President's button

These notes are not about the professionalism of the president's bodyguards. Perhaps, just from the point of view of professionals, modern bodyguards act flawlessly, follow every comma of their official instructions. But my experience as a journalist, who by the nature of his duties more than once fell into the "retinue" of the first persons of the state, suggests that the "human factor" was, is and remains the main gap in any security systems, no matter how impregnable and impressive they may look from the outside.

Today, in order to get into the Kremlin corridors, you need to go through a metal detector, leave pagers, mobile phones and all piercing and cutting objects in the security safe, if you are smart enough to take them with you, going to the citadel of the supreme state power. After that, broad-shouldered youth in civilian clothes "escort" you to one of the offices, where it is proposed to wait, say, for a briefing after the Security Council or a meeting of the president with anyone. If the event is unexpectedly delayed, then, I assure you, getting out of the control of the press service representatives and the security guard is not difficult. Personally, I have often walked through deserted corridors, left to myself, sometimes coming face to face with people who are surrounded by a ring of bodyguards in public places. It is obvious that the Kremlin corridors in the minds of the guards are such a protected area that strangers cannot even theoretically appear there. And therefore there is no one to look after.

The same effect - "strangers don't walk here" - also works during the president's trips. The journalists, members of the delegation, escort groups and other public sent by the "advanced" side (a few hours before the presidential plane) become, as it were, their own for the SBP employees. And even the most hardworking of them, after a few hours of road bellowing, look at "their" with their eyes closed. I remember very well how, at the Arkhangelsk airport, Vladimir Putin at some point literally wandered among a motley crowd, including among local onlookers. It seems that he was choosing which transport to sit on. And since he ultimately opted for a minibus over the limousine that was prepared for him, it became clear that the seasoned intelligence officer took his own safety seriously. What could not be said at that moment about his protection.

Similar accessibility distinguished Boris Yeltsin, but only in the first years of his presidency. In May 1992, in Tashkent, my colleague approached the President of Russia on a dare and took him by the button. It was in the conference room, where the heads of the CIS countries were seated in their places. Yeltsin at that moment was surrounded by two or three people - I think Karimov and someone else. It is possible that Yeltsin's "adjutants" who were standing nearby mistook an unfamiliar person for the manager of this event. But the fact remains - the accessibility of the "body" was demonstrated with unprecedented impudence.

Subsequently, the guards of the first president of Russia lost all their democracy, pulling excessively active reporters out of the crowd like a radish. But by the way, this energetic manner of protecting the first face of the state, to put it mildly, was equal in effectiveness to the former, passive one. If not worse. Since, entering into a fight with everything that moves, the bodyguards created a nervous, scandalous atmosphere around, in which all attention was diverted to spectacular episodes (someone is smashed with equipment, someone is bent in half with an uppercut, and someone is being overwhelmed along with a ladder, a tripod and TV camera). In such a commotion, not only is it possible to hold on to the presidential button, but it will not be a problem to snatch it with meat. By the way, it was precisely handicraft that distinguished Gorbachev's guard shortly before its boss, Yuri Plekhanov, handed over the "object" with giblets to the State Emergency Committee. Bull Terrier activity of bodyguards, it turns out, is not an indicator of the quality of the president's security. Most often this is just a game for the public, or rather a demonstration of devotion to the "boss". A sure sign that "Foros" or an honorable resignation is not far off.

In general, window dressing is the scourge of bodyguards. Some of them seem to be in films all the time. They are always visible in the environment of the president. It is not difficult to calculate them by the iron rack, black glasses and the bird's head mobility (view of the sector within 20-30 degrees). I bet - in these moments they really like themselves. Undoubtedly, the killer also likes them - as static landmarks that help to take the target at gunpoint. They say that at this time, somewhere near the “body”, real bison of the SBP, “attached” or “private”, inconspicuous, discreet, but ready at any moment to cover the president with their bodies, so to speak, according to the Chinese version, huddle. I confess that my personal experience casts doubt on the reality of this invisible circle of protection. In any case, I have more than once happened to be near a protected person, and in crowded places, and there was no one besides the demonstratively vigilant "closets" next to him.

And what about road safety? Simple logic suggests: the faster and more imperceptibly for the city (locality) the presidential cortege flashes by, the less chance a probable intruder has to "get" a high-ranking client. In our country, only the lazy one does not know that every morning at a certain hour from Barvikha to Moscow along Rublyovka, Kutuzovsky and Novy Arbat, the president of the country will rush to work. Everyone knows about this, if only because half of Moscow at this time gets stuck for at least an hour in traffic jams built through the efforts of the traffic police. This is a daily event, a performance, an action that can be thoroughly calculated for a specific purpose. Including the bad ones. The more pompously staged any movement of the president, the easier it is to figure out his routes, habits and features of escort.

And a few words about the "green snake". Security is also a person. It's clear. But when you see how the appearance of the presidential rati changes in the absence of the "master", you involuntarily shudder at the thought that it is these people who are entrusted with the life of the first person of the state. I remember how the guards of Alexander Lukashenko walked in one of the Sochi hotels. With a massacre, beating mirrors and dishes, on such a scale that the lads never dreamed of. As it turned out later, their Russian colleagues were no less cool in the same glorious city. The consciousness that you are standing above everyone - the police, the FSB, the prosecutor's office somewhere there, they are fussing at your feet - very quickly makes a superman out of a sane young man. In my own eyes. And there is no doubt that these guys will not really be able to do their direct work. They "flirt", are fond of their position. The guarded "body" becomes a means for them. With all the ensuing consequences. I am writing about this only because I watched the degradation of initially, probably, good guys, but in the end they were completely corrupted by the power that falls into their hands along with a high-ranking boss.

Presidents are guarded by people. And this is the main threat to their security.