Federal Security Service

For other uses, see FSB.

Emblem of FSB

The FSB (Federal Security Service) (Russian: ФСБ, Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности) is the leading secret police organization of Russian Federation and main successor of Checka, NKVD, and KGB. Its headquarters are still in Lubyanka Square, Moscow.

Overview

FSB is engaged mostly in domestic affairs, while the espionage duties were taken over by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (former First Chief Directorate of the KGB). However FSB also includes FAPSI agency, which is involved in electronic surveillance abroad. In addition, FSB operates freely at the territories of the former Soviet republics, and it can conduct anti-terrorist military operations anywhere in the World if ordered by the President, according to the recently adopted terrorism law. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under guidance of FSB if needed. For example, GRU, spetsnaz and Internal Troops detachements of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs work together with FSB in Chechnya.

FSB is responsible for internal security of the Russian state, counterespionage, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling. However, critics claim that it is actually more engaged in suppression of internal dissent, bringing the entire population of Russia under total control, and influencing important political events, just as the KGB did in the past. To achieve these goals, FSB implements mass surveillance and a variety of active measures, including disinformation, propaganda through the state-controlled mass media, provocations, and persecution of opposition politicians, investigative journalists, and dissidents.

FSB is a very large organization that combines functions and powers like those exercised by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Protective Service, the Secret Service, the National Security Agency (NSA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States Coast Guard, and Drug Enforcement Administration. FSB also commands a contingent of Internal Troops, spetsnaz, and an extensive network of civilian informants . The number of FSB personnel and the budget remain state secret, although the budget was reported to jump nearly 40% in 2006.

Some observers note that FSB is more powerful than KGB was, because it does not operate under the strict political control of the Communist Party, as KGB did in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the FSB leadership and their partners own most important economic assets in the country and control Russian government and State Duma. Some critics argue that FSB is now the leading political force in Russia, which simply replaced the Communist Party. Others claim that FSB became an international criminal organization that actually promotes and perpetrates the terrorism and organized crime in order to achive its political and financial goals, instead of fighting the terrorism and crime.

Officially stated FSB activities

Counterintelligence

FSB Director Nikolay Kovalev said in 1996: "There has never been such a number of spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II." FSB reported that around 400 foreign intelligence agents were uncovered in 1995 and 1996. In 2006 FSB reported about 27 foreign intelligence officers and 89 foreign agents whose activities were stopped.

Federal Border Guard Service

Federal Border Guard Service (FPS) is part of the FSB. Russia has 61,000 kilometers of sea and land borders, 7,500 kilometers of which is with Kazakhstan, and 4,000 kilometers with China. One kilometer of border protection costs around 1 million rubles per year. Vladimir Putin called on the FPS to increase the fight against international terrorism and "destroy terrorists like rats".

Anti-terrorist operations

Over the years, FSB and affiliated state security organizations killed all elected and appointed presidents of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria including Dzhokhar Dudaev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Aslan Maskhadov, and Abdul-Khalim Saidullaev. Just before his death, Saidullaev claimed that Russian government "treacherously" killed Maskhadov, after inviting him to "talks" and promising his security "at the highest level."

A few douzens of people have been convicted in courts for alleged terrorist activities or "promoting national hatred". Islamist guerrilla leader Shamil Basaev was claimed to be killed by FSB forces, but his death was a result of an accident with explosives according to Chechen sources. During Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan school hostage crisis, all hostage takers were executed on spot by FSB spetsnaz forces. Only one of the suspects, Nurpasha Kulaev, had survived and was convicted later in the court. It was reported that more than 100 leaders of terrorist groups have been killed during 119 opertaions on North Caucasus during 2006.

On July 28, 2006 the FSB presented a list of 17 organizations, recognized as terrorist by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, to Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, that published the list on that day. It was available previously, but only on individual requests. Commenting the list, Yuri Sapunov, head of anti-terrorism at the FSB, named three main criteria necessary for organizations to be listed.

