Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:36A guard, a collective farmer, or a poisoner, the reform
00:00:39of the main security agency. The main actor
00:00:43in the so-called reform is the head of Rosneft,
00:00:46Igor Sechin. Alexander Bortnikov is being retired. According
00:00:50to one version, Putin doesn't
00:00:53want a professional FSB officer,
00:00:57a professional leader, to head this structure, because it
00:01:00would strengthen it even more. Russia is suffering a defeat in Donbas
00:01:03and daily bombs
00:01:06Ukraine. There, put it, they have to
00:01:09retreat to pre-prepared positions. This
00:01:12is true. Is Putin ready to impose
00:01:16martial law? The fact that Belousov dreams of calling
00:01:19another several hundred thousand
00:01:22people into the army is a fact, no one hides this.
00:01:26The "Edges of Time" program. Weekly results. My name is
00:01:30Shakirov, let's start!
00:01:47Let's start with almost social news: the FSB
00:01:51decided to improve comfort for its leadership. The project was published
00:01:54on the portal of normative legal acts, writes the agency's
00:01:58publication. According to the document, board members are allowed
00:02:01to fly first class. I completely stretched my legs out,
00:02:05lay down, and I still have this much space. Even if you are
00:02:091.90 meters tall, probably 2-3, you will be quite
00:02:12comfortable here. And not only for official business. First
00:02:16class will be available even to vacationers, including family
00:02:19members. Some colonels will get Comfort class. And all
00:02:23this, of course, will be paid for by the state, that is, us -
00:02:26the taxpayers. The news perfectly confirms
00:02:30are truly becoming the new
00:02:33nobility in Russia, they have privileges and status,
00:02:36but first class is just the tip
00:02:39of the iceberg. Much more interesting is what is happening
00:02:43within the FSB itself. Lately, the word "reform"
00:02:46has been heard. Journalists and experts write about it. The FSB
00:02:49has long gone far beyond security. Today,
00:02:53the FSB controls the court, controls
00:02:56the investigation, controls the prosecution, the Ministry
00:03:00of Internal Affairs, there should be no doubts
00:03:03about this, even the National Guard,
00:03:06the army. Therefore, such a
00:03:09super-monster has formed, which controls everyone,
00:03:12for example, all important, serious
00:03:16court cases, they proceed, so to speak,
00:03:19gently, with consultation from the FSB or under their full
00:03:22control, depending on the grounds for initiating these criminal
00:03:25cases. The Central Bank and Russian banks
00:03:28are under the control of the FSB. It's not
00:03:32that this wasn't the case before, but it was a different
00:03:35degree of control, it was precisely the degree of control related
00:03:38to certain issues of maintaining secrets, so that there
00:03:42wouldn't be data leaks and so on and so forth. Now it's
00:03:46a feeding ground. The founder of the important history
00:03:49publication, Roman Anin, also talks about possible changes.
00:03:53This is not just about personnel changes, experts speak
00:03:56of a conflict within the system. That these clans throughout
00:04:00the 25 years that they have been in power, have constantly fought
00:04:04each other, these power clans. Well, for example, we listed various
00:04:07special services and forgot to mention such an important department
00:04:10as the National Guard, which is headed by Putin's former
00:04:13bodyguard, Viktor Zolotov, nicknamed "The Pierced" in the criminal world
00:04:17of St. Petersburg. He had such a nickname because, as one of the leaders of that
00:04:21criminal world admitted to me, he was an absolutely stupid person
00:04:24from the Australopithecus era, who at the same time is ready for any
00:04:28cruelty by...
00:05:12the FSB for decades, now he himself is beginning to fear
00:05:16the monster, believes Gennady Gudkov, and speaks of a possible change
00:05:19in leadership, and an unusual
00:05:22option is being discussed: the new director may come from outside, not
00:05:25a career Chekist and not a general, but a person with
00:05:28a civilian background. For the FSB, this would be a serious
00:05:31signal, possibly just the beginning of a major restructuring.
00:05:35Putin is concerned about the sharp increase
00:05:38in the FSB's influence, its political influence.
