Putin has two groups of people in his inner circle - Portnikov

He shared his opinion live on air with Espreso.

"Putin has two groups of people with whom he has a special relationship. These are two families. One family is the family of Anatoliy Sobchak, whom Putin personally took to France on secret plane when there was a criminal case against Sobchak in Russian Federation. Anatoliy Sobchak then returned to Russia when Putin had already become president, and somehow mysteriously died.  But Putin has a serious relationship with these people, not only with Ksenia Sobchak, who is even his goddaughter, but also with Ksenia's mother, Lyudmila Narusova, by the way, who is a member of Russian Federation Council", the journalist noted.

Vitaliy Portnikov noted that the other family is the Yeltsin family, to whom Putin comes to congratulate with flowers on any anniversaries or birthdays, and they talk to him in a way that no one talks to Putin. And we don't know anything about these people either, where they are or what they are doing, but these people feel safe. And so it happens in a mafia state, which has some intact families.

Portnikov made a comment about departure of Ksenia Sobchak from Russia: "I understand that Ksenia had a quarrel with Tina Kandelaki, another abominable woman. And this Kandelaki, who is engaged in some kind of blackmail in social networks, decided that Sobchak was trying to steal her business, so she used another mafioso, Sergey Chemezov. And they went on the offensive against Ksenia. But when it reaches the king, he stops it and slows down such attacks. Therefore, Sobchak will be careful and will know where her border is. If it turns out that she will go further now, but I don't think so, then it will turn out that the king is not real. So, something happened. And it's not that these families no longer feel that Putin provides security, but they don't feel that he can stay there for a long time, and they stop paying attention to his guarantees or he can no longer give it to them. These are serious changes, but we cannot see them yet".