CIRCLING THE WAGON:

Whereas once Putin looked to his former comrades in the KGB and the St. Petersburg administration for his go-to guys, now he is recruiting disproportionately from the people he knows. Given his cloistered lifestyle, that often means bodyguards, personal assistants, and the like. Vaino, for example, was head of his personal protocol office (and even memorably carried his umbrella from time to time).

This, however, does not represent a fundamental change in the system. Putin has always been the unchallenged "decider" presiding over a court of boyars who know their power, wealth and futures depended on the tsar's favour. And while many of the new appointees are not yet well-known, we cannot assume that they are all docile yes-men and colourless ciphers. Today's grateful appointee will likely become tomorrow's arrogant power in the land. The inexorable logic of Putin's personalised, de-institutionalised and essentially ruthless regime is that he must periodically devour his favourites -- where Yakunin and Ivanov go, other past cronies such as Rosneft head Igor Sechin and deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov may well follow -- as they become tiresome, embarrassing or a threat.

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