00:05:42Not just that they are carving up
00:05:46some enterprises, looting there, participating in corrupt
00:05:49schemes, but he is concerned about the increased political
00:05:52influence of the FSB. Now, when the question of
00:05:56Bortnikov's retirement is being decided,
00:06:00everyone - people in the near-Kremlin circles
00:06:02confirm, at least they know this,
00:06:05one of the versions, which I
00:06:08heard from more competent people, according to one
00:06:12version, Putin does not want
00:06:15a professional FSB officer, that is, a professional
00:06:18leader, a person who made a career there, to head
00:06:22this structure, because it would further strengthen it, those people who
00:06:26today lead the FSB, they participate in the distribution
00:06:29of all the most influential clans of Russia, in these internal
00:06:33squabbles, in this struggle, and there is even such a thought,
00:06:37I have already heard it, that Putin is now looking for an outsider
00:06:40candidate to appoint.
00:07:12experience. According to journalist Sergei Kanev
00:07:16of The Insider, changes in the FSB may begin after Alexander Bortnikov's
00:07:19anniversary. On November 15, the director of the FSB will turn
00:07:2275 years old, and perhaps his retirement will also take
00:07:26place at the same time. It is after this date that a personnel
00:07:30reshuffle of the department may begin. Kanev considers Igor Sechin,
00:07:34the head of Rosneft, to be one of the main players in the struggle
00:07:38for influence. As it seems to me, the main
00:07:41actor in this so-called reform
00:07:44is the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin,
00:07:48who is once again trying
00:07:52to place his people in key positions in the
00:07:54FSB, and his main protégé
00:07:58is General Ivan Tkachev,
00:08:01nicknamed "the collective farmer." At one time, Ivan Tkachev
00:08:04headed the sixth service of the FSB's Internal Security
00:08:08Directorate, the so-called Sechin Special Forces,
00:08:11then Sechin moved him to
00:08:14Directorate K, the banking division of the
00:08:17FSB.
00:08:18Sechin
00:08:21is currently in the chair of the head of the FSB's
00:08:25counterintelligence, the military counterintelligence of the FSB,
00:08:28which means he controls the entire army. And
00:08:32I think he will try to move
00:08:35Tkachev
00:08:37later to the leadership
00:08:40of the FSB. There is also another influential figure -
00:08:44Alexei Sidorov. He heads the second service
00:08:47of the FSB. This unit is responsible for protecting the constitutional
00:08:50order. Sidorov has been at the head of the service since
00:08:542006. He began his career in the Leningrad KGB, so
00:08:58he is considered part of the St. Petersburg Chekist group. Sidorov
00:09:01was described in an interview by former FSB Second Service officer
00:09:05Alexander Fedotov. A year ago, he fled Russia.
00:09:08As far as I know, Sidorov has the right to call
00:09:12the first person, Vladimir
00:09:15Putin, he is a member of the St. Petersburg
00:09:18group. Having come in 2006 from
00:09:21the SZKSBT, he was then, I believe,
00:09:24a Major General, he received
00:09:26an unusually
00:09:28rapid career advancement to Army General, because
00:09:31not all FSB directors are
00:09:35Army Generals, and Sidorov formally, he is not even
00:09:38a deputy director, he is tough, he is really tough, for example, when
00:09:42he called me by phone
00:09:46while on the road, because for communication with him I had a phone
00:09:49in my office, without a dial, so I picked up the receiver, I knew it was him calling, but when
00:09:53he called from the road, he never greeted me, he always said,
00:09:56"It's Sidorov," that is, it sounded like
00:10:00a roar, like a lion, "It's Sidorov." In practice,
00:10:03Sidorov's second service is also engaged in political
00:10:06control, among its areas is the fight against so-called
00:10:09political extremism. We all know, thanks to Christo Grozev's
00:10:13investigations, about the role of officers of the second service
00:10:16in the poisoning of Navalny, in the poisoning of other
00:10:20opposition figures, and it's important to understand
00:10:22that the second
00:10:25service - we know about its most bloodthirsty
00:10:28manifestations and examples, but it has
00:10:32a very wide range of functions, for example, few people know that it is the second service that oversees all
00:10:35education in Russia, and in the second
00:10:38service there is such a department for combating terrorism
00:10:42and political extremism UBTP,
00:10:45and it is precisely this that is responsible for all education. When I say
00:10:48responsible, what does that mean in practice? In practice, this means
00:10:52that, for example, in the Ministry of Education there will definitely be...
