Viktor Zolotov

Life and career

Zolotov was born in Leningrad into a working-class family and worked as a steelworker. In the 1990s he was hired as a bodyguard of the Mayor of Saint Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. At this job he met Vladimir Putin, who was a Vice Mayor at this time. Zolotov became a sparring partner of the future President of Russia in boxing and judo, and "whenever Putin appeared in public, Zolotov could be spotted walking directly behind him".

Zolotov also served in Roman Tsepov's private guard service Baltik-Eskort, prior to the poisoning of Tsepov by an unknown radioactive substance. The agency was created in 1992, based on the advice from Zolotov, who allegedly oversaw this agency later as a member of the active reserve, according to Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky. The firm provided protection to high ranking Saint Petersburg officials, including the city mayor Anatoly Sobchak and his family, as well as the vice-mayor Vladimir Putin.

From 2000-2013, he was the Chief of the Security of Prime Minister of Russia and President of Russia Vladimir Putin commanding security officers that are known in Russia as "Men in Black" because they wore black sunglasses and dressed in all-black suits. They use a variety of weapons including portable rocket launchers.

On 5 April 2016, V.Zolotov was appointed as commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Russia and relieved of his previous duties—and by a separate Presidential Decree was named a member of the Security Council.

Hit list controversy

A high-ranking SVR defector, Sergei Tretyakov, asserted that Zolotov and Putin-appointed director of the Federal Protection Service (FSO) General Evgeny Murov had openly discussed how to kill the former chief of Yeltsin's administration, Alexander Voloshin. They also made "a list of politicians and other influential Muscovites whom they would need to assassinate to give Putin unchecked power". However, since the list was very long, Zolotov allegedly announced, "There are too many. It's too many to kill – even for us." This made SVR officers who knew about the story "uneasy", since FSO includes twenty thousand troops and controls the "black box" that can be used in the event of global nuclear war.

Tretyakov described his meeting with Zolotov and Murov in New York. During the meeting, Zolotov suddenly struck Tretyakov in his temple to demonstrate and practice the knowledge of martial arts. Tretyakov fell unconscious and awoke a few minutes later. Murov yelled: "You could have killed him!".

According to Boris Volodarsky, it was Zolotov who masterminded hit operations against both Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko