revealed that he commanded an artillery division during the Soviet period, a detail of his shadowy biography that was previously unknown.

Putin made the comment during a visit on Monday to St Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress, where he pulled the lever on a cannon that fires a daily salute at noon over the Neva River.

“I received the rank of lieutenant as an artilleryman, as the commander of a howitzer artillery battalion … 122mm [calibre],” Putin said, according to video footage posted by the Kremlin.

He gave no further details. An official at the fortress congratulated the Russian president on a “wonderful” cannon shot.

Putin’s official biography makes no mention of his military rank of lieutenant or of his position as commanding officer of an artillery battalion.