00:10:56as part of the ministry, as a rule, it is the deputy minister,
00:10:59who will be delegated there, seconded there from
00:11:02the FSB. And he will monitor to ensure that no
00:11:06orders, no decisions
00:11:08are made that could, God forbid,
00:11:12negatively affect the patriotic education
00:11:16of future youth. In key universities of Russia, there are seconded
00:11:19employees who monitor the
00:11:22sentiments of students and teachers, that
00:11:26is, this is a service that
00:11:29is directed, the second service, which is directed at suppressing all
00:11:33dissent. But the personnel intrigue does not
00:11:36end there. Among the possible candidates, Sergei Kanev
00:11:39names another general. This is Sergei
00:11:43Beseda, former head of the fifth FSB service. It was this
00:11:46unit that actively worked on Ukraine before the war. After
00:11:50the failure of this work, Beseda did not retain his post, but
00:11:53he did not disappear from the system.
00:11:58advisor to FSB Director Bortnikov. Kanev considers Beseda practically
00:12:01unsinkable. And this is especially interesting now,
00:12:05because the personnel struggle within the FSB continues, old
00:12:09players do not disappear. General Beseda
00:12:13is part of the circle
00:12:16of the untouchables. That is, whatever he did, nothing
00:12:19will happen to him. Well, yes, he failed the Ukrainian direction.
00:12:23Well, yes. He paid too much
00:12:26attention to Yanukovych and Azarov, the former
00:12:30prime minister, who whispered in his ear that
00:12:33Ukrainians were just waiting for Russian tanks
00:12:37and would greet them with lard and garlic,
00:12:41this did not happen, therefore Beseda
00:12:45was removed from the leadership of the fifth service
00:12:48of the FSB, the same FSB intelligence, and
00:12:51transferred him closer to the administration.
00:13:29checklist of questions to an FSB officer. "I
00:13:32deleted the correspondence." "We will restore it."
00:13:35"I created a fake account." "We will identify it." "I
00:13:39used someone else's SIM card." "We will find out." "I received payment in
00:13:43cryptocurrency." "We will de-anonymize." The Sverdlovsk
00:13:46FSB Directorate explains in the language of memes. "Deleted correspondence,
00:13:50turned on VPN, bought someone else's SIM card. It won't help. There are no
00:13:53anonymous people on the Internet." The other thing is, if the terrorist
00:13:57is real, like the one who remotely detonated
00:14:01a bomb on August 1st on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, in a restaurant in a Stalinist
00:14:04skyscraper, the commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces
00:14:08was celebrating his anniversary. Five people died a few hundred meters from the Government
00:14:11House. Several months have passed, and the criminal
00:14:15remains anonymous to the FSB. Everything
00:14:18we can do, of course, we are doing, but we
00:14:22are also not limitless in our capabilities, but nevertheless...
00:15:25the terrorist attack on four military airfields, when drones that took off
00:15:28from trucks struck strategic Russian bombers,
00:15:32oil refineries, which the Armed Forces hit with almost 200
00:15:35successful strikes, also remained
00:15:38also include the terrorist attack in Dagestan, when during
00:15:41the attack on synagogues, churches, and police posts,
00:15:4522 people were killed, and of course,
00:15:48the terrorist attack in Crocus, 145 dead. Later it became known that
00:15:52the USA had warned about the impending attack 2
00:15:55weeks earlier. But this, of course,
00:15:58means that our
00:16:01relevant law enforcement, special
00:16:04services, are missing these strikes.
00:16:37The B did not cope even before the war. Nordost, Beslan, exploded
00:16:41planes, explosions in the Moscow metro, in Domodedovo,
00:16:44according to the international Global Terrorism Database, from 2000 to
00:16:482001, there were almost 2,000 terrorist attacks
00:16:51and almost 3,500 deaths. It was not customary
00:16:55to punish the FSB for such things; it was customary
00:16:59to award them. The general who led the headquarters during Nordost,
00:17:02where 130 hostages died, received
00:17:06a Hero star three months later.
