The birth of RTÉ and Vladimir Putin’s rise to power

 On this date, December 31, 1961 RTÉ was born.

And on the same date, this time 1999, on the resignation of Russia’s first president, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became acting president and successor to Boris Yeltsin.

During the days of the GDR Putin was said to be chief KGB spy in Dresden. The common joke doing the rounds after the fall of the Berlin Wall was that Putin was considered not good enough by the KGB to be in its Bonn office.

No laughing matter at all.