Vladimir Putin won yet another election as Russian president on Sunday. With Russia accused of poisoning a spy in England and controversies over election meddling in the United States, it’s more important than ever to understand this man’s character. Here is an article from Jan. 26, 2017, by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry on exactly that.

“I think I would just get along very well with Vladimir Putin,” said United States President Donald Trump on July 31, 2015, just over a month after declaring his bid for the presidency. If Mr. Trump does get along well with Mr. Putin, what will happen to America? Your Bible gives a shocking answer to that question.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has preyed on both the Democratic and the Republican political parties in the U.S. More importantly, he has been perhaps the most evil leader in this world—especially in his dealings with America, Britain and the Jewish nation in the Middle East.

Putin supports Iran, the number one terrorist-sponsoring nation in the world, with troops and nuclear weapons development. This is a perverted, sick policy since Iran considers America the Great Satan and Judah the Little Satan. How can Mr. Trump foster a profitable relationship with a man who has such disgusting, devastating, satanic policies? Can God get along with the devil? This is the real world! We need to consider this.

Putin has killed more than 160,000 of his own people in Chechnya. It is suspected that he has murdered more than 130 journalists in his own country. He has crushed all forms of independent media. Can you even imagine the American president doing these things?

Spy by Trade

In an article from Jan. 23, 2016, titled “The Death of a Former KGB Operative Is a Reminder of Vladimir Putin’s Past Life as a Spy,” Peter Holley wrote for the Washington Post:

As a street-fighting kid growing up in a crowded apartment complex in the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin dreamed of something bigger. By the time he was a teenager, that something, he’d concluded, was becoming a spy.

“Even before I finished high school, I wanted to work in intelligence,” Putin said, according to a biography posted on the Kremlin website. “Granted, soon after, I decided I wanted to be a sailor, but then I wanted to do intelligence again.”

The biography notes that an ambitious young Putin even attended a public reception at the office of the kgb Directorate to ask how he could become an intelligence officer.

From a child, Vladimir Putin dreamed of becoming a spy! The kgb intelligence agency that he joined is the equivalent of America’s Central Intelligence Agency, except exponentially more vile and brutal. The deeds and the actions prove it. Holley continued:

He once said that he was driven to join by “high motives” and hoped to use his skills “to the best for society.” But Putin told his biographers that the allure of espionage transcended high-minded ideals.

“I was most amazed by how a small force, a single person, really, can accomplish something an entire army cannot,” he said, according to the Telegraph. “A single intelligence officer could rule over the fates of thousands of people. At least, that’s how I saw it.”

Vladimir Putin’s priorities are the opposite of the high-minded ideals purportedly espoused by the Western world. Espionage is his true passion. Both American political parties believe that he hacked the Democratic National Committee during the presidential primaries last year. He is a spy by trade.

Out for Revenge

Before the kgb collapsed along with the Soviet Union in 1991, how did it impact Vladimir Putin’s worldview? How has the kgb influenced his leadership of Russia?

Many analysts and experts say that Vladimir Putin has resurrected the kgb—and made it far more deadly. According to a British inquiry in January 2016, kgb operative-turned-British intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko died nearly a decade ago after drinking a cup of green tea poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. A British parliamentary committee described the assassination as a miniature nuclear attack on the streets of London. Putin considered that man the ultimate traitor, so he poisoned him with an ingredient used in nuclear bombs!

“On his death bed, Litvinenko himself accused Putin of organizing his murder, as well as other crimes as wide-ranging as terrorism and pedophilia” (ibid).

Russian journalist Masha Gessen told the Telegraph in 2012 that Vladimir Putin “is a supersize model of the kgb” (Feb. 25, 2012). Putin resurrected and supersized the kgb! This is a monster times a monster!

“To his fiercest critics, the strongman’s authoritarian impulses are contemporary reflections of the ruthless Cold War security apparatus that molded him into a master spy” (Washington Post, op cit; emphasis mine throughout).

If America can get along very well with Vladimir Putin, then shame on us! What nation could befriend this evil, destructive murderer? He is a friend of the devil with numerous anti-God policies!

