In these heady days when people seem prepared to do anything for power and wealth, it is not unusual for bodyguards to gun down their bosses. Commonsense says then that VIPs who treat their personal staff shabbily may not be particularly wise.
For example, Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, knows a thing or two about the value of personal loyalty. Ask anyone who has ever worked for him.
There are reports that President Putin’s former bodyguards have been rewarded for their loyalty with appointments to key posts, while their families have received high-value land near Moscow. This being so, the chances then are that Putin's personal staff will always be fiercely loyal to him knowing that they are made for life.
64-year-old Viktor Zolotov is an example. About two years ago, Zolotov was named head of Russia’s National Guard and appointed to Russia’s security council. You may recall that Mr Zolotov was responsible for the safety of Mr Putin and his family for more than a decade until 2013.
Mr Putin has sought to fill top security service positions with people he knew and trusted in the aftermath of large opposition protests in the country.
Mr Zolotov and other former presidential bodyguards are said to have received about 18 acres of land worth tens of millions of pounds. The land, in an upmarket district near Mr Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence, previously belonged to a Soviet collective farm founded by the NKVD secret police in the 1920s.
Controversy seems to continue to reverberate around these presidential gifts.
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