Recruiting leaders in Russia
The poisoning of former Russian spy Litvinenko has drawn attention to the role of Russia's security forces inside and outside of Russia. The Gazprom takeover of a major Shell Oil project near Sakhalin island might attract more attention to those FSB-related officials. Journalists now have more things to write about that appear to be undemocratic and conspiracy-like.
Political scientists have been aware of the role of the "security forces" in Putin's government for a long time. The Washington Post article excerpted here provides some details to flesh out what your textbook says on the topic.
In Russia, A Secretive Force Widens - Putin Led Regrouping Of Security Services
"On Nov. 15, the Russian Interiaor Ministry and Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant, announced three new senior appointments...
"All three men had something important in common beyond the timing of their promotions: backgrounds as KGB officers and experience working directly with President Vladimir Putin when he was a KGB operative...
"Russia's intertwined political and business elites are increasingly populated with people like them, former intelligence agents who have personally proved themselves to the president. At the same time, Putin has spearheaded the regrouping and strengthening of the country's security services, which had splintered into a host of agencies after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991.
"In particular, the Federal Security Service, known by its Russian initials FSB, has emerged as one of the country's most powerful and secretive forces, with an increasingly international mission...
"Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites... recently analyzed the official biographies of 1,016 leading political figures... She found that 26 percent had reported serving in the KGB or its successor agencies.
"A more microscopic look at the biographies, she said -- examining unexplained gaps in résumés, unlikely career paths or service in organizations affiliated with the KGB -- suggests the startling figure of 78 percent...
"The FSB's multiple briefs include intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, economic crime, electronic espionage, border control, social monitoring and, some observers claim, responsibility for the country's computerized election system.
"Many outsiders have also asserted that the agency plays a key role in crafting some of the legislation the government submits to parliament on a broad range of subjects...
"The FSB's budget continues to grow rapidly...
"'There are more and more issues which you cannot decide without the resolution of the FSB,' said Ivan Safranchuk, Moscow director of the World Security Institute, a research organization..."
More on the Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB) from Global Security.
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:52 AM
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Russia: Expert Eyes Security Ties Among Siloviki (from the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty web site)
"Russia today [20 December] celebrates the 'day of officials of state security agencies,' known in the past as 'Chekists' Day.' RFE/RL correspondent Claire Bigg takes the opportunity to speak to Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites at the Russian Academy of Sciences, who comments on her findings regarding the strong ties between the security services and the current composition of the Russian government elite.
"RFE/RL: Your newly released study shows that 78 percent of Russia's elite show signs of being siloviki -- as former military or security service officials are known. Please tell us how you conducted this study.
"Kryshtanovskaya: Today, 26 percent of the current Russian elite are people who used to work in military institutions, including secret services. The 78 percent figure comes from my special analysis of the resumes of all those belonging to the Russian elite.
"A number of them used to work in so-called affiliated structures -- structures that were connected to the KGB during the Soviet era -- and it is fully possible that they too [had ties with the KGB]. But this is not a precise figure.
"RFE/RL: During the Soviet era, power structures focused primarily on security issues. To which spheres have the siloviki extended their influence?
"Kryshtanovskaya: Most of them work in the sphere of security. But what is new, what emerged toward the end of Brezhnev's rules and intensified under Putin, is the fact that siloviki expanded to spheres that are not traditional for them -- politics and economics, both on a governmental level and in state-related companies.
"RFE/RL: How is the mounting presence of siloviki among decision makers affecting Russia's course?
"Kryshtanovskaya: The current authorities, President Putin and his entourage -- which consists largely of siloviki -- creates a mixed impression. On one hand, a lot of positive things have been done; the country is stable, people are more satisfied with life than they were in the 1990s. On the other hand, however, problems have emerged with regard to the democratic progress. This process has simply stalled, and in some instances it actually reversed.
"Signs of the siloviki mindset are now visible both in domestic policy and foreign policy. The current policy is built on the search for enemies. Russia's foreign policy has taken a negative tack. Our population no longer knows who Russia's friends are. We carried out a poll recently. People named Russia's enemies with great enthusiasm, and the United States of course topped the list. But when asked who Russia's friends are, they had difficulties answering and after some hesitations they named only Belarus. This is linked to the mentality of the group of people who craft such policies."
Also from the RFE/RL web site:
The KGB's Post-Soviet 'Commercialization'
"Russia today [20 December] is honoring workers in the state security agencies -- a professional holiday better known by its Soviet-era appellation, 'Chekists' Day' -- as the legacy of the KGB grows increasingly commercial -- and criminal...
"Before it was disbanded in 1991, the KGB was a massive organization, employing over half a million uniformed officers as well as a network of millions of informers. "A highly disciplined and militarized service, it controlled almost every aspect of life in the USSR and adhered with utmost loyalty to the Communist Party line, even across state borders. Its status and operation was strictly directed by 5,000 party documents...
"But the KGB monolith could not survive the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was ultimately divided into several new organizations, including the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protection Service (FSO), and the body considered the true KGB successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB). "Many KGB officials evolved into new positions within those bodies. Tens of thousands of others reappeared in positions of political and entrepreneurial power. "The KGB was never officially condemned for its Soviet-era crimes, making it easy for many top security officials to make the transition to the world of politics -- Russian President Vladimir Putin being the most obvious.
"Those not in politics have also found numerous ways to make a living -- most notably by opening the private security companies that mushroomed in privatization-era Russia, or by entering the service of the oligarchs, who employed hundreds of former KGB officers to provide both security and intelligence. "Not surprisingly, the largest of these private security groups is the one at the disposal of Russia's aggressive Gazprom monopoly.
"Observers have dubbed this dubious partnership between business interests and security officers the 'privatization of the KGB.'...
"Another example of the growing commercial mind-set of the KGB heirs is their inevitable commingling with Russia's ascendent criminal element. In many areas, the lines between organized crime and the work of security groups has grown gray. In Putin's Russia, there is virtually no administrative or civilian control over security agencies..."
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