CURRENTTIME — broadcast
20261012 160000 UTC
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[00:00:36] A guard, a collective farmer, or a poisoner, the reform
[00:00:39] of the main security agency. The main actor
[00:00:43] in the so-called reform is the head of Rosneft,
[00:00:46] Igor Sechin. Alexander Bortnikov is being retired. According
[00:00:50] to one version, Putin doesn't
[00:00:53] want a professional FSB officer,
[00:00:57] a professional leader, to head this structure, because it
[00:01:00] would strengthen it even more. Russia is suffering a defeat in Donbas
[00:01:03] and daily bombs
[00:01:06] Ukraine. There, put it, they have to
[00:01:09] retreat to pre-prepared positions. This
[00:01:12] is true. Is Putin ready to impose
[00:01:16] martial law? The fact that Belousov dreams of calling
[00:01:19] another several hundred thousand
[00:01:22] people into the army is a fact, no one hides this.
[00:01:26] The "Edges of Time" program. Weekly results. My name is
[00:01:30] Shakirov, let's start!
[00:01:47] Let's start with almost social news: the FSB
[00:01:51] decided to improve comfort for its leadership. The project was published
[00:01:54] on the portal of normative legal acts, writes the agency's
[00:01:58] publication. According to the document, board members are allowed
[00:02:01] to fly first class. I completely stretched my legs out,
[00:02:05] lay down, and I still have this much space. Even if you are
[00:02:09] 1.90 meters tall, probably 2-3, you will be quite
[00:02:12] comfortable here. And not only for official business. First
[00:02:16] class will be available even to vacationers, including family
[00:02:19] members. Some colonels will get Comfort class. And all
[00:02:23] this, of course, will be paid for by the state, that is, us -
[00:02:26] the taxpayers. The news perfectly confirms
[00:02:30] are truly becoming the new
[00:02:33] nobility in Russia, they have privileges and status,
[00:02:36] but first class is just the tip
[00:02:39] of the iceberg. Much more interesting is what is happening
[00:02:43] within the FSB itself. Lately, the word "reform"
[00:02:46] has been heard. Journalists and experts write about it. The FSB
[00:02:49] has long gone far beyond security. Today,
[00:02:53] the FSB controls the court, controls
[00:02:56] the investigation, controls the prosecution, the Ministry
[00:03:00] of Internal Affairs, there should be no doubts
[00:03:03] about this, even the National Guard,
[00:03:06] the army. Therefore, such a
[00:03:09] super-monster has formed, which controls everyone,
[00:03:12] for example, all important, serious
[00:03:16] court cases, they proceed, so to speak,
[00:03:19] gently, with consultation from the FSB or under their full
[00:03:22] control, depending on the grounds for initiating these criminal
[00:03:25] cases. The Central Bank and Russian banks
[00:03:28] are under the control of the FSB. It's not
[00:03:32] that this wasn't the case before, but it was a different
[00:03:35] degree of control, it was precisely the degree of control related
[00:03:38] to certain issues of maintaining secrets, so that there
[00:03:42] wouldn't be data leaks and so on and so forth. Now it's
[00:03:46] a feeding ground. The founder of the important history
[00:03:49] publication, Roman Anin, also talks about possible changes.
[00:03:53] This is not just about personnel changes, experts speak
[00:03:56] of a conflict within the system. That these clans throughout
[00:04:00] the 25 years that they have been in power, have constantly fought
[00:04:04] each other, these power clans. Well, for example, we listed various
[00:04:07] special services and forgot to mention such an important department
[00:04:10] as the National Guard, which is headed by Putin's former
[00:04:13] bodyguard, Viktor Zolotov, nicknamed "The Pierced" in the criminal world
[00:04:17] of St. Petersburg. He had such a nickname because, as one of the leaders of that
[00:04:21] criminal world admitted to me, he was an absolutely stupid person
[00:04:24] from the Australopithecus era, who at the same time is ready for any
[00:04:28] cruelty by...