Fight with corruption and organized crime

FSB cooperates with Interpol and other national and international law-enforcement agencies. It provided information on many Russian criminal groups that operate in Europe. FSB was also involved in preparation of requests to extradite high-profile suspects who escaped abroad, such as Aleksander Litvinenko, Oleg Kalugin, Akhmed Zakayev, Leonid Nevzlin, and Boris Berezovsky. However, these requests have been denied by UK, US, and Israeli courts.

Criticizm of FSB actions

Alleged coup organized by FSB

Main article: Russian apartment bombings

Starting from 1998, people from state security services came to power as Prime Ministers of Russia: a KGB veteran Yevgeny Primakov; former FSB Director Sergei Stepashin; and finally former FSB Director Vladimir Putin who was appointed in August 8 1999.

Just two days after the appointment of Putin, Shamil Basaev began incursion to Dagestan which was regarded by Anna Politkovskaya as a provocation intitiated from Moscow to start war in Chechnya . In September 4 a series of four Russian apartment bombings has began. Three FSB agents were caugth while planting a large bomb at the basement of an apartment complex in the town of Ryazan in September 22. That was last of the bombings. Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Rushailo congratulated police with preventing the terrorist act, but FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev had declared that the incident was a training exercise just an hour later, when he had learned that the FSB agents are caught.

Next day, Boris Yeltsin received a demand from 24 Russian governors to transfer all state powers to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to Sergei Yushenkov Second Chechen War began in September 24. This war made Prime Minister Vladimir Putin very popular, although he was previously unknown to the public, and helped him to win a landslide victory in the presidential elections in March 26 2000.

That was a successful coup d'état organized by the FSB to bring Vladimir Putin to power, according to former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, lawmaker Sergei Yushenkov, and journalist David Satter, a Johns Hopkins University and Hoover Institute scholar . All attempts to independently investigate the Russian apartment bombings were unsuccessful. Journalist Artyom Borovik died in a suspicious plane crash. Vice chairmen of Sergei Kovalev commission created to investigate the bombings Sergei Yushenkov was assassinated. Another member of this comission Yuri Shchekochikhin died presumably from poisoning by thallium. Investigator Mikhail Trepashkin hired by relatives of victims was arrested and convicted by Russian authorities for allegedly disclosing state secrets.

FSB as ruling political elite

According to former Russian Duma member Konstantin Borovoi, "Putin's appointment is the culmination of the KGB's crusade for power. This is its finale. Now the KGB runs the country." Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites, have found that 78% of 1,016 leading political figures in Russia served previously in organizations affiliated with KGB or FSB . She said: "If in the Soviet period and the first post-Soviet period, the KGB and FSB people were mainly involved in security issues, now half are still involved in security but the other half are involved in business, political parties, NGOs, regional governments, even culture... They started to use all political institutions." "Like cockroaches spreading from a squalid apartment to the rest of the building, they have eventually gained a firm foothold everywhere," said Sergei Grigoryants, a Soviet dissident.

This is very similar to situation in the former Soviet Union where all key positions in the government were occupied by members of the Communist Party. The KGB or FSB members usually remain in the "active reserve" even if they formally leave the organization. As Vladimir Putin said, "There is no such thing as a former KGB man" . GRU defector and writer Victor Suvorov explained that members of Russian security services can leave such organizations only in a coffin, because they know too much. Putin also claimed soon after becoming prime minister of Russia that "A group of FSB colleagues dispatched to work undercover in the government has successfully completed its first mission." .

The idea about KGB as a political force rather than a security organization has been discussed by journalist John Barron, historian Victor Suvorov, retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin , and Evgenia Albats, a Harvard graduate and writer on KGB subjects, who was assigned to examine the KGB archives after the failed Soviet coup attempt of 1991. According to Albats, most KGB leaders, including Lavrenty Beria, Yuri Andropov, and Vladimir Kryuchkov, have always struggled for the power with the Communist Party and manipulated the communist leaders. Moreover, FSB has formal membership, military discipline, an extensive network of civilian informants , hardcore ideology, and support of population (60% of Russians trust FSB ), which makes it a perfect totalitarian political party However the FSB party does not advertise its leading role because the secrecy is an important advantage.

