VLADIMIR Putin has revealed he moonlighted as a taxi driver after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The now billionaire Russian president said the economic turmoil in the early 1990s triggered by the collapse forced him and others to seek new ways to make ends meet.
Putin has said the collapse of the Soviet Union spelled the end of "historical Russia" and the disintegration three decades ago remains a "tragedy" for "most citizens".
The former agent of the KGB security services made the comments in an upcoming documentary by broadcaster Channel One, dubbed "Russia. Recent History".
In it, he said: "After all, what is the collapse of the Soviet Union?
“This is the collapse of historical Russia under the name of the Soviet Union.”
A loyal servant of the Soviet Union, Putin was dismayed when it fell apart, once calling the collapse "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century".
Putin is sensitive to the perceived expansion of Western military ambitions into ex-Soviet countries.
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In the past few days he has demanded that NATO formally scrap a 2008 decision to open its door to Georgia and Ukraine.
The end of the Union brought with it a period of intense economic instability that plunged many into poverty, as newly independent Russia transitioned from communism to capitalism.
RIA-Novosti, reporting from excerpts of the documentary, said Putin had revealed that he worked occasionally as a taxi driver to boost his income.
Putin said: "Sometimes I had to earn extra money.
"I mean, earn extra money by car, as a private driver. It's unpleasant to talk about to be honest but, unfortunately, that was the case."
His poverty plight is in sharp contrast to the staggering wealth he enjoys today.
According to CelebrityNetWorth, his net worth is £52 billion.
Russia was the centre of the Soviet Union that grew to include 15 republics from the Baltics in the West to Central Asia.
In 1991, wracked by economic woes the Soviet Union disintegrated and Russia became an independent nation.
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