[00:05:12] the FSB for decades, now he himself is beginning to fear
[00:05:16] the monster, believes Gennady Gudkov, and speaks of a possible change
[00:05:19] in leadership, and an unusual
[00:05:22] option is being discussed: the new director may come from outside, not
[00:05:25] a career Chekist and not a general, but a person with
[00:05:28] a civilian background. For the FSB, this would be a serious
[00:05:31] signal, possibly just the beginning of a major restructuring.
[00:05:35] Putin is concerned about the sharp increase
[00:05:38] in the FSB's influence, its political influence.
[00:05:42] Not just that they are carving up
[00:05:46] some enterprises, looting there, participating in corrupt
[00:05:49] schemes, but he is concerned about the increased political
[00:05:52] influence of the FSB. Now, when the question of
[00:05:56] Bortnikov's retirement is being decided,
[00:06:00] everyone - people in the near-Kremlin circles
[00:06:02] confirm, at least they know this,
[00:06:05] one of the versions, which I
[00:06:08] heard from more competent people, according to one
[00:06:12] version, Putin does not want
[00:06:15] a professional FSB officer, that is, a professional
[00:06:18] leader, a person who made a career there, to head
[00:06:22] this structure, because it would further strengthen it, those people who
[00:06:26] today lead the FSB, they participate in the distribution
[00:06:29] of all the most influential clans of Russia, in these internal
[00:06:33] squabbles, in this struggle, and there is even such a thought,
[00:06:37] I have already heard it, that Putin is now looking for an outsider
[00:06:40] candidate to appoint.
[00:07:12] experience. According to journalist Sergei Kanev
[00:07:16] of The Insider, changes in the FSB may begin after Alexander Bortnikov's
[00:07:19] anniversary. On November 15, the director of the FSB will turn
[00:07:22] 75 years old, and perhaps his retirement will also take
[00:07:26] place at the same time. It is after this date that a personnel
[00:07:30] reshuffle of the department may begin. Kanev considers Igor Sechin,
[00:07:34] the head of Rosneft, to be one of the main players in the struggle
[00:07:38] for influence. As it seems to me, the main
[00:07:41] actor in this so-called reform
[00:07:44] is the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin,
[00:07:48] who is once again trying
[00:07:52] to place his people in key positions in the
[00:07:54] FSB, and his main protégé
[00:07:58] is General Ivan Tkachev,
[00:08:01] nicknamed "the collective farmer." At one time, Ivan Tkachev
[00:08:04] headed the sixth service of the FSB's Internal Security
[00:08:08] Directorate, the so-called Sechin Special Forces,
[00:08:11] then Sechin moved him to
[00:08:14] Directorate K, the banking division of the
[00:08:17] FSB.
[00:08:18] Sechin
[00:08:21] is currently in the chair of the head of the FSB's
[00:08:25] counterintelligence, the military counterintelligence of the FSB,
[00:08:28] which means he controls the entire army. And
[00:08:32] I think he will try to move
[00:08:35] Tkachev
[00:08:37] later to the leadership
[00:08:40] of the FSB. There is also another influential figure -
[00:08:44] Alexei Sidorov. He heads the second service
[00:08:47] of the FSB. This unit is responsible for protecting the constitutional
[00:08:50] order. Sidorov has been at the head of the service since
[00:08:54] 2006. He began his career in the Leningrad KGB, so
[00:08:58] he is considered part of the St. Petersburg Chekist group. Sidorov
[00:09:01] was described in an interview by former FSB Second Service officer
[00:09:05] Alexander Fedotov. A year ago, he fled Russia.
