Putin grew up among gopniks - the creator of "Masyanya" Oleg Kuvaev

Oleg Kuvaev spoke about this in an interview for the FREEDOM marathon.

In St. Petersburg there has always been a stratification of people who were called, roughly speaking, normal people and gopniks. There were people who went to physics and mathematics schools, to English schools, French schools, and there was a gopota who, after the eighth grade, went to vocational schools and often earned a living by crime, so to speak. This is a completely simple social stratum with which you had to be always on the alert, - said Kuvaev.

Kuvaev spoke about how the gopniks of St. Petersburg came to power.

The layer of gopniks was distinguished by certain behavior and criminal schemes. Over time, they became the St. Petersburg mafia, and later they came to power headed by Putin,” said Oleg Kuvaev.