No matter what Vladimir Putin says or does before the March 26 elections, his past has sown seeds for enough cynicism.

For a man thrust into the barrel of a cannon, he has not done badly. But to a great extent, the question that was repeatedly asked, "Who is Vladimir Putin?" has been answered.

To answer what Vladmir Putin is, one must understand first what he is not.

He is no economist with the mettle of Yegor Gaidar or Gregory Yavlinsky, no pseudo-academic like Yevgeny Primakov, no dissident like Anatoly Sobchak and no shining torch of democratic values like Andrei Sakharov. He is no Yury Andropov, the man who rose through the ranks to head the KGB, no Vladimir Kruchkov either, who ganged up to silence democracy.

He certainly isn't Boris Yeltsin. He never stuck his head out of a tram, let alone stood atop a tank to go against a whole regime.

Even Mikhail Gorbachev and his perestroika must have seemed painful to Putin during his cozy years in East Germany while he was living a life that most ordinary Russians could only dream of.

But he is no Ivan Ivanov either. Despite having been born in a Kommunalka to ordinary parents, he was smart enough to know that a better life awaited him in the ranks of the secret police, and that's the career he chose and built.

He is no Pavel Borodin or politician of that ilk. Despite having been at the helm of economic affairs in St. Petersburg under a tainted mayor and then having served one of the most corrupt administrations in the world, he maintained a spotless personal image.

If he is a radical reformer, he isn't telling. If he intends to purge the corrupt bureaucracy, cut its ranks and imprison the worst white-collar criminals, he isn't giving any hints. The optimists think it is because he cannot ruffle feathers before the presidential elections, the pessimists have a feeling of ominous foreboding.

It is more likely that Putin is something of a pragmatist and that everything he does is driven by a deeply ingratiated sense of finding practical solutions without hurting many. Like cordoning off a square and staging a mock wreath-laying ceremony by party officials so that dissidents cannot demonstrate and do not need to get hurt either.

True, there isn't much left to describe a man who is none of the above.

And that is precisely what Putin is. A career secret services man, an ordinary officer, deeply patriotic, proud, self-confident and a believer in the power of state. There were thousands of such men, in his own words, and there are thousands still.

He does not pretend to be great. He asks simple and straight questions and insists on equally straight answers. He is unlikely to get any because the system he comes from forbids candidness and puts personal careers ahead of people at large, national interests and good governance.

He commands respect and loyalty through fear of his position and an aura of secretiveness around him. He does not owe it to his intellect or his devotion to any values.

Putin cannot change the system. He was the finest investment in free Russia made by the "firm" nine years ago. He went his own way, most probably resigning from it twice. But having resigned from the KGB ranks does not mean he gave up on its nationalistic pride, its sense of superiority and its warped definition of democracy and a free market.

He subscribes to democracy, a free market, a lawful state, a civil society and an extroverted and friendly Russia. But his subscription to these values is derived from journals and books written for a different academy and a different school than the ones usually read and understood in the Free World.

Putin, at the same time, is growing up as we watch him. He is a quick learner. He is keen and careful. Subtle, yet decisive. He has respect for authority, when wielded well. He will listen to his peers, Western leaders and statesmen. He has little regard for most Russian reformers or democrats.

He is, quintessentially, a Soviet man. An upstanding and self-righteous man of Soviet values that is a model of some of the best of the system that was and under which almost three generations grew up.

And therein lies his appeal to Russian people. Russians, it seems, are about to elect one of their own. And their choice must be respected.