With regard to death of Aleksander Litvinenko, the highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa stated that there is "a band of over 6,000 former officers of the KGB — one of the most criminal organizations in history — who grabbed the most important positions in the federal and local governments, and who are perpetuating Stalin’s, Khrushchev’s, and Brezhnev’s practice of secretly assassinating people who stand in their way."

Suppression of internal dissent

Many Russian opposition lawmakers and investigative journalists have been assassinated while investigating corruption and alleged crimes conducted by FSB and state authorities: Sergei Yushenkov, ‎Yuri Shchekochikhin, Galina Starovoitova, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, Paul Klebnikov, Nadezhda Chaikova, Nina Yefimova, and many others , . Former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky believes that murders of writers Yuri Shchekochikhin (author of "Slaves of KGB" [1]), Anna Politkovskaya, and Aleksander Litvinenko show that FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations [2] which were conducted in the past by Thirteenth KGB Department. Just before his death, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya.

An increasing number of scientists are accussed in espionage and illegal technology exports by FSB during the last decade: researcher Igor Sutyagin, physicist Valentin Danilov , physical chemist Oleg Korobeinichev , academician Oskar Kaibyshev , and physicist Yury Ryzhov . Some other widely covered cases of political prosecution include investigator Mikhail Trepashkin , and journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov , who have been convicted solely for his writings, just as Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel. All these people are either under arrest or serve long jail sentences. Human rights groups also identified Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a political prisoner.

Ecologist and journalist Alexander Nikitin, who worked with Bellona Foundation, was accused in espionage. He published material exposing hazards posed by the Russian Navy's nuclear fleet. He was acquitted in 1999 after spending several years in prison (his case was sent for re-investigation 13 times while he remained in prison). Other cases of prosecution are the cases of investigative journalist and ecologist Grigory Pasko , Vladimir Petrenko who described danger posed by military chemical warfare stockpiles, and Nikolay Shchur, chairman of the Snezhinskiy Ecological Fund

Other arrested people include Viktor Orekhov, a former KGB officer who assisted Soviet dissidents, Vladimir Kazantsev who disclosed illegal purchases of eavesdropping devices from foreign firms, and Vil Mirzayanov who had written that Russia was working on a nerve gas weapon

Political dissidents from the former Soviet republics, such as totalitarian Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, are often arrested by FSB and extradited to these countries for prosecution, despite to protests from international human rights organizations. Special services of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaidjan also kidnap people at the Russian territory, with the implicit approval of FSB

There are credible reports that FSB use drugs to erase memory of people who had access to secret information

Criticism of anti-terrorist operations

Use of excessive force by FSB spetsnaz was criticized with regard to resolving Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan hostage crisis. According to Sergey Kovalev, Russian government kills its citizens without any hesitation. He provided the following examples: murdering of hostages by the poison gas during Moscow theater hostage crisis; burning school children alive by spetsnaz soldiers who used RPO flamethrowers during Beslan school hostage crisis; crimes committed by death squads in Chechnya; and assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev . Anna Politkovskaya and Irina Hakamada, who conducted unofficial negotiations with terrorists, stated that the hostage takers were not going to use their bombs to kill the people and destroy the building during Moscow theater hostage crisis [3]. This was supported by the subsequent events when the Chechens did not use their bombs.

Former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko stated in a June 2003 interview, with the Australian SBS television programme Dateline, that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis — whom he named as "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar" — were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack. Litvinenko said: "[w]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organised the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." The story about FSB connections with the hostage takers was confirmed by Mikhail Trepashkin. Investigative journalists also accused FSB in staging many smaller terrorism acts, such as market place bombing in the city of Astrakhan, bus stops bombings in the sity of Voronezh, and the blowing up the Moscow-Grozny train , whereas innocent people were convicted or killed.

