[imagesource: news.ifeng.com]

Cross a mafioso and you could end up swimming with the fishes.

Go ahead and watch The Sopranos – it wipes the floor with anything that’s on television at present.

In Russia, it’s less likely that you’ll go swimming as you will end up poisoned by a nerve agent, falling out of a building window, or dying via similarly ‘mysterious’ circumstances.

President Vladimir Putin has been in power since 2012 and he’s not going anywhere. Unless rumours of his ill-health are true, he’ll cling to power with everything he has by whatever means necessary.

Alexei Navalny can vouch for that.

During his decade in charge, Putin has turned the country into his personal fiefdom and a total mafia state. The Guardian took a closer look at just how the Russian president has done it:

Luke Harding chronicles the defining moments in Putin’s early presidency that helped turn Russia into a ‘mafia state’ – from the clampdown on the independent media, to shocking assassinations and the emergence of pro-western democratic movements in neighbouring Georgia and Ukraine

All of that unchecked power has now led to the invasion of Ukraine and a war that is nearing 120 days of fighting.

Over to you, Vlad:

[source:guardian]