“Communist ideology has gone, but the methods and psychology of its secret police have remained,” Alexia Kondaurov, a kgb general-turned-politician, told the Economist in 2007.

Is Communist ideology really gone? Or are we just blind to its destructive influence in the Western world? (Request our free reprint article “Communism in America Today” for more information.)

Gessen added, “He’s an average Soviet functionary with stronger than average emotions and higher than average vindictiveness” (Washington Post, op cit). Vladimir Putin is vindictive and vengeful! He has nothing but contempt for the opinions of the Russian people. The Washington Post continued:

Gessen told the Telegraph that the final stages of Putin’s kgb career were actually a period of disillusionment and tumult as the fiercely patriotic operative watched from the geopolitical front row as the Soviet Union disintegrated, and thousands of humiliated kgb officers were cast aside by the state.

“I think a lot of his resentment goes back directly to that period,” Gessen said. “Having been in the kgb in a bad time, having been outside the country when everything was changing, he’s a very vengeful man. That’s one of his particular traits of character. And that vengefulness has carried through. He’s pursuing a vendetta against everybody who was ever opposed to the Soviet Union.” And according to Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, that vendetta extended to her husband.

Britain’s Supreme Court actually convicted Putin for Litvinenko’s assassination. They have no doubt that he was the mastermind behind the murder plot. Vladimir Putin has supersized the kgb murder machine, that machine of deception and lies! Murder is its way of life! Can we “get along very well” with such a monstrous example in this world?

Yet Mr. Trump said a year and a half ago, “I think I would just get along very well with Vladimir Putin.”

Set Your Face Against Him

Thousands of years ago, the Prophet Ezekiel forecast the arrival of Vladimir Putin on the world scene. “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him” (Ezekiel 38:1-2). Gog and Magog refer to Russia and China today. Chief prince should read prince of Rosh, or Russia. This end-time leader rules, among other cities, Meshech (Moscow, the capital) and Tubal (Tobolsk, in eastern Russia). (Request my free booklets Russia and China in Prophecy and The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia’ for extensive proof of this man’s identity.) It is easy to prove who he is.

God tells His end-time messenger to prophesy against the prince of Russia! You’re reading part of that message right now.

Where else is a warning message being proclaimed to the nations of Israel? Do you see any other place where this message is being thundered to America over and over again? My Key of David television program is on the air all over America, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. God says that the people in these nations will hear the warning. It’s just a matter of them heeding.

Our people need to find God. As America gets further and further from our Maker, it gets closer and closer to rabid predators like Vladimir Putin. That’s why we must sound the trumpet (Hosea 8:1).

Our people continue to rely on themselves. “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof” (verse 14). They trust in their own ingenuity for protection. That will only lead them into a devouring fire!

There are real consequences for getting close to a monster like Vladimir Putin.

“They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned” (Hosea 7:7-8). Hosea is an end-time book. Ephraim refers to the British peoples and also Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. (Request Herbert W. Armstrong’s free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy to prove the identity of these nations in Bible prophecy.)

God says that Britain today is hot as an oven, or steeped in corruption. They are a cake not turned: They look good on the exterior, but they are burned to the core by sin and ready to collapse! If America doesn’t learn some sobering lessons then it will crumble the same way!

Foreign nations like Russia, China, Iran and Germany are devouring Israel’s strength, but Israel doesn’t realize the severity of its condition! (verse 9). What happens when we get closer and closer to Putin? We get further and further away from God! That’s deadly dangerous!

“And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this” (verse 10). God condemns Israel for foolishly seeking alliances with Gentiles instead of with Him. He calls America, Britain and the Jews in the Middle East a silly dove! (verse 11). We have forsaken God. Woe unto us! (verse 13). Only He can save us in these horrifying times.

God will have to teach America a stern lesson through unthinkable trials and tests. “When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard” (verse 12).

When Americans finally wake up to the danger staring them in the face, it will be too late. “They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof” (Ezekiel 7:14). Cyberattacks will cripple our infrastructure, including our military technology, making it impossible to go to war. That is a frightening scenario to think about!

There is good news in the midst of so much gloom. The prophesied prince of Russia and all of these savage Gentile powers are prophesied to lead directly to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! No longer will these armies terrorize the world!