It’s been 5 months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine and commenced their relentless assault on their far-smaller neighbor. The Western press has centered closely on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who masterminded the invasion over a few years and has overseen its execution.
But Putin isn’t engaged on his personal.
He is surrounded by a cabal of equally ruthless lieutenants simply as keen to deceive the West with bombast and rhetoric.
These henchmen – and occasional girls — should not simply wily, they’re extraordinarily well-compensated thanks to their shut proximity to Putin’s kleptocratic machine. Long-serving and devoted, the Russian chief owes this creepy crew a perverse debt of gratitude for serving to him obtain his horrifying objectives.
Here’s a have a look at the highest seven characters in Putin’s orbit of warfare.
The inheritor obvious
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Security Council, is Putin’s closest advisor, long-time private pal, and the Kremlin hawk who may simply take over the reins of Mother Russia — at the least briefly — if Putin have been to turn out to be incapacitated. Patrushev is extremely influential within the Kremlin forms and is likely one of the principal architects of the Putin doctrine — which seeks to return former Soviet-era states (like Ukraine) to Russian management.
Patrushev is Putin’s evil twin, with each twins, on this case, being evil. Their relationship dates again to 1975, after they labored collectively within the KGB. Like his boss, Patrushev — who’s served as a spy operative for 50 years — has possible licensed focused killings of quite a few Russian “enemies.” Among his victims are former FSB officer and vocal Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in Britain in 2006, together with Chechen separatist leaders hunted down and killed as a part of a counter-terrorism program in the course of the late-Nineteen Nineties.
At 71, Patrushev, like Putin, is a dedicated athlete who repeatedly performs volleyball and swims practically three miles every week. He doesn’t abuse alcohol, which is rare for Russian males, favoring the occasional glass of wine over laborious liquor. He is a workaholic and by no means late for conferences. It’s possible Patrushev helped hatch the plan for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and Putin’s assault towards the remainder of the Ukraine this previous February. Patrushev can also be a rabid anti-American propagandist who lately accused Washington of operating a organic weapons program in Ukraine. Even extra outlandish, he’s urged that the US is planning to drop a nuke on Ukrainian territory after which blame Russia for it.
The speaking head
Dmitriy Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, epitomizes the Russian proverb “You can piss into his eyes and he will say it’s God’s dew.” This maxim describes people who’re so shameless of their skill to inform lies, that they continue to be unfazed even when straight challenged to their face. Peskov has served as Putin’s spokesperson since 2008. His job, basically, is to create an alternate actuality during which Russia’s geopolitical actions are perceived as benign — if not downright righteous — whereas protecting up the atrocities dedicated by Putin and the Kremlin.
Peskov, 54, excels at this job, judging by the truth that most Russians appear to help Putin’s “special operation” into Ukraine — launched, Putin has stated, to “de-Nazify and demilitarize” the nation. Peskov was even ready to trick the Biden safety group into believing that Russia may truly not launch its armies towards Ukraine, inflicting Washington to hesitate till Putin’s forces encircled and attacked the nation on February 24.
Like others in Putin’s world, Peskov has managed to turn out to be a multi-millionaire from repeating his boss’ lies. He owns a $10 million actual property empire, travels on personal jets and yachts, drives luxurious autos and, after all, sports activities designer watches. His third spouse and two grownup kids from a pair of earlier marriages are additionally “bathing in gold,” as one other Russian saying goes, and personal multimillion-dollar houses everywhere in the world. Peskov’s 24-year-old daughter Elizaveta Peskova studied enterprise and advertising in Paris and held internships at Louis Vuitton and with the European Parliament. There are rumors that Peskov could also be divorcing his present spouse, a 47-year-old former Olympic ice-dancing champion Tatyana Navka. Peskov married Navka in 2015 after apparently charming her together with his “elegance and perseverance” in addition to “buoyant” dancing model.
The saucy spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova is the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman and probably the most colourful personalities in Putin’s circle. At 46, she is the primary feminine spokesperson within the historical past of Russia’s Foreign Ministry and has held the job since 2015. Half warrior-half seductress, Zakharova is thought for her combative communication model and the quick-witted barbs that she likes to deploy towards Western officers, typically laden with sexual innuendo. By day, Zakharova’s briefings are crammed with Putin’s lies — similar to portraying Ukraine as being overrun by Nazis and in want of quick liberation by Russian forces. By evening, she floods social media with suggestive selfies carrying bright red lipstick and provocatively poses in strapless dresses. In early July, Zakharova posted a horny video of herself fondling two strawberries together with her mouth and tongue to the tune of the patriotic Russian music “Kalinka,” carried out by the Red Army Choir.
But the principle targets of Putin’s propaganda minister are the Biden Administration, US democracy, and Western values basically. Last month, Zakharova posted on her Telegram channel a weird photograph of two transgender Biden Administration officers, Dr. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary within the Department of Health and Human Services, and Sam Brinton, deputy assistant secretary answerable for nuclear points inside the Department of Energy. In the photograph, which was taken on the French ambassador’s Bastille Day celebration, Rachel Levine sported a “masculine”-styled admiral’s uniform, whereas Sam Brinton wore a extra “feminine”-looking blue, floral patterned gown with a sweetheart neckline, blazer, and blue, strappy heels. “Answer this question honestly: are these the values you would like to impart on your children? Or shall we put up a fight for our own?,” wrote Zakharova, mocking Western liberalism and democracy.
