Putin 1986 KGB Visitor to Australia, NZ, Singapore & Fiji. NEW COMMENTS

In the mid 1980s the Cold War Soviet foreign intelligence (KGB) remained busy. In the US 1985 was dubbed The Year of the Spy. Other Five Eyes countries, such as New Zealand (NZ) and Australia, were also of KGB interest. NZ politician and journalist, Bob Harvey, has collected enough evidence to identify Vladimir Putin as a KGB non-diplomatic cover “Illegal” in NZ in March 1986. See “Putin's 1980s Visits to New Zealand as a KGB ILLEGAL” of August 18, 2025 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/08/putins-1980s-visits-to-new-zealand-as.html

Putin spent most of his KGB external operational time in the relative backwater of the KGB's Dresden, East Germany, Liaison Office from 1985 to 1990. But he was more ambitious than that. So he persuaded his superiors to permit him to spend weeks or months elsewhere in 1986 for career diversity, including improving his  English. Also being totally unknown in Southeast Asia and Oceania, he could securely work as an Illegal - probably using German cover. German is Putin's 2nd language. Whether Putin used a false East (or preferably West) German passport I don't know. 

In 1986 Putin advised New Zealanders he was a Bata shoe salesmen. Bata Shoe Corporation, headquartered in then communist Czechoslovakia, had/has a regional office in Singapore from which salesman visit local markets in NZ, Australia and Fiji. Singapore was a regional control station for KGB illegals in Putin's day, and it possibly remains a similar station for SVR illegals covering the 4 countries (Singapore, NZ, Australia and Fiji). 

Putin could visit all 4 countries using Bata cover. As regional salesmen want to know many things Putin could plausibly ask about economic, political and labour-worker issues when he was in NZ. 

Bata has since 2004 been HQ based in Switzerland - meaning it is unlikely Bata now has any Russian intelligence affiliations. 

What might have drawn Putin, working as an KGB illegal, to Wellington (NZ's capital) and perhaps also to Auckland (NZ's largest city) in 1986?:

1.  The sinking of Soviet passenger ship MS Mikhail Lermontov, in NZ waters, in February 1986 was one reason Putin visited NZ in March 1986. In March 1986 Putin was a low key visitor sitting at the back of the court room inquiry into Lermontov's sinking. The inquiry was held at Lambton Quay in central Wellington. Probably it was New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) that took the photo below (Putin clearly on the left) in March 1986 outside of the court room. Once Putin rose to be head of Russia's domestic KGB successor, the FSB in 1998 his KGB past was publicly revealed. Pictures of him taken years before permitted retrospective identification of him as KGB.

The sinking of the Soviet ship Lermontov would have naturally embarrassed the Soviet Union. Putin may have wished to monitor how the captain and crew conducted themselves at the inquiry. Also he would be interested in some New Zealanders in court (eg. from the NZSIS or any remaining Moscow aligned NZ communists).

2.  Other issues drawing Putin to NZ in 1986 might be matters arising from the French DGSE’s sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (in Auckland Harbour, July 1985) including NZ anger at France and also against other Western countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior#Foreign_relations.

"The failure of Western leaders to condemn a violation of a friendly nation's sovereignty caused a great deal of change in New Zealand's foreign and defence policy.^[33] New Zealand distanced itself from the United States, a traditional ally, and built relationships with small South Pacific nations, while retaining excellent relations with Australia and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.^[34]"

Also to what extent New Zealanders resented France’s further Pacific nuclear tests which only ended in 1996. Putin's freedom to operate in NZ would have improved in 1986 because NZSIS officers in Wellington and Auckland would have been preoccupied with further French bombing of Rainbow Warrior matters. So there would have been less NZSIS manpower resources to monitor Soviet spy activity, like Putin, in 1986.

3.  Putin may have assisted the fellow communist/Warsaw Pact Czechoslovakian Embassy, Wellington, owing to this matter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Security_Intelligence_Service#1980s_Cold_War_embassies_espionage_operations:

“In early June 2020, Radio New Zealand reported that the NZSIS had [quietly entered] the Czechoslovakian embassy in Wellington in 1986 as part of a joint operation with the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to steal Warsaw Pact codebooks in order to break into the encrypted communications of Soviet-aligned countries during the Cold War…This revelation came to light as a result of an RNZ podcast series called The Service, produced by Wellington writer and documentary maker John Daniell, whose mother and step-father had both worked for the NZSIS. Daniell said that his step-father was involved in the [entry] and had claimed it was a success.” 

4.  Also there may have been no KGB or Czech intelligence officers permanently stationed in their respective embassies, in usually quiet Wellington. So a travelling KGB officer did the job, when needed. 

So Putin was based part time, in 1986, in Singapore, with visiting responsibility to NZ, Australia and Fiji. The NZSIS matched his 1986 photo to his 1998 head of FSB intelligence identity. Security intelligence agencies in Singapore, Australia and Fiji might also have photos of him on file, taken in 1986 - photos that can now permit identification of Putin 39 years later as a KGB visitor to those countries.

NEW COMMENTS

The security intelligence agencies of Singapore, NZ, Australia and Fiji may all have been aware of Putin's KGB identity. But these agencies may have been more  interested in detecting Putin's covert local contacts and KGB methods rather than arresting or expelling him. They might practice security intelligence collection more than law enforcement. 

If agencies did detect Putin an ultimate goal may have been to contact and "turn" Putin to be a double agent for the West. But clearly Putin was/is too much of a patriotic Russian for that to work.