The FSB’s methods often violate the constitutional rights of citizens and still utilize some of the KGB’s worst practices. This power imbalance among government departments threatens the country’s security. Members of the special services also regularly influence judges’ decisions. The defense and interior ministries, the Investigative Committee, the General Prosecutor’s Office, and other agencies have become dependent on the FSB. Over the past ten years, the FSB has taken control of many state institutions, usually by force or connivance. Figures such as Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, 1 “Новая газета рассказала о кланах внутри ФСБ,”, August 25, 2010, Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin, 2 “Конец спецназа Сечина,” New Times, December 4, 2017, Rostec Chief Executive Officer Sergei Chemezov, 3 “Scandal in Moscow’s FSB,” Warsaw Institute, July 11, 2017, Gazprom Chairman Viktor Zubkov, 4 “Чекисты-разбойники: как ФСБ погрязла во внутренних конфликтах,” Riddle, July 25, 2019, and former Security Council member Sergei Ivanov 5 “Путь Сергея Иванова от разведчика до администратора,” Vedomosti, March 18, 2013, įorm groups of personal allies within the special services in order to advance their own economic interests, provide security, and share amongst themselves information useful to solving their own problems. Members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle hold sway over various parts of the FSB. Members of the special services with direct access to the president often use the organization for their own financial and bureaucratic purposes. The president increasingly relies on information received from the FSB. Thus, there exists a multilevel FSB control system. The president of Russia, to whom the FSB is directly subordinate, directs it not only through the agency’s leader, Alexander Bortnikov, but also through representatives of various units within the special services. The influence of the FSB in political and economic spheres goes beyond the constitutional powers granted to the special services. The legitimate side of the FSB’s activities (e.g., counterterrorism and foreign intelligence tasks that are commonly regarded as necessary and justified) is not the subject of this report, and it will not disclose information that could harm the fulfillment of the FSB’s constitutional functions. It also describes the internal structure of the special services based on verifiable data, though full information about departments, services, and employees is not publicly available. The report traces the history of the special services since Soviet times, which helps illustrate the institutional similarities and differences between the FSB and its predecessors. The information obtained was also cross-checked and compared with data from other sources. The center also interviewed several dozen experts, including direct participants in the events described former and current officers of the FSB, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the defense and interior ministries, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Committee for State Security (KGB), and other government agencies representatives of the business and the banking industries eyewitnesses, victims, prosecutors, and defendants in cases involving the FSB participants in illegal operations controlled by the FSB and many others. Over the course of a year, the Dossier Center collected information about the structure, personalities, working methods, and main development stages of the FSB through careful study of open sources, databases, documents, criminal and civil cases, photo evidence, and audio recordings. The purpose of this report is to investigate the work of the FSB, assess the degree of its influence on the country’s politics and economy, and study the systemic problems it faces. This secrecy makes it extremely difficult for outsiders to get a full picture of how the organization is structured and what it does. The Federal Security Service (FSB) is one of Russia’s most closed government agencies, its work cloaked in myths and rumors.
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