I recently read Putin’s story of his family life before he was born - how his father fought in the war against the Nazis during WW2 in the frigid battlefields near what was then Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). After being injured by a grenade thrown directly at him by a Nazi soldier, he struggled to safety and managed to reach a hospital.

The Putin family already had a son, Putin’s older brother, who had been born during the war. But food was scarce and conditions were terrible. Leningrad was being starved. The baby was taken from his home and placed in a form of foster care, where he became ill and died. The Putins never laid eyes on their child again.

Putin’s mother, mourning her baby’s loss, returned home and fell ill. In the bitter cold, death was rampant. Russian medics with carts moved from building to building, removing dead bodies and rolling them off for burial. Putin’s mother’s limp body was added to a cart. Walking home, Putin’s father saw his wife take a shallow breath. He pleaded to keep her to which the medic replied, “That’s just more work - we’ll have to come back for her dead body soon.” But Putin’s father prevailed, carrying his wife back to their frigid home. She survived and after the war gave birth to a second baby boy, Vladimir Putin.

After I read this, I could see clearly how his family’s story may influence his policy decisions.