[00:09:08] As far as I know, Sidorov has the right to call
[00:09:12] the first person, Vladimir
[00:09:15] Putin, he is a member of the St. Petersburg
[00:09:18] group. Having come in 2006 from
[00:09:21] the SZKSBT, he was then, I believe,
[00:09:24] a Major General, he received
[00:09:26] an unusually
[00:09:28] rapid career advancement to Army General, because
[00:09:31] not all FSB directors are
[00:09:35] Army Generals, and Sidorov formally, he is not even
[00:09:38] a deputy director, he is tough, he is really tough, for example, when
[00:09:42] he called me by phone
[00:09:46] while on the road, because for communication with him I had a phone
[00:09:49] in my office, without a dial, so I picked up the receiver, I knew it was him calling, but when
[00:09:53] he called from the road, he never greeted me, he always said,
[00:09:56] "It's Sidorov," that is, it sounded like
[00:10:00] a roar, like a lion, "It's Sidorov." In practice,
[00:10:03] Sidorov's second service is also engaged in political
[00:10:06] control, among its areas is the fight against so-called
[00:10:09] political extremism. We all know, thanks to Christo Grozev's
[00:10:13] investigations, about the role of officers of the second service
[00:10:16] in the poisoning of Navalny, in the poisoning of other
[00:10:20] opposition figures, and it's important to understand
[00:10:22] that the second
[00:10:25] service - we know about its most bloodthirsty
[00:10:28] manifestations and examples, but it has
[00:10:32] a very wide range of functions, for example, few people know that it is the second service that oversees all
[00:10:35] education in Russia, and in the second
[00:10:38] service there is such a department for combating terrorism
[00:10:42] and political extremism UBTP,
[00:10:45] and it is precisely this that is responsible for all education. When I say
[00:10:48] responsible, what does that mean in practice? In practice, this means
[00:10:52] that, for example, in the Ministry of Education there will definitely be...
[00:10:56] as part of the ministry, as a rule, it is the deputy minister,
[00:10:59] who will be delegated there, seconded there from
[00:11:02] the FSB. And he will monitor to ensure that no
[00:11:06] orders, no decisions
[00:11:08] are made that could, God forbid,
[00:11:12] negatively affect the patriotic education
[00:11:16] of future youth. In key universities of Russia, there are seconded
[00:11:19] employees who monitor the
[00:11:22] sentiments of students and teachers, that
[00:11:26] is, this is a service that
[00:11:29] is directed, the second service, which is directed at suppressing all
[00:11:33] dissent. But the personnel intrigue does not
[00:11:36] end there. Among the possible candidates, Sergei Kanev
[00:11:39] names another general. This is Sergei
[00:11:43] Beseda, former head of the fifth FSB service. It was this
[00:11:46] unit that actively worked on Ukraine before the war. After
[00:11:50] the failure of this work, Beseda did not retain his post, but
[00:11:53] he did not disappear from the system.
[00:11:58] advisor to FSB Director Bortnikov. Kanev considers Beseda practically
[00:12:01] unsinkable. And this is especially interesting now,
[00:12:05] because the personnel struggle within the FSB continues, old
[00:12:09] players do not disappear. General Beseda
[00:12:13] is part of the circle
[00:12:16] of the untouchables. That is, whatever he did, nothing
[00:12:19] will happen to him. Well, yes, he failed the Ukrainian direction.
[00:12:23] Well, yes. He paid too much
[00:12:26] attention to Yanukovych and Azarov, the former
[00:12:30] prime minister, who whispered in his ear that
[00:12:33] Ukrainians were just waiting for Russian tanks
[00:12:37] and would greet them with lard and garlic,
[00:12:41] this did not happen, therefore Beseda
[00:12:45] was removed from the leadership of the fifth service
[00:12:48] of the FSB, the same FSB intelligence, and
[00:12:51] transferred him closer to the administration.
[00:13:29] checklist of questions to an FSB officer. "I
[00:13:32] deleted the correspondence." "We will restore it."
[00:13:35] "I created a fake account." "We will identify it." "I
[00:13:39] used someone else's SIM card." "We will find out." "I received payment in
[00:13:43] cryptocurrency." "We will de-anonymize." The Sverdlovsk
[00:13:46] FSB Directorate explains in the language of memes. "Deleted correspondence,
[00:13:50] turned on VPN, bought someone else's SIM card. It won't help. There are no
[00:13:53] anonymous people on the Internet." The other thing is, if the terrorist
[00:13:57] is real, like the one who remotely detonated
[00:14:01] a bomb on August 1st on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, in a restaurant in a Stalinist
[00:14:04] skyscraper, the commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces
[00:14:08] was celebrating his anniversary. Five people died a few hundred meters from the Government
[00:14:11] House. Several months have passed, and the criminal
[00:14:15] remains anonymous to the FSB. Everything
[00:14:18] we can do, of course, we are doing, but we
[00:14:22] are also not limitless in our capabilities, but nevertheless...
