I had missed this story: "Putin's Stasi ID card found in German archives."

[BN1914]

The discovery of an East German secret police ID card wouldn't normally attract much attention, but things get a lot more interesting when it's Vladimir Putin's.

Issued in 1985, the document belonged to the then mid-ranking Soviet officer, now the President of Russia. At the time, Putin worked for the KGB spy service as a liaison with the East German State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst), nicknamed the "Stasi."

From Wikipedia:

The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS) or State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst, SSD), commonly known as the Stasi (IPA: [ˈʃtaːziː]),[3] was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies ever to have existed.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. The Stasi motto was Schild und Schwert der Partei (Shield and Sword of the Party), referring to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) and also echoing a theme of the KGB, the Soviet counterpart and close partner, with respect to its own ruling party, the CPSU. Erich Mielke was the Stasi's longest-serving chief, in power for thirty-two of the GDR's forty years of existence.

One of its main tasks was spying on the population, mainly through a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures, including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents (Zersetzung, literally meaning decomposition). Its Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) was responsible for both espionage and for conducting covert operations in foreign countries. Under its long-time head Markus Wolf, this directorate gained a reputation as one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the Cold War. The Stasi also maintained contacts, and occasionally cooperated, with Western terrorists.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Clearly not the same dude... "Wladimir"?

[BN1914]

2. LOL

[Igel]

5. The real spelling is

Владимир.

After that, it's a question of how to wedge it into another alphabet.

We say "Vladimir" but get the pronunciation of the consonants (and the stress) wrong.

Most varieties of Spanish get the "v" wronger than English-speakers do. The "d", too.

German uses "w" for what we write as "v".

Then there's 弗拉迪米尔. The Internet tells me that it's pronounced as 6 syllables (instead of the Russian 3). Fú lā dí mǐ ěr They give the impression of stress placement correctly. فلاديمير has the same lack of a v, so they use what Arabic has, an f. I don't think the long a is appropriate, either, but there are equally good spellings with short a and short is, too.

I personally prefer the Polish Władimir. Can't beat the barred l. The pleophonic Ukrainian Володи́мир, though, is sort of neat, too, because the whole "vlad-" spelling is so South Slavic.

[dalton99a]

3. .

https://www.bstu.de/ueber-uns/aktuelles/detail/hausausweis-war-uebliche-praxis/

[Dennis Donovan]

6. He's a punk...

That's a VERY punchable face...

[JustAnotherGen]

4. He's always had

Dead, eyes - no soul.

[Generic Brad]

7. It's a Stephen Miller face

Take away the hair and they look eerily similar in their youth.