"СЕНСС" мая 17, 2024 No Comments

“The French statesman, Count Mirabeau, once said about Prussia that it was ‘not a state that has an army, but an army that has conquered a nation.’ A bit ironically, we could apply this statement to the situation in modern Russia, changing it as follows: Russia is not a state that has a security service; it is a security service that governs the nation.”

This is how the article by Vadym Chernysh, the head of the Supervisory Board of CENSS, begins, published in Strategic Security (Global and National Security Institute, University of South Florida, USA). The article discusses the results of a study that proves that Russia’s FSB still uses the tools and methods of its predecessor, the KGB, secretly assigning its officers to civilian executive bodies of the state and subjects of the federation to strengthen control over them.

“There is a presumption that the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation has significant influence over the executive power in Russia. Given the excessive secrecy of Russian security and intelligence agencies, it is not easy to study their activities. To prove or refute this presumption, in this article we will examine documents from the Committee for State Security (KGB) regulating the use of undercover employees working in the executive bodies of the USSR. We will also look at information from open sources regarding the similar activities of the Federal Security Service of Russia and its current legislative mandate to operate in the same manner as the KGB. Based on the analysis and comparison of this information, a conclusion will be drawn about the FSB’s ability to influence the executive power through the apparatus of seconded officers.”

More details about the study’s results are available in Vadym Chernysh’s article in English, which can be accessed via the following link: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2164&context=jss.

article=2164&context=jss 


Photo source: Ukrainska Pravda