President Vladimir Putin has carried out a major reshuffling of Russia’s law enforcement to grasp his hold on power, according to a Financial Times report. In the sudden reshuffle, Putin dismissed eight senior law enforcement officials and promoted twelve others who are viewed as Putin loyalists Business Insider UK reports: The reshuffle was first announced on the presidential website on Saturday as an official decree. Among those promoted in the reshuffle, the FT notes, are Alexei Kudrin, who has been a longtime Putin confidant, as well as Igor Krasnov, an investigator into the death of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. The sudden law enforcement reshuffle comes less than a month after Putin similarly made a surprise announcement of the creation of a National Guard. That decision effectively created a new military force within Russia that would report directly to the government. The National Guard will function, according to NYU Global Affairs professor Mark Galeotti, as a sort of maximally loyalist Praetorian guard. The new National Guard will act as both a force to provide security for Putin and his loyalists, as well as serving as a new power lever that would allow Putin to intimidate and keep other Russian elites in line. [...]