On 12 May, President Vladimir Putin appointed General Viktor Zolotov as First Deputy Interior Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Interior Ministry Forces (terrorism, the fight against crime and law enforcement).

Viktor Zolotov - the former bodyguard of Anatoly Sobchak (then mayor of Saint-Petersburg) - was in charge of Vladimir Putin’s personal safety for 13 years, from 2000 to 2013.

He is part of a group of Vladimir Putin’s judo partners going back to his St. Petersburg days, including three oligarchs - the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko (Volga Group investment company and the oil trading Gunvor Group) - as well as two politicians Yuri Trutnev (Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and Presidential Envoy entrusted with the development of Siberia) and Sergei Kiriyenko (Boris Yeltsin’s former Prime Minister and head of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation).