Status Updates From Путин

Kolesnikov says of his prey: ‘He [Putin] is a very secretive person in all aspects. Closed in a way he was taught in the KGB, and closed in a way a person is closed, based on his natural instincts. I cannot say I know this person.

Orthodox leaders regarded Boris Yeltsin as an atheist. He hardly ever set foot in the small private chapel next to the presidential office, whereas Putin prays there on a daily basis – no mean feat for a man who served so long in the KGB, a body dedicated to atheistic state ideology.

“The incarceration of Putin’s most powerful opponent sent shock waves through the oligarch community. Roman Abramovich, who had bought Chelsea Football Club four months earlier, was in London for the team’s match against Manchester City when he heard the news. Like everyone else, Putin was well aware that the two oil barons – Khodorkovsky of Yukos and Abramovich of Sibneft – had just agreed to merge their companies.