Those Darned Ruskies

The story of The Rus is a great tale of adventure & derring do. 

From Wiki:-

'The Rus', were a people in early medieval Eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between the Baltic and the Black Seas from around the 8th to 11th centuries AD.'

There is a heck of a lot more boring stuff on that page, but I'll spare you. 

Soon, the preferred term for these bloodthirsty freebooters became 'Varangians'.

'The Varangians are first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859. It was the time of rapid expansion of the Vikings' presence in Northern Europe; England began to pay Danegeld in 865,and the Curonians faced an invasion by the Swedes around the same time.'

As well as stealing Kyiv, The Rus travelled at least as far as Constantinople, where the emperor was so impressed with their valor & fighting prowess that he employed them as his personal guard. Known as 'The Varangian Guard' these badasses were feared far & wide.

The Rus' provided the earliest members of the Varangian Guard. They were in Byzantine service from as early as 874. The Guard was first formally constituted under Emperor Basil II in 988, following the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Vladimir I of Kiev. Vladimir, who had recently taken control of Kiev with an army of Varangian warriors, sent 6,000 men to Basil as part of a military assistance agreement. Basil's distrust of the native Byzantine guardsmen, whose loyalties often shifted with fatal consequences, as well as the proven loyalty of the Varangians, many of whom had previously served in Byzantium, led the Emperor to employ them as his personal guardsmen.

An idea of their exploits is given here by wiki, again. I love the nutty names, & the continent  spanning interconnectivity of them all. I can recommend the Wiki about them here Varangian_Guard

The Swedish king Anund Jakob wanted to assist Yaroslav the Wise, Grand prince of Kiev, in his campaigns against the Pechenegs. The so-called Ingvar the Far-Travelled, a Swedish Viking who wanted to conquer Georgia, also assisted Yaroslav with 3000 men in the war against the Pechenegs; however, he later continued on to Georgia. Yaroslav the Wise married the Swedish king's daughter, Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden, who became the Russian saint, Anna, while Harald Hardrada, the Norwegian king who was a military commander of the Varangian guard, married Elisiv of Kiev. The two first uncontroversially historical Swedish kings Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung both had Slavic wives. Danish kings and royals also frequently had Slavic wives. For example, Harald Bluetooth married Tove of the Obotrites. Vikings also made up the bulk of the bodyguards of early Kievan Rus' rulers.

They even went on to create a system where mobile phones could communicate with each other. 

I think 'Vlad the Bad' Putin sees himself as the descendant of these rugged adventurers, although I'm sure that modern Swedes would want nothing to do with him.