Rosneft's President Igor Sechin and Vladimir Putin Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images

The Last Silovik?

Igor Sechin, the head of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft and Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-time "number two," is now embroiled in a very public legal squabble. Putin seems to be using the courtroom, yet again, as a platform for clarifying the positions of the Kremlin elite in advance of the 2018 presidential election.

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin’s regime is as sphinxlike as any that has ever ruled Russia, and now there is a new mystery afoot. Is Igor Sechin – perhaps the most powerful of the St. Petersburg siloviki who helped establish Putin’s regime 18 years ago – about to fall?

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