PUTIN’S PEOPLE: Who is the Russian president listening to?

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Just as Russia has been plunged into isolation, never before experienced by an economy of such size, it appears its leader is also going it alone.

President Vladimir Putin has a 30-member security council but photos circulating as of late show how physically distant he is from his advisors.

Putin has always been able to depend on a loyal entourage, but with many questioning what’s going on in the president’s mind, it begs the question, who is actually in his inner circle as he leads Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

Whoever they are, it may all be at the high risk of sacrificing his own country’s economy.

Sergei Shoigu

The Minster of Defence is a longtime confidante of Putin, whose opinion lines up with the president’s in that Ukraine should be demilitarized and its western allies are a military threat.

“Shoigu is not only in charge of the military, he’s also partly in charge of ideology — and in Russia, ideology is mostly about history and he’s in control of the narrative,” Russian security expert and writer Andrei Soldatov told the BBC.

Valery Gerasimov

He’s the Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, so naturally it was his job to invade Ukraine and get the task done quickly and efficiently — though many argue that despite turning its cities and villages into wastelands, and hundreds Ukrainian civilians and Russian soldiers killed in the last week, Gerasimov is reportedly being “sidelined” because of the slow start to the invasion and poor morale among Russia’s troops.

Nikolai Patrushev

The Secretary of Russia’s Security Council has served with Putin since the ‘70s, back when St. Petersburg was known as Leningrad. They worked together in the KGB during the Communist era, he replaced him as head of its successor organisation, the FSB, from 1999 to 2008.

“Patrushev is the most hawkish hawk, thinking the West has been out to get Russia for years,” says Ben Noble, Associate Professor of Russian Politics at University College London.
“He’s the one who has the chief battle cry, and there’s a sense in which Putin has moved towards his more extreme position.”

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Patrushev, along with security service chief Alexander Bortnikov and foreign intelligence head Sergei Naryshkin, are known as “siloviki” or enforcers. Bortnikov and Naryshkin, while important, won’t challenge Putin or advise him in the same way as others.

Sergei Lavrov

Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs is the man, the mouthpiece who presents Russia’s case to the world — even if he doesn’t really have a role in the actual decision-making, reports the BBC. In fact, Lavrov advocated for further diplomatic talks on Ukraine but Putin ignored him.

Viktor Zolotov

Putin’s former bodyguard was tasked with running Rosgvardia, Russia’s National Guard, which Putin formed six years ago. There are now a reported 400,000 guards, thanks to Zolotov, despite having zero military training or experience which has allowed his force to be vulnerable to attack.

Valentina Matviyenko

The lone female in Putin’s entourage, as the Chairwoman of the Federation Council, Matviyenko oversaw the vote for the deployment of Russian forces abroad, essentially kick-starting the invasion. While she is not considered to be a primary decision-maker, it’s still not entirely known who is.