00:17:08this is a service that is primarily concerned
00:17:11with the security of the country
00:17:14and the state. In Russia, first of all, the FSB, I
00:17:18even prefer to call it the KGB, so as not to get confused with all these
00:17:21letters, it primarily protects itself, it
00:17:25protects the regime, and I want to note that
00:17:28it was structured this way from the moment
00:17:32of 1918. In the Cheka documents, it is precisely
00:17:36written: it is a service that
00:17:39primarily protects the regime from its
00:17:43ideological opponents, and so it has been throughout the years. If
00:17:47you look at the special folders of the KGB, the special folders
00:17:50of the Politburo, as the CPSU, there it is always said
00:17:53that we must prevent
00:17:56the penetration of dangerous ideology into the Soviet Union, we
00:17:59must protect against the penetration of this ideology and
00:18:03so on. The efforts of the special services are primarily aimed at
00:18:06prevention.
00:18:14Russia already has TikTok troops. This is Kadyrov's army,
00:18:18which, instead of fighting, filmed videos with shooting at empty
00:18:21houses. Now Russia has a couch special service
00:18:25that, instead of terrorists, catches Russians on the internet. And here it
00:18:28has only victories. Last year, more than 2,000
00:18:32people were convicted on terrorism charges, twice as many as the year
00:18:36before, almost every second one not for an explosion, but for
00:18:39words. The youngest terrorist is 14 years old. In
00:18:43the same list as militants are now journalist Yuri
00:18:46Dud and Telegram creator Pavel Durov. Such
00:18:49a special service now has different expenses, uniforms will be issued
00:18:53less often and not to everyone. We are joined by Evgeny
00:18:56Savostyanov, head of state security agencies for
00:19:00Moscow and the Moscow region in the nineties. Evgeny,
00:19:03hello. Hello, Moymin, hello,
00:19:06dear viewers and
00:19:09listeners, I am glad to welcome you. I
00:19:13usually start lately with the slogan: Russia is now the enemy
00:19:16of Europe, this needs to be hammered into the brains of European
00:19:20ordinary citizens. Good, now let's move on. Tell me, how
00:19:23was the current structure of the FSB formed, what is its difference from
00:19:27the KGB? Well, you know, I haven't
00:19:31worked in this structure for a very long time,
00:19:34how many years is it now, 32 years.
00:19:38So, its formation took place almost entirely under
00:19:41Putin. When he was appointed in
00:19:44ninety-nine, ninety-eight
00:19:48as director of the FSB, he began to slowly,
00:19:52and not so slowly, form this St. Petersburg
00:19:55management team of the FSB. And
00:19:58if we take the initial period, well, of course, it was
00:20:01just the dismemberment of the KGB, one could even say,
00:20:05to some extent, the liquidation of the KGB.
00:20:50The country is at war, which means that the tasks of military counterintelligence
00:20:54are increasing. The country is moving, well, it has
00:20:58already moved into a purely dictatorial regime, which means that
00:21:01the tasks of combating dissent are intensifying.
00:21:04Do the protection of the regime and
00:21:07the service itself remain its main goal?
00:21:10Well, it became, I would say that in the nineties
00:21:13the protection of the regime was not a goal at all, but then
00:21:17the FSK, the Ministry of Security, we generally...
00:21:20were engaged in protecting the regime, yes,
00:21:23it was believed that the regime was in a stage of democratic
00:21:26formation, and in general, protecting the system is an incorrect
00:21:30concept, we need to protect the constitutional order,
00:21:33changes to the system. So when people took up arms
00:21:36or were preparing to take up arms, we then entered
00:21:40into a struggle with them. But as long as they were within the framework of ordinary
00:21:43parliamentary activity, we showed excessive
00:21:47tolerance, I would say so, we did not chase
00:21:50communists, we did not chase Zhirinovsky's supporters,
00:21:53that is, they had the opportunity to conduct their political
00:21:57work completely freely. Now, yes, now, of course, it is not
00:22:01just the protection of the system, not just the protection of the regime, it is the protection
00:22:04of the sole power of one person, that is, everything
00:22:08is tailored to ensure that Putin's dream of living
00:22:11forever, ruling forever, reviving
00:22:14empires, and dictating his
00:22:17will to the world is fulfilled. It is in
00:22:20this
00:22:29that the transformation of the FSB's
00:22:32work lies during those
00:22:35years, not only under Bortnikov, but it also began under Patrushev
00:22:39and under Putin himself, as I just said,
00:22:42through personnel appointments. Well, in general, everything is geared towards
00:22:46first strengthening the power of the St. Petersburg team, then individually.
