[T]he system is... mutual support and tribute. It's a system. If you are on a list of possible people who might be approached to be a member of the .… - Karen Dawisha

[Saint] Petersburg... was known as the "bandit's capital," and Putin was regarded by many as the link between organized crime and the mayor's office. ...[H]is activity was investigated by city and federal officials. All... squashed when he came to power.

Sergey Ivanov, Nikolay Patrushev, Aleksandr Grigor’yev, Vladimir Strzhelkovskiy, and were... contemporaries of Putin in the Leningrad in the 1980s. ...Patrushev and Ivanov... remained... closest to him. ...Strzhelkovskiy ...worked in the Leningrad ... In... 1990 he created... Neva ...[later] official travel agency of ...St. Petersburg ...Putin ...named Strzhelkovskiy deputy minister... of ...sports, and tourism, and after 2000... of economic development and trade... In 2008... [he] was named CEO of... ... world’s largest... and [producer]... [with] support... of Putin... [and] ....When he ...resigned in 2012 with a $100 million cash , the New York Times summarized... "...another data point in the shift of corporate wealth and influence away from the first generation ...oligarchs... toward ...former security service agents ...under... Putin."

[Putin] doesn't back down.