Who runs Russia with Putin?

When Vladimir Putin first came to power, he was asked in an interview which of his colleagues he trusted most. He named five people: Nikolai Patrushev Sergei Ivanov Dmitry Medvedev Alexei Kudrin Igor Sechin Fifteen years later, these men still form President Putin's core group and dominate the strategic heights of Russian government and big business: Mr Patrushev was director of the FSB internal security service from 1999 until his appointment as Secretary of the Russian security council in 2008 Mr Ivanov has been Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Since 2011, he has been head of the presidential administration Mr Medvedev was President from 2008-12, forming part of the ruling "tandem" with Mr Putin, and is now Prime Minister Mr Kudrin, Finance Minister until 2011, no longer holds a formal position but still appears to offer advice to the president on financial and economic matters Mr Sechin, who has held senior positions in the presidential administration and government, is chief executive of Rosneft, the state oil company This core group illustrates two important points about who runs Russia. First, there has been continuity in terms of the personnel closest to Mr Putin. Real reshuffles are rare, and very few have been evicted from this core group.