Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy in East Germany, kept in his personal circle former KGB colleagues and people he met in his hometown of St. Petersburg when he worked at the city’s mayor’s office.

Arkady and Boris Rotenberg are childhood friends of Putin. In an interview, Arkady Rotenberg said that he first met Putin at the age of 12, when they went to the same judo course. Both brothers are on the sanctions list of the West. The U.S. Treasury Department says the Rotenbergs benefited from their proximity to Putin, securing contracts for the Sochi Winter Olympics worth about $7 billion.

Vladimir Putin’s daughter Kateryna is married to Kirill Shamalov, the son of Mykola Shamalov, Putin’s old friend from St. Petersburg. Mykola Shamalov is a co-founder of the “Ozero” cooperative, an elite village built near St. Petersburg in the 1990s. Mykola’s son Kirill is considered one of the youngest Russian billionaires.

Dmytro Medvedev is the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. He worked with Putin for mayor Anatoly Sobchak in the early 1990s in St. Petersburg. After Putin moved to Moscow and became prime minister, Medvedev followed him. In 2008, he and Putin agreed on a power-sharing formula. At that time, Putin had already served two terms as president and, according to the Constitution, he was prohibited from serving a third term in a row. Medvedev became president, and Putin became prime minister.

This interactive material presents the top 20 closest people of Vladimir Putin.

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