Translated material
They began to stir. Patrushev vs Shoigu
Has a new round of struggle between Kremlin clans begun?
An assistant and one of the closest associates of the Russian President, former FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, accused the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the deaths of hostages during the storming of the Dubrovka Theater Center in 2003. According to Patrushev, FSB units then worked “professionally,” but other services “ did not have coherence .” At that time, the Ministry of Emergency Situations was headed by Sergei Shoigu.
After Yevgeny Prigozhin's rebellion in the summer of 2023, Shoigu lost his influence. In May 2024, Putin dismissed him as head of the Ministry of Defense, and a number of his former deputies were arrested on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Now Shoigu is the Secretary of the Russian Security Council. In this position, he replaced Nikolai Patrushev. Opposition politician Vladimir Milov does not rule out that the former director of the FSB, having opposed the ex-minister of defense, may again fight for influence over the Security Council.
The fights between the so-called clans of Putin’s elite began to be discussed after journalists from “Important Stories”, CNN and the Financial Times wrote that anxiety was growing in the Kremlin over a possible conspiracy and even an attempt on the life of Vladimir Putin. CNN even claimed, citing anonymous sources, that it was Sergei Shoigu who was associated with the preparation of the coup.
In parallel with the struggle between Patrushev and Shoigu, another story is developing in St. Petersburg. As Fontanka found out, FSB officers detained authoritative St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber. As the Agency notes, Putin personally acknowledged his acquaintance with Traber. He has been a guest at the president’s birthdays more than once.
Let's talk with political scientist Ruslan Aisin about how Putin's elite has changed during the war years, as well as about the confrontation between clans and groups of the current near-Kremlin elite.
According to media reports , his business partner Vladimir Danilenko was detained along with Ilya Traber . Fontanka writes that this is connected with the murder of businessman and local deputy Alexander Petrov in Vyborg in 2020. Neither the killer who shot Petrov nor those who ordered the murder were found then. Traber is a well-known figure in the business of Leningrad and St. Petersburg; the media have repeatedly written about his closeness to Vladimir Putin , with whom he crossed paths in the 1990s. He was called a “reputable businessman” nicknamed Antiquarian, but Traber denied in court all hints of his connections with the criminal environment. One of his main projects in recent years was the Primorsky Criminal Procedure Code, in which the businessman had a share.
Insider journalist Sergei Kanev believes that the detention of Ilya Traber, who previously considered himself “untouchable,” may be connected with the FSB’s desire to take away his assets in favor of other friends of Vladimir Putin:
I’ll say it carefully - friends closer to Putin paid attention to Traber’s assets
- Apparently, Ilya Traber did not take into account that now this business clearing for which they all worked is shrinking. I’ll say it carefully - friends closer to Putin paid attention to Traber’s assets. And he has a lot of billions of dollars in assets. Apparently, he was offered to share his money and give up some shares. He apparently thought that “no, I won’t give anything to anyone, because I’m so cool.” The FSB arrived immediately. Interestingly, the first deputy head of the FSB, Sergei Korolev, who opened this case, is a very good friend of Traber. All this fits precisely into the struggle between Putin’s cronies among themselves. They only smile sweetly at each other in videos and photos, but in reality there is no friendship. These are competitors, and they are fighting for proximity to Putin's ear. The first one to approach this ear wins, Sergei Kanev is sure.
What could be the reason for the searches of Ilya Traber and Vladimir Danilenko, says political scientist Ruslan Aisin :
– Most likely, this is really a division of shrinking financial and industrial capital and resources. Apparently, someone more influential paid attention to Traber, who indeed avoided drops falling on his head for a very long time. But this time it didn’t work out. His acquaintance with Putin and the information that they have some kind of criminal past are also important in this story. At some point, Putin began to “cleanse” his friends, among others. In general, I have great doubts that Putin knows how to be friends. His friend Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin), who was called the “night host of St. Petersburg,” continues to sit there since 2007 because he is a bearer of very interesting information.
