History wars: What Putin's attempts to rewrite the past say about Russia's future

Russian President Vladimir Putin's past came into sharper focus recently with the admission that, in the tumultuous days following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he earned cash on the side as a taxi driver.

"Sometimes I had to moonlight and drive a taxi," Putin said in an excerpt of an interview for "Russia. New History," a state television documentary. "It is unpleasant to talk about but, unfortunately, this took place."

The disclosure, in fact, tells us very little about the post-Soviet fortunes of the former KGB officer. It was fairly common in the economic free-for-all of the 1990s for Russian drivers to pick up passengers for a few extra rubles. In the days before ride-hailing apps, all you had to do to was flag down a passing car and agree on a fare.