According to Anna Politkovskaya, most of the "Islamic terrorism cases" were fabricated by the government, and the confessions have been obtained through the torture of innocent suspects. "The plight of those sentenced for Islamic terrorism today is the same as that of the political prisoners of the Gulag Archipelago... Russia continues to be infected by Stalinism", she said. . Many journalists and workers of international NGOs are reported to be kidnapped by FSB-affiliated forces in Chechnya who pretended to be Chechen terrorists: Andrei Babitsky from Radio Free Europe, Arjan Erkel and Kenneth Glack from Doctors Without Borders, and others

Alleged involvement in organized crime

Former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko accused FSB personnel in involvement in organized crime, such as drug trafficking and contract killings.

International affairs

FSB collaborates very closely with secret police services from some former Soviet Republics, especially Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan FSB works to undermine governments of Baltic states and Georgia . During 2006 Georgian-Russian espionage controversy several Russian GRU officers were accused by Georgian authorities in prepartions to commit sabotage and terrorist acts. Historian J. R. Nyquist believes that "The KGB president of Russia wants to reestablish the USSR. Whether America likes it or not, this very fact leads us to a new Cold War."

Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission Richard Butler found than many Russian state-controlled companies are involved in the Oil-for-Food Programme-related fraud. As a part of this affair, former FSB Director Yevgeny Primakov had received large kickbacks from Saddam Hussein according to Butler [4]. KGB, FSB and Russian government had very close relationships with Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Intelligence Service Mukhabarat according to Yossef Bodansky, the Director of Research of the International Strategic Studies Association.

Critics claim that Russian government led by former FSB Director Vladimir Putin is providing modern military technology to the outcast governments and terrorist organizations worldwide. Modern Russian-made anti-tank weapons played significant role in Hezbollah operations against Israel Defense Forces during 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Former Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa said that "Israel has been attacked with Soviet Kalashnikovs and Katyushas, Russian Fajr-1 and Fajr-3 rockets, Russian AT-5 Spandrel antitank missiles and Kornet antitank rockets." Some FSB-affiliated GRU detachments from Chechnya were transfered to Lebanon independently on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, where they allegedly conducted intelligence missions together with Hezbollah after the conflict. Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir revealed that Russia and Iran are providing weapons and money to the Taliban in 2006, according to his sources in Afganistan government

It is also possible that Russian government promotes the Nuclear program of Iran to use Iran as proxy against the West. Yossef Bodansky and some others even claim that Iran may have already purchased nuclear warheads from Russia

History

Initial reorganization of KGB

Following the attempted coup of 1991 against Mikhail Gorbachev, the KGB was dismantled and formally ceased to exist after November 1991. Its successor, the FSK (Federalnaya Sluzhba Kontrrazvedki (Федера́льная Слу́жба Контрразве́дки), Federal Counterintelligence Service) was reorganized into the FSB by the Federal Law of April 3, 1995, "On the Organs of the Federal Security Service in the Russian Federation", making the new FSB a more powerful organization.

This law described the FSB role in the regions:

• Clarified the FSB role in the Armed Forces
• Gave the FSB director ministerial status and the rank of army general
• Allowed it to conduct intelligence work and to protect Russian citizens and enterprises abroad
• Obliged the FSB to inform the president and the prime minister about national threats
• Gave the FSB powers of detention and the right to enter any premises or property "if there is sufficient evidence to suppose that a crime is being been perpetrated there" without a warrant
• Permitted the FSB to set up special units, carrying firearms, and to train security personnel in private companies
• Established the control structures over the FSB.

The FSB reforms were rounded out by Edict 633, signed by Boris Yeltsin on June 23, 1995. The edict made the tasks of the FSB more specific, giving the FSB substantial rights to conduct cryptographic work, and described the powers of the FSB director. The number of deputy directors was increased to 8: 2 first deputies, 5 deputies responsible for departments and directorates and 1 deputy director heading the Moscow City and Moscow regional directorate. Yeltsin appointed Colonel-General Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov as the new director of the FSB.