St. Petersburg is Vladimir Putin’s alma mater, and Putin’s inner circle wants to control this city
St. Petersburg is Vladimir Putin’s alma mater, and Putin’s inner circle wants to control this city. Most likely, the people who initiated the detention of Traber are from the younger generation, as they say, young wolves who devour old wolves. Yes, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Traber and Kumarin were in prominent places, everyone took them into account. Well, now these are some people from the past. And even acquaintance with Putin does not save them. This is a redistribution of the market by new wolves, whom Putin puts forward not as a new elite, but as a certain layer of those people who must sweep away the old wolves. The old wolves are, to some extent, a threat to Putin. He pits the young and hungry against the old, politically weak. Their food supply is narrowing, says Ruslan Aisin.
Has a new round of struggle between Kremlin clans begun?
by Radio Liberty Text copied width px height px The URL has been copied to your clipboard
No media source currently available
Former FSB director and aide to the Russian President Nikolai Patrushev shifted responsibility for the deaths of hostages during the storming of the Dubrovka theater center seized by terrorists to the rescue services. At that time, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations was Sergei Shoigu , who has recently been in disgrace, and a number of his deputies were jailed for corruption.
What is behind Patrushev’s desire to blame Sergei Shoigu for the failure of the Dubrovka operation, and does this mean new changes in the Russian elites? Political scientist Ruslan Aisin continues:
Apparently, these are behind-the-scenes games - they say Shoigu is to blame for everything
– Apparently, these are behind-the-scenes games. Some time ago there was a whole wave of all kinds of publications that Shoigu would be removed today or tomorrow. And supposedly this will be the best outcome for him, because the worst outcome is arrest and sent to prison for all the sins that he committed as Minister of Defense. This is not so much corruption, which is natural for Putin’s system, but rather the fact that he deceived the commander-in-chief’s expectations and misled him about the army’s readiness to win and, on the contrary, the Ukrainian side’s unwillingness to defend itself. They say Shoigu is to blame for everything. But so far, apparently, this is not working. This would mean admitting that Putin was wrong when he appointed Shoigu as defense minister and secretary of the Security Council. It turns out that this is an admission that Putin makes mistakes in people. I think that this is the only reason why Shoigu is holding on.
Indeed, Sergei Shoigu is one of the founders of the United Russia party; he was once really very popular. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, and it is now difficult to convert past achievements into some kind of political resource. But still, under Nikolai Patrushev, the Security Council was an important parallel system, and under Sergei Shoigu its status fell and its political weight shifted. But it is possible that Patrushev did not just decide to prick his former government partner. Perhaps he is carrying out Putin’s instructions - to inject little by little in order to finally blow away Comrade Shoigu. “I don’t rule out that he may eventually be removed, but it won’t be so humiliating to remove him,” Ruslan Aisin is sure.
Ruslan Aisin discusses what is happening to the Russian elite today, whether it is capable of resisting Vladimir Putin, and what awaits the president’s associates in the future:
Further development of the Putin system will lead to chaos and the absence of successors
– As a historian, I like to compare the current reign of Vladimir Putin with the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Like Ivan the Terrible, at some point Putin began to talk about his messianism, about the messianism of the Russian people, about a certain civilizational choice, eschatology: “Either we die along with everyone else, or we win.” This is absolutely the rhetoric of Ivan the Terrible. The Livonian war against the West under Grozny is Russia’s war against Ukraine and the West now. What did Ivan the Terrible do? He really cleaned out the elites. He really cleaned out the old institutions that were there, the boyar dumas, the old families. He actually destroyed his immediate circle and brought the guardsmen, young wolves, that is, modern FSB men, to the forefront.
In the case of Putin, these include modern war veterans, with whom the president periodically meets and presents them with awards. Putin relies on those people who entirely owe him their promotion and their misfortune. Because this misfortune connects them with Putin. Someone lost a leg, someone an arm. That is, he ruined these people's lives. In fact, the further development of the Putin system will lead to what the reign of Ivan the Terrible led to - chaos and the absence of successors. Under Grozny, this led to the fact that after his death the clans fought among themselves. I think the same thing awaits Russia now,” Ruslan Aisin is sure.
Read Freedom on Telegram Make Freedom a priority source on Google 
Install the Mobile application
Radio Liberty