Budanov said who in Russia has more influence over Putin

Putin many years ago surrounded himself with people whose opinion he still considers and does as they advise him. The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, Kyrylo Budanov, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

Budanov noted that the only person who has left this circle is Shoigu. Although his current position as the secretary of national security and defence remains a key position in the Russian government, Shoigu has simply been restricted in his influence. Moreover, he has been deprived of the ability to appoint his deputies. Others do it for him.

At the same time, the role of Nikolai Patrushev, who is listed as Putin's shipbuilding aide and previously headed the Security Council, remains significant in the Kremlin chief's entourage. His office is located in the Kremlin.

In late December, after reports that the Russian special Il-96-300 aircraft spent two days in Washington and New York, Ukrainian diplomat Valeriy Chalyy said that, according to American journalists and experts, it was Patrushev who flew on it and "had certain conversations". And on 14 January, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an interview with Patrushev in which he claims that Ukraine could "cease to exist in 2025," rejects the suggestion that during future negotiations Russia might be willing to cede any territories it occupies to Ukraine, and falsely claims that fictitious "referendums" in occupied areas of Ukraine in September 2022 allegedly "legitimised" Russia's claims to parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Patrushev also said that Russia would consider "international recognition" of the illegal occupation and annexation of four Ukrainian regions and occupied Crimea as one of the conditions for future agreements.

We would like to add that earlier in its investigation, the well-known British publication The Times claimed that the main apologists of a "decisive military strike" against Ukraine were the current head of the FSB, Aleksandr Bortnikov, and one of his predecessors in this position, current adviser to the Russian president, Nikolay Patrushev.