1997

In May 1997, the FSB was reorganized again following a political power struggle. The FSB structure was changed into five departments and six directorates:

• Counterintelligence Department
• Anti terrorist Department
• Analysis, Forecasts and Strategic Planning Department
• Personnel and Management Department
• Operational Support Department
• Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of the Activity of Criminal Organizations
• Investigation Directorate
• Operational-Search Directorate
• Operational-Technical Measures Directorate
• Internal Security Directorate
• Administration Directorate
• Prison
• Scientific-Technical centre

The FSB was not to recruit civilian personnel and the number of places offered by the FSB Academy was cut back.

2004

In mid-2004, the FSB was restructured by order of President Putin, as follows:

• Director: General Nikolai Patrushev
• Press/Public Relations Service:
• Executive Directorate:
• First Deputy Director - Border Service: Viktor Pronichev
• First Deputy Director: Sergei Smirnov
• Deputy Director: Vyacheslav Ushakov
• Deputy Director: Vladimir Anisimov
• Investigation Directorate: Yuri Anisimov
• Military Counter Intelligence Directorate: Aleksandr Bezverkhny
• FSB Border Service: Viktor Pronichev
• Counter Intelligence Service: Oleg Syromolotov
• Service For The Protection Of The Constitutional System & The Fight Against Terror: Aleksandr Bragin
• Economic Security Service: Aleksandr Bortnikov
• Organizational & Personnel Service: Yevgeniy Lovyrev
• Analysis, Forecasting & Strategic Planning Service: Viktor Komogorov
• Control Service: Aleksandr Zhdankov
• Science & Technology Service: Nikolai Klimashin
  • FSB Academy:
  • National Cryptology Academy:

Heads of the FSB or equivalent

On June 20, 1996, Yeltsin fired the Director, Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov and appointed Nikolay Dmitrevich Kovalev, to Acting Director and later to Director of the FSB. Russian president Vladimir Putin was head of the FSB from July 1998 to August 1999.

Lubyanka Headquarters

• Viktor Pavlovich Barannikov January 1992 - July 1993
• Nikolai Mikhailovich Golushko July 1993 - February 1994
• Sergei Stepashin February 1994 - June 1995
• Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov July 1995 - June 1996
• Nikolai Kovalev July 1996 - July 1998
• Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin July 1998 - August 1999
• Nikolai Patrushev since August 1999

Trivia

In the beginning of 2006 the Italian news agency ANSA reported the publication on the FSB website of an offer, open to Russian citizens working as spies for a foreign country, to work as double agents.

See also

• Numbers station
• Spetsnaz
• OMON
• SVR
• Federal Protective Service
• FSK
• KGB
• FAPSI
• Russian apartment bombings
• Assasination using Polonium 210

Geographical relationship

	North: N/A
West: N/A	FSB (Russia)	East: N/A
	South:People's Armed Police - People's Republic of China, Hong Kong Police, Macau Security Force

Further reading

• Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia : Terror from within. 2002. ISBN 1-56171-938-2
• Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia--Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.
• David Satter. Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. Yale University Press. 2003. ISBN 0-300-09892-8.

External links

• Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, official homepage in Russian
• Poison pins, rocks and fake logs: the secret arsenal of a long, silent war by Jeremy Page, The Times, March 02, 2006
• Slaves of KGB. 20th Century. The religion of betrayal (Рабы ГБ. XX век. Религия предательства), Moscow, 1999.
• FSB Reform: Changes Are Few and Far between Agentura.Ru
• Terrorism prevention in Russia: one year after Beslan Agentura.Ru Studies and Research Centre
• In Russia, A Secretive Force Widens - Washington Post
• FAS site about FSB
• GlobalSecurity about FSB
• Agentura.Ru about FSB
• Crash Course in KGB/SVR/FSB Disinformation and Active Measures
• FSB RESTRUCTURING MORE MODEST THAN EXPECTED
• "The Triumph of the KGB" - by Oleg Kalugin