[00:15:25] the terrorist attack on four military airfields, when drones that took off
[00:15:28] from trucks struck strategic Russian bombers,
[00:15:32] oil refineries, which the Armed Forces hit with almost 200
[00:15:35] successful strikes, also remained
[00:15:38] also include the terrorist attack in Dagestan, when during
[00:15:41] the attack on synagogues, churches, and police posts,
[00:15:45] 22 people were killed, and of course,
[00:15:48] the terrorist attack in Crocus, 145 dead. Later it became known that
[00:15:52] the USA had warned about the impending attack 2
[00:15:55] weeks earlier. But this, of course,
[00:15:58] means that our
[00:16:01] relevant law enforcement, special
[00:16:04] services, are missing these strikes.
[00:16:37] The B did not cope even before the war. Nordost, Beslan, exploded
[00:16:41] planes, explosions in the Moscow metro, in Domodedovo,
[00:16:44] according to the international Global Terrorism Database, from 2000 to
[00:16:48] 2001, there were almost 2,000 terrorist attacks
[00:16:51] and almost 3,500 deaths. It was not customary
[00:16:55] to punish the FSB for such things; it was customary
[00:16:59] to award them. The general who led the headquarters during Nordost,
[00:17:02] where 130 hostages died, received
[00:17:06] a Hero star three months later.
[00:17:08] this is a service that is primarily concerned
[00:17:11] with the security of the country
[00:17:14] and the state. In Russia, first of all, the FSB, I
[00:17:18] even prefer to call it the KGB, so as not to get confused with all these
[00:17:21] letters, it primarily protects itself, it
[00:17:25] protects the regime, and I want to note that
[00:17:28] it was structured this way from the moment
[00:17:32] of 1918. In the Cheka documents, it is precisely
[00:17:36] written: it is a service that
[00:17:39] primarily protects the regime from its
[00:17:43] ideological opponents, and so it has been throughout the years. If
[00:17:47] you look at the special folders of the KGB, the special folders
[00:17:50] of the Politburo, as the CPSU, there it is always said
[00:17:53] that we must prevent
[00:17:56] the penetration of dangerous ideology into the Soviet Union, we
[00:17:59] must protect against the penetration of this ideology and
[00:18:03] so on. The efforts of the special services are primarily aimed at
[00:18:06] prevention.
[00:18:14] Russia already has TikTok troops. This is Kadyrov's army,
[00:18:18] which, instead of fighting, filmed videos with shooting at empty
[00:18:21] houses. Now Russia has a couch special service
[00:18:25] that, instead of terrorists, catches Russians on the internet. And here it
[00:18:28] has only victories. Last year, more than 2,000
[00:18:32] people were convicted on terrorism charges, twice as many as the year
[00:18:36] before, almost every second one not for an explosion, but for
[00:18:39] words. The youngest terrorist is 14 years old. In
[00:18:43] the same list as militants are now journalist Yuri
[00:18:46] Dud and Telegram creator Pavel Durov. Such
[00:18:49] a special service now has different expenses, uniforms will be issued
[00:18:53] less often and not to everyone. We are joined by Evgeny
[00:18:56] Savostyanov, head of state security agencies for
[00:19:00] Moscow and the Moscow region in the nineties. Evgeny,
[00:19:03] hello. Hello, Moymin, hello,
[00:19:06] dear viewers and
[00:19:09] listeners, I am glad to welcome you. I
[00:19:13] usually start lately with the slogan: Russia is now the enemy
[00:19:16] of Europe, this needs to be hammered into the brains of European
[00:19:20] ordinary citizens. Good, now let's move on. Tell me, how
[00:19:23] was the current structure of the FSB formed, what is its difference from
[00:19:27] the KGB? Well, you know, I haven't
[00:19:31] worked in this structure for a very long time,
[00:19:34] how many years is it now, 32 years.
