Russian Officials in Putin’s Inner Circle with Controversial Past Actions

It is noted that both “veterans” never fought against Nazi Germany. Julian Hans, a former correspondent for the Züddeutsche Zeitung in Moscow, said that one of them took part in the suppression of the Prague Spring protests, and the second persecuted Ukrainians after the war.

To the left of Putin is Gennady Zaitsev, born in 1934, at the end of the war he was only 11 years old. Journalists found out that he was drafted into the army only in 1953, and after serving in the army he joined the KGB and, as a commander of a special unit, took part in the suppression of the Prague Spring protests in 1968.

“To Putin’s right is Yuri Dvoikin. In 1942, he volunteered for the army, but never got to the front. In 1944 he became a sniper, then, together with the NKVD, pursued Ukrainians,” Hans said.

Russian propaganda publications noted that Dvoikin was a participant in a “deal to eliminate the nationalist underground on the territory of Western Ukraine,” and Zaitsev is called “a legend of domestic special services.”