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Let's start with the Siloviki - the security men around Vladimir Putin, most of whom rose up through the ranks of the KGB as he did and have a hawkish, Cold War mindset.

Nikolai Patrushev
Perhaps the most powerful of them all is Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's Security Council.

He told Russia's Kommersant newspaper in 2015 that "the US would prefer Russia not to exist at all as a country. He is also reportedly the Kremlin's informal delegate for the Balkans and is thought to have played a key role in orchestrating the coup in Montenegro in 2016, a bid to stop the country from joining NATO.

Alexander Bortnikov is the current director of the FSB, Russia's domestic intelligence agency and successor to the Soviet spy agency, the KGB.

As the head of perhaps the most important locus of power in the country, Bortnikov maintains an iron grip on Russian life and has been responsible for the tens of thousands of detentions and the dramatic tightening of restrictions on civil society which has gathered pace over the past year, particularly since the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny.

Sergei Naryshkin is the head of the SVR, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Agency.

To a certain extent, the SVR plays second fiddle to the all-powerful FSB which also tramples on foreign turf.

Army General Valery Gerasimov is chief of the general staff.

He is an old-school Soviet general and experienced military strategist.

The Ukrainian invasion plan will have been Gerasimov's remit and any perceived failings will land at his door.