The following article by Jean Hopfensperger was posted on the Star Tribune website February 20, 2017:
Mark Stipakov went to grade school with Russian President Vladimir Putin and consulted with him in the 1990s when Putin worked in the St. Petersburg’s mayor’s office. Watching the barrage of news about his old classmate’s possible influence on the Trump administration, Stipakov worries.
Yes, Putin is a former top spy, he said, but he’s also not a guy who would jeopardize relations with a superpower. Continue reading “Like the Cold War’: Minnesota Russian community worried”