The results of the year. Special services: 2017

2017 was a year when it became completely clear-the old rules of the Putin’s special services developed in the 2000s came to an end. The rivalry of uncontrolled law enforcement agencies turned into feudal estates by their leaders, and the same medieval idea of ​​the “new nobility” as a Russian elite - all this ceased to be relevant. In 2017, Putin finally ceased to play with this postmodern project (and the very phrase “New Nobility” itself became used) and decided to return to the scheme that he remembers well at the time of his youth - the work scheme of the late Soviet KGB.

And this means, first of all, that the methods of state control have changed. The era when the FSB officers, seconded to state and commercial structures - from theaters to sports departments, had to play an important role in their management, ends. It was replaced by a new era, and now control by the Kremlin is carried out through selective repressions, the victims of which have already become governors, officials, ministers and theatrical figures. In this case, what position is the seconded officer of the FSB, it does not matter much.

In 2017, it became noticeable that the language of special services and their methods changed.

The case of director Kirill Serebryannikov is hardly the most striking example of a new approach. As you know, the FSB officers take a living part in it, and, which is curious, these are officers of the unit to protect the constitutional system (the former fifth department for the fight against dissidents) - and they appeared there, because they “habitually oversee the intelligentsia”.

Obviously, we are observing the return of Soviet concepts to the work of special services. The practice of curators was both in the 90s and 2000s, but then it was actually a cover for the subnim of special services officers to resolve business conflicts. For many years it was very convenient to have a high-ranking FSB officer in the state-owned position in the second or third position with a very high salary that motivated him to help the company, and not a special service. Often, banks and companies themselves turned to Lubyanka with a request for a curator’s commanding. In 2017, the meaning of the term "curators" changed. The FSB returned the Soviet meaning to him - and now the curators are actually busy determining the goals for selective repression.

This is the list of Soviet methods returned to circulation. To convey to everyone that in the new reality no one is guaranteed from repressions, including the repressive bodies themselves - this is quite in the spirit of Soviet leaders. In 2017, cleaning was held both in the Investigative Committee (the case of the head of the Office of the TFR of the Investigative Committee of Mikhail Maksimenko), and to the FSB. At the same time, the repressions are very advanced-at first the leadership determines the “problem area”, and then the work begins to clean it.

For example, the scandal surrounding the Russian elections continues, and the FSB Cyberglack, the Center for Information Security (QIB), is cleaned against its background. According to the results of 2017, its leader Andrei Gerasimov was removed, one deputy was dismissed (having received three years conditionally for abuse), the second deputy Sergei Mikhailov, part -time the chief of the military unit of the QIB - operational management - has been sitting in Lefortovo for a completely different charge for a year.

The arrests in the FSB did not limit themselves to this - in the summer, five employees of the Moscow department were immediately arrested - for extortion of bribes from the head of the Moscow Region Enterprise, the military -industrial complex. In November, an officer was arrested, who oversees Rublevka. All this is extremely unusual and does not at all like how things were investigated against special services in the 2000s.

Then the scheme looked simple - if the employee fell on the crime, the department of his own security service went to the place, quickly convinced the guilty to sign the number of dismissal yesterday, so as not to spoil the image of the department and maintain secrecy (in fact, it was for this purpose of the service of his own security that they would not come out of the department). Obviously, today this principle has been canceled.

The amazing interview with the FSB director Alexander Bortnikov by the centenary of the Cheka with warm words addressed to Lavrenty Beria is the best confirmation that the FSB fully realized their new, but actually well -forgotten old role in the new reality. The role of a key tool in a system in which state controllability is guaranteed by fear.