Vladimir Putin was once hit with an emotional blow after his 'second father' who helped shape his future died after what was believed to be a long illness.
Years before the warmongering Russian President launched a bloody and cruel assault on neighbouring Ukraine, he was pictured in sombre, emotional scenes at a service in memory of former judo coach Anatoly Rakhlin.
This was a man he famously credited for saving him from a wayward life on the mean streets of Leningrad - now Saint Petersburg - and for being a " mentor" during his youth.
Rakhlin, who once said he was Putin's "second father" having coached him for 11 years, died at the age of 75 in 2013 after half a century of training others. He was also said to have raised more than 100 masters of sport.
The mentor was invited for a private lunch at the Kremlin as Putin came to power in 2000 - five years before his death, which was described as a "irreplaceable loss" by the tyrant.
Rakhlin’s career as a coach began with the training of boys but he later became the head coach of the Russian women’s national judo team in 2009.
At the time of the coach's death, in a telegram of condolence posted on the presidential website, Putin said that he was deeply saddened by Rakhlin's death and that it represented "a big, irreplaceable loss for all of us."
"Anatoly Solomonovich was a robust, strong-willed, smart and whole-hearted man, he was respected and loved by his colleagues and friends and, certainly, trainees, for whom Anatoly Solomonvich [Rakhlin] was a true teacher and a careful mentor in sports and life,” the president said.
He added that the memory of the coach “will live forever in our hearts.”
According to The Moscow Times, the Russian leader laid flowers at Rakhlin's grave in St. Petersburg and spent time, with his head bowed, standing next to his former coach's coffin.
"We're now thinking about how to immortalize his memory. Maybe there'll be a monument or something else," said State Duma Deputy Vasily Shestakov, who as a young man sparred with Putin under Rakhlin's tutelage.
In the book titled 'In the First Person. Talks with Vladimir Putin ', it described how the future president became acquainted with Rakhlin by going to the wrestling club in Leningrad.
“This was a common sports hall, which belonged to the sports society Trud. There I had a very good coach - Anatoly Semenovich Rakhlin,” Putin said.
The Russian leader credits his coach with playing a decisive role in his.
“If I had not been going in for sports, I do not know which turn my life would have taken," he said.
"This is Anatoly Semenovich (Solomonovich) actually protected me from the influence of the groups of young people in the streets. Frankly speaking, the situation was far from being good there."
Rakhlin helped to trained Putin for 15 years, starting when the future KGB colonel and Russian leader was 13.
Their bond was so close that Rakhlin was called by the Kremlin for a private lunch with the president the day after his inauguration in 2000, according to a profile of Putin in Vanity Fair published that year.
Putin presented Rakhlin with a "medal of honour" for his achievements in Russian judo on the coach's 75th birthday last May.