[00:19:38] So, its formation took place almost entirely under
[00:19:41] Putin. When he was appointed in
[00:19:44] ninety-nine, ninety-eight
[00:19:48] as director of the FSB, he began to slowly,
[00:19:52] and not so slowly, form this St. Petersburg
[00:19:55] management team of the FSB. And
[00:19:58] if we take the initial period, well, of course, it was
[00:20:01] just the dismemberment of the KGB, one could even say,
[00:20:05] to some extent, the liquidation of the KGB.
[00:20:50] The country is at war, which means that the tasks of military counterintelligence
[00:20:54] are increasing. The country is moving, well, it has
[00:20:58] already moved into a purely dictatorial regime, which means that
[00:21:01] the tasks of combating dissent are intensifying.
[00:21:04] Do the protection of the regime and
[00:21:07] the service itself remain its main goal?
[00:21:10] Well, it became, I would say that in the nineties
[00:21:13] the protection of the regime was not a goal at all, but then
[00:21:17] the FSK, the Ministry of Security, we generally...
[00:21:20] were engaged in protecting the regime, yes,
[00:21:23] it was believed that the regime was in a stage of democratic
[00:21:26] formation, and in general, protecting the system is an incorrect
[00:21:30] concept, we need to protect the constitutional order,
[00:21:33] changes to the system. So when people took up arms
[00:21:36] or were preparing to take up arms, we then entered
[00:21:40] into a struggle with them. But as long as they were within the framework of ordinary
[00:21:43] parliamentary activity, we showed excessive
[00:21:47] tolerance, I would say so, we did not chase
[00:21:50] communists, we did not chase Zhirinovsky's supporters,
[00:21:53] that is, they had the opportunity to conduct their political
[00:21:57] work completely freely. Now, yes, now, of course, it is not
[00:22:01] just the protection of the system, not just the protection of the regime, it is the protection
[00:22:04] of the sole power of one person, that is, everything
[00:22:08] is tailored to ensure that Putin's dream of living
[00:22:11] forever, ruling forever, reviving
[00:22:14] empires, and dictating his
[00:22:17] will to the world is fulfilled. It is in
[00:22:20] this
[00:22:29] that the transformation of the FSB's
[00:22:32] work lies during those
[00:22:35] years, not only under Bortnikov, but it also began under Patrushev
[00:22:39] and under Putin himself, as I just said,
[00:22:42] through personnel appointments. Well, in general, everything is geared towards
[00:22:46] first strengthening the power of the St. Petersburg team, then individually.
[00:22:52] What do you know about the people being nominated to replace
[00:22:55] Bortnikov, FSB General, head of Directorate
[00:22:59] K-4 of the Service, the Economic Security Service,
[00:23:02] of the FSB, Ivan Tkachev, and First Deputy Director of the FSB
[00:23:06] Sergey Korolev and Alexey Sidorov, head of the Second
[00:23:09] Service? If Tkachev is Sechin's man, can it be said that
[00:23:13] the FSB is totally corrupt, and repression
[00:23:15] is just a consequence of this, and not
[00:23:18] an end in itself?
[00:24:20] put at the head of the KGB, effectively, well, at that time
[00:24:23] it was the AFB, then there was a decision to create the Ministry
[00:24:27] of Security and Internal Affairs headed by Barannikov. Police officers
[00:24:31] across the country were horrified because they understood that
[00:24:34] all their agents would now be killed, physically
[00:24:38] killed, because it would become known to the cops among whom they
[00:24:41] worked. So there was a mass destruction
[00:24:45] of police agent files, and the people themselves
[00:24:48] who worked in this area began to resign. For example,
[00:24:52] Sidorov left
[00:24:54] then, so it seems, either to the AFB, he
[00:24:58] submitted his resignation, to the Ministry of Security he had already resigned. But then almost
[00:25:01] the entire leadership of the AFB came to
[00:25:05] me, except for Ivanenko.
[00:25:08] This is a truly unique case for the head of the Moscow
[00:25:11] Directorate, one of the deputies to the chairman, for the entire
[00:25:14] leadership to come for advice, there was Podelyakin,
[00:25:17] and Polsky, and Orlov, and...