The Media-Maven
Margarita Simonyan, 42 is Putin’s Propaganda Queen. Officially, she is the Editor-in-Chief of RT, Russia’s global network of television channels, web sites, and social media accounts broadcasting to non-Russian talking audiences in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, and Russian. In actuality, Simonyan isn’t any journalist. RT is Putin’s pet undertaking: a Russian state-funded and state-directed information outlet created with the first aim of publishing pro-Kremlin content material to affect overseas, and particularly Western, audiences about Russia and Putin. Putin created RT in 2005 as Russia Today. But in late 2013 Putin issued an Executive Presidential order to “restructure” the network and call it “RT” — concealing RT’s affiliation with Russia.
in Russia, she graduated from highschool with a Gold Medal for high tutorial efficiency, accomplished vocational coaching in broadcasting and later obtained a university degree in journalism.
Putin is on a first-name-basis with Simonyan and certain personally permitted her candidacy for this high-profile position, which she assumed at the age of 25 in 2005. He’s additionally somewhat pleasant together with her: In 2019, throughout a ceremony within the Kremlin, during which Simonyan was given a state award for her patriotic reporting, Putin used the Russian phrase “ty”— which is an indication of familiarity — somewhat than “vy,” which is a extra formal model of the English “you”. Simonyan additionally has a yellow cellphone on her desk with a direct secure line to the Kremlin.
RT content material ranges from “animated genitals,” a dancing vagina and penis — and their pals “laughing breast” and “overly-eager hand” — to Simonyan-issued threats of nuclear war if Russia is denied victory in Ukraine.
The hockey bro
Arkady Rotenberg, 70, a billionaire Russian businessman, has been Putin’s pal because the Nineteen Sixties, when he and his brother, Boris, met a younger Putin of their hometown of St. Petersburg whereas attending a coaching heart for sambo — the Russian martial artwork and fight sport favored by the Soviet navy. As chairman of the chief board of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, Rotenberg repeatedly performs hockey with Putin and was as soon as his judo sparring associate, a sport Putin says reworked him from a younger hooligan right into a statesman. Awarded by Putin with billions of {dollars} in oil and fuel contracts, Rotenberg owns a $38 million yacht, a luxurious resort in Rome, a big property in Surrey, England, and a number of other villas in Italy and France.
The uber-oligarch
Vladimir Potanin, 61 is one other Putin’s pal, hockey associate, and the richest man in Russia, reportedly price $25 billion. Potanin was one of many “Big Seven” Russian oligarchs who helped reelect Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin to the Russian presidency in 1996. Yeltsin, who grew to become the primary Russian president after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, presided over one of many darkest, most tumultuous and chaotic durations in Russian historical past. While the West foolishly anticipated Russia to flip right into a Jeffersonian democracy, Russian leaders schemed to defraud the nation’s main pure useful resource firms. Potanin’s relationship with Putin dates again to 2000, when Yeltsin hand-picked Putin as Russia’s subsequent President, whereas Potanin was busy masterminding the “loans-for-shares” program that enriched oligarchs like himself. As a results of this large fraud, yesterday’s communists become capitalists in a single day, and Russia grew to become a contemporary mafia state dominated by siloviki (intelligence operatives) with just about limitless energy and monetary sources at their disposals.
The tradition kapo
Sergei Pavlovich Roldugin, 70, is a childhood pal of the Russian president who launched Putin to his future, and now former, spouse Lyudmila and is the godfather of their eldest daughter, Maria. A graduate of the Leningrad State Conservatory, Roldugin is an expert cellist who serves in numerous senior positions in St. Petersburg music and humanities organizations, together with the famed Mariinsky Theater and the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. But Roldugin’s position in Putin’s interior circle has nothing to do with mastering Tchaikovsky (although it does assist). Indeed, whereas most of Putin’s inner-circle come from the worlds of espionage, Rodulgin’s artsy background is the proper cowl for safeguarding a portion of Putin’s private fortune — together with up to $2 billion managed through Roldugin’s brother that have been uncovered by the Panama Papers. In his autobiography, Putin says he and Roldugin “met [in 1977] and have never parted. He is just like a brother to me. Before, when I had nowhere to go, I went to him and slept and ate with him.”
The second-generation sycophant
Ramzan Kadyrov is the brutal chief of the Russian province of Chechnya whom Putin lately promoted to lieutenant-general within the Russian navy as a reward for his position within the Ukraine invasion. Like his father, Akhmad Kadyrov — who fought for Chechen independence however then later switched sides — the junior Kadyrov is a staunch Putin supporter. In 2015, he was implicated within the homicide of the outstanding Putin critic Boris Nemtsov who was gunned down on a Moscow bridge whereas he was getting ready a report about Russia’s position within the Crimea battle. Today, Kadyrov is gearing up to ship 4 Chechen battalions to Ukraine to assist replenish exhausted Russian forces. His fighters, referred to as Kadyrovtsy, are feared for his or her viciousness and have been on the hunt for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, presumably to assassinate him. Kadyrov, 45, alongside The Wagner Group’s Dmitry Utkin, is certainly one of Putin’s two principal hitmen exterior of Russia, covertly killing off his boss’ enemies with out getting Putin’s fingers soiled. The Chechen warlord stated in July that he’s standing prepared for Putin’s order to blow Western international locations to “smithereens.”