As Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine drags on, Vladimir Putin has frequently cut a lonesome figure. However, his position is supported by a devoted group of followers that hasn't changed much in years.
He is in charge of the invasion as commander in chief, but he is dependent on a close group of people, many of whom started out in Russia's security services.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was a trustworthy and influential ally, but he was never a part of that group. He is now being charged with treason by the president of Russia for orchestrating a mutiny. So who is speaking to the president at this crucial juncture in the war?
The head of the armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, and defence minister Sergei Shoigu have been targeted by Prigozhin for months.
He holds both accountable for the tens of thousands of Russians who died in the conflict in Ukraine. What was once a long-running, sour feud has now become a national crisis.
If anyone has the president's ear, it's his defense minister, a steadfast friend who has accompanied him on hunting and fishing expeditions to Siberia and who was once thought of as a possible successor.
He has obediently followed Putin's lead, initially stating that Russia was disarming Ukraine and later that the "collective West," not Russia, had started the conflict.
It's sometimes unclear how much of President Putin's ear he can actually speak into. In February 2022, three days into the invasion, this extraordinary picture was captured.
Russia's military campaign had hardly begun when it ran into unexpected Ukrainian resistance and low military morale.
Vera Mironova, an expert in armed conflict, stated that Shoigu was expected to march to Kyiv because he is the defense minister and was expected to prevail.
Despite Prigozhin's accusations that he misled the president about the situation in Ukraine, he is nevertheless still an important player in the conflict.
He received credit for leading the military invasion of Crimea in 2014. In addition, he oversaw the GRU military intelligence service, which is suspected of two nerve agent poisonings: the fatal attack in Salisbury, UK, in 2018 and the nearly fatal attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who occurred in Siberia, in 2020.
In close-up, the image appears even worse. According to Ms. Mironova, "It looks like a funeral.".
Although it may appear awkward, Russian security expert and author Andrei Soldatov claims the defense minister is the president's most dependable source of information.
Shoigu is not only in charge of the military; he is also partially in charge of ideology. In Russia, ideology is largely based on history, and he is in charge of the narrative. " .
Invading Ukraine and finishing the job quickly were his responsibilities as chief of staff; by those standards, he fell short.
But there is a reason he has held the position of chief of staff the longest since the Soviet era. Clearly, Vladimir Putin believes in him.
Since 1999, when he oversaw an army during the Chechen War, he has played a significant part in Russian military campaigns. He was also at the forefront of military preparations for Ukraine, supervising pre-war military exercises in Belarus.
Gen. Gerasimov was a key player in the military operation to annex Crimea and was referred to by Russia expert Mark Galeotti as an "unsmiling, craggy bruiser.".
Due to the invasion of Ukraine's rocky beginning and reports of low troop morale, there was initially talk of him being benched.
In May 2022, he was absent from the yearly military parade in Moscow. Yet in January of this year, he was chosen to replace Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who is now his deputy, as commander of forces in Ukraine.
The role of Putin is not to be able to control every road and every battalion, according to Andrei Soldatov.
According to Ben Noble, associate professor of Russian politics at University College London, "Patrushev is the most hawkish hawk, believing the West has been out to get Russia for years.".
Since the 1970s in St. Petersburg, when Russia's second city was still known as Leningrad, he has worked alongside three other Putin partisans.
The other two stalwarts are Sergei Naryshkin, head of foreign intelligence, and Alexander Bortnikov, head of the security service. The inner circle of the president is well known. siloviki. , or enforcers, but this trio is still nearer.
Nikolai Patrushev is one of the few who has such power over the president. He not only collaborated with him in the former KGB during the communist era, but from 1999 to 2008, he served as the FSB's leader in place of him.
Three days before the invasion, Mr. Patrushev attempted to convince the Russian Security Council at a strange meeting that the US's "concrete goal" was the dissolution of Russia.
In the intervening years, he has charged that the US is preparing a "biological war," and that Washington and London are leading the West in an effort to defeat Russia.