[00:25:20] Almazov, they come and say, "What should we do, Evgeny
[00:25:23] Vadimovich, they will all fire us now?" I sat
[00:25:26] and thought, and said, "Look, the country is moving into a new regime,
[00:25:30] a completely new economy is forming, new tax issues.
[00:25:34] Let's build a financial guard like in Italy,
[00:25:36] a national system of tax police." They liked
[00:25:40] this terrible idea, they left, pushed
[00:25:43] the idea through, and that's how the tax police arose, where Sidorov
[00:25:47] went to work. Then, by the way, Sidorov...
[00:26:02] Musidov, he now heads the second service of the FSB.
[00:26:06] What do they do? Only internal affairs or provocations
[00:26:09] and sabotage in Europe are also their doing?
[00:26:13] Well, apparently, this work is enough for them, but
[00:26:17] of course, it's mainly internal
[00:26:19] tasks.
[00:26:22] Functionally, they are geared towards working within
[00:26:25] the country. Sometimes they are allowed to venture
[00:26:29] outside, but in principle, those
[00:26:31] who work abroad, GRU, SVR, they really don't like
[00:26:35] competing firms, because it
[00:26:38] often compromises their agents.
[00:26:41] Well, it's a bit more noticeable in the near
[00:26:44] abroad, because the SVR doesn't work in the near
[00:26:47] abroad. Again, according to agreements, according
[00:26:50] to obligations, work in the near abroad is the work
[00:26:53] of the FSB. So abroad, in
[00:26:56] the near abroad, on the territory of the former USSR, on the territory
[00:27:00] of the CIS, the FSB works, yes, the FSB works.
[00:27:32] Their task was to cultivate Western elites, well, not only
[00:27:36] Western, African, Latin American,
[00:27:38] Asian, through whom the influence of the Soviet Union abroad
[00:27:42] would subsequently be exercised. And the GRU
[00:27:45] is still a purely military direction,
[00:27:48] uncovering military secrets,
[00:27:51] conducting active operations along military
[00:27:55] lines. I think the same remains
[00:27:59] in the current distribution of functions.
[00:28:02] Therefore, the FSB, apparently, deals with political influence,
[00:28:06] political information, well,
[00:28:09] mainly influence. Now I think that uncovering
[00:28:12] secrets is becoming less and less
[00:28:14] frequent. Of course, the GRU
[00:28:17] is involved, the GRU, and the SVR, they
[00:28:19] are actively working abroad. And Evgeny,
[00:28:23] do you think Putin might appoint a civilian, not
[00:28:27] a military person, as the director of the FSB? Well, I
[00:28:30] rather assume that she will be appointed as...
[00:29:03] Then the Kremlin clan decided to strengthen control over
[00:29:06] the special services purely personally, and
[00:29:09] therefore, I rather assume that the director could
[00:29:12] be one of the employees of the President's Security
[00:29:15] Service. Do you mean, among others, one of his
[00:29:18] bodyguards?
[00:29:20] Well, they are all bodyguards, the President's Security Service is
[00:29:23] bodyguards, essentially. Yes, there are different areas
[00:29:27] of protection, from technical
[00:29:31] measures, analysis.
[00:29:41] Well, or the FSO, that's a larger group of people, there are
[00:29:44] more, more personnel, although I think
[00:29:48] that if he does go down this path, the decision will be made at the
[00:29:51] Presidential Security Service level. As for a civilian, well, what civilian
[00:29:54] person, why a civilian person? Putin doesn't
[00:29:58] like such decisive breakthroughs, why would he need
[00:30:01] that? What could he be unhappy with? Well, the First
[00:30:05] Service, the counterintelligence and military
[00:30:08] counterintelligence service. Here, in terms
[00:30:11] of counterintelligence, as I said, the tasks are narrowing, the circle of foreigners
[00:30:15] is shrinking, so there is less
[00:30:19] work left. In terms of military intelligence, the most
[00:30:22] important thing is ensured. It's already the
[00:30:25] fifth year that the military on the front line
[00:30:29] obediently go to their deaths, not trying to evade what...