I'm John Batchel with my colleague and friend Craig Unger, telling stories from the 20th century

that are exceedingly relevant here in the 21st century because Vladimir Putin is in charge of the

Russian Federation and launched the war in Ukraine, and Donald Trump is the re-elected President

of the United States.

Once upon a time, they were servants of much more powerful and well-to-do men.

We've been following Vladimir Putin from his days as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg

to being the chairman of a bank supervisory board, to being vice president of the Russian

Federation under Boris Yeltsin.

Craig, was that an appointment that the mob was okay with, the KGB was okay with putting Putin in

because they surely must have known that he was going to take over?

I think they were absolutely thrilled with it, actually, when you think about it.

I mean, look what's happened since then. And you can look at the Russian oligarchs. I mean,

they are essentially mob bosses. I mean, you know, in America, we had the five families,

so-called five families of the Italian mafia. Think of the oligarchs that way.

There are certainly more than five of them,

but each of them are in charge of very specific industries,

whether it's aluminum, broadcasting, banking, or whatever.

And you then think of Vladimir Putin as the ultimate boss.

It is a mafia state.

And that's why the way they were able to get money to Trump is so important.

Trump at this time was going through multiple bankruptcies.

He was needed to be rescued, and they came in

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