He blamed Ukraine, supported by the US, UK, and their Nato allies, for blowing up the Kakhovka dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine in what was likely a Russian attack.
According to Ben Noble, "He is the one who has the main battle cry, and there is a sense in which Putin has moved towards his more extreme position.".
Alexander Bortnikov is thought to be a member of Putin's inner circle, according to Kremlin watchers who claim that the president places more trust in information from the security services than any other source.
He assumed control of the FSB after Nikolai Patrushev left the organization. He was another veteran of the Leningrad KGB. .
Even though it doesn't have its own special forces, the FSB has a lot of influence over other law enforcement agencies.
He is significant, but, in Andrei Soldatov's opinion, he is not there to oppose the Russian president or offer counsel in the same manner as others.
Sergei Naryshkin, the final member of the trio of former Leningrad spies, worked closely with the president for the majority of his career.
That didn't stop President Putin from correcting him on television after he flubbed his lines when asked for his opinion of the situation prior to the war.
The protracted session was edited, so it is obvious that the Kremlin chose to highlight his discomfort in front of a large television audience.
According to Andrei Soldatov, "Putin enjoys making [Naryshkin] look foolish by playing games with his inner circle.".
Sergei Naryshkin has long followed Mr. Putin around, first in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, then in his office in 2004 before rising to become speaker of the parliament. He also serves as the director of the Russian Historical Society, which has been vital in giving the president a set of ideological pillars upon which to base his decisions.
In a previous interview with BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg, he refuted claims that Russia was responsible for cyberattacks, poisonings, and interference in other countries' elections.
Even though he is not thought to play a significant role in decision-making, he has served as Russia's top diplomat for 19 years, representing Russia to the world.
More evidence that Vladimir Putin heavily relies on people from his past can be found in Sergei Lavrov, 73.
When he attempted to defend Russia's invasion days after it started, he probably didn't care that the majority of the UN human rights council left.
Despite having always supported Putin, he is not believed to have any influence over the choices made regarding Ukraine.
His job is to support Russia in Africa, Latin America, and other regions while promoting his nation as a decolonizer.
To portray Ukraine as a "Nazi regime," he has exaggerated Russia's war rhetoric. He claimed that the president of Ukraine's being Jewish had no significance. Hitler may have had Jewish ancestry, but I could be wrong. " .
He was insensitively mistaken, as well.
She oversaw the vote in the upper house to approve the sending of Russian forces abroad, opening the door for invasion. She was a rare female presence in the Putin entourage.
Another Putin ally from St. Petersburg who worked to facilitate the annexation of Crimea in 2014 is Valentina Matvienko.
However, she is not regarded as the main decision-maker. However, very few people can say for sure who is in charge and making the important decisions.
Formerly serving as the president's bodyguard, he is now in charge of Rosgvardia, the Russian national guard that President Putin established in 2016 as a sort of personal army in the manner of a praetorian guard a la the Roman empire.
Viktor Zolotov increased its numbers to a reported 400,000 by selecting his own personal security guard to front it in order to ensure its loyalty.
Despite his lack of military experience, the national guard has a wide range of responsibilities to control the areas of Ukraine that are occupied behind the front line and is said to have suffered significant losses.
The Prigozhin crisis would depend heavily on the actions of Russia's security forces, "especially the national guard," according to the UK's defense intelligence.
Mr. Prime Minister. Mr. Mishustin. has the unenviable responsibility of saving the economy but little control over the war.
Moscow's mayor. Svetlana Sobyanin. and the president of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft. Mr. Igor Sechin. political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko claims that are also close to the president.
brothers who make billions. Rotenbergs, Boris and Arkady. , who have been the president's close confidants for a long time, were childhood friends. According to Forbes magazine, they were Russia's wealthiest family in 2020.
BBC Russian's Olga Ivshina and Kateryina Khinkulova contributed additional reporting.