00:22:52What do you know about the people being nominated to replace
00:22:55Bortnikov, FSB General, head of Directorate
00:22:59K-4 of the Service, the Economic Security Service,
00:23:02of the FSB, Ivan Tkachev, and First Deputy Director of the FSB
00:23:06Sergey Korolev and Alexey Sidorov, head of the Second
00:23:09Service? If Tkachev is Sechin's man, can it be said that
00:23:13the FSB is totally corrupt, and repression
00:23:15is just a consequence of this, and not
00:23:18an end in itself?
00:24:20put at the head of the KGB, effectively, well, at that time
00:24:23it was the AFB, then there was a decision to create the Ministry
00:24:27of Security and Internal Affairs headed by Barannikov. Police officers
00:24:31across the country were horrified because they understood that
00:24:34all their agents would now be killed, physically
00:24:38killed, because it would become known to the cops among whom they
00:24:41worked. So there was a mass destruction
00:24:45of police agent files, and the people themselves
00:24:48who worked in this area began to resign. For example,
00:24:52Sidorov left
00:24:54then, so it seems, either to the AFB, he
00:24:58submitted his resignation, to the Ministry of Security he had already resigned. But then almost
00:25:01the entire leadership of the AFB came to
00:25:05me, except for Ivanenko.
00:25:08This is a truly unique case for the head of the Moscow
00:25:11Directorate, one of the deputies to the chairman, for the entire
00:25:14leadership to come for advice, there was Podelyakin,
00:25:17and Polsky, and Orlov, and...
00:25:20Almazov, they come and say, "What should we do, Evgeny
00:25:23Vadimovich, they will all fire us now?" I sat
00:25:26and thought, and said, "Look, the country is moving into a new regime,
00:25:30a completely new economy is forming, new tax issues.
00:25:34Let's build a financial guard like in Italy,
00:25:36a national system of tax police." They liked
00:25:40this terrible idea, they left, pushed
00:25:43the idea through, and that's how the tax police arose, where Sidorov
00:25:47went to work. Then, by the way, Sidorov...
00:26:02Musidov, he now heads the second service of the FSB.
00:26:06What do they do? Only internal affairs or provocations
00:26:09and sabotage in Europe are also their doing?
00:26:13Well, apparently, this work is enough for them, but
00:26:17of course, it's mainly internal
00:26:19tasks.
00:26:22Functionally, they are geared towards working within
00:26:25the country. Sometimes they are allowed to venture
00:26:29outside, but in principle, those
00:26:31who work abroad, GRU, SVR, they really don't like
00:26:35competing firms, because it
00:26:38often compromises their agents.
00:26:41Well, it's a bit more noticeable in the near
00:26:44abroad, because the SVR doesn't work in the near
00:26:47abroad. Again, according to agreements, according
00:26:50to obligations, work in the near abroad is the work
00:26:53of the FSB. So abroad, in
00:26:56the near abroad, on the territory of the former USSR, on the territory
00:27:00of the CIS, the FSB works, yes, the FSB works.
00:27:32Their task was to cultivate Western elites, well, not only
00:27:36Western, African, Latin American,
00:27:38Asian, through whom the influence of the Soviet Union abroad
00:27:42would subsequently be exercised. And the GRU
00:27:45is still a purely military direction,
00:27:48uncovering military secrets,
00:27:51conducting active operations along military
00:27:55lines. I think the same remains
00:27:59in the current distribution of functions.
00:28:02Therefore, the FSB, apparently, deals with political influence,
00:28:06political information, well,
00:28:09mainly influence. Now I think that uncovering
00:28:12secrets is becoming less and less
00:28:14frequent. Of course, the GRU
00:28:17is involved, the GRU, and the SVR, they
00:28:19are actively working abroad. And Evgeny,
00:28:23do you think Putin might appoint a civilian, not
00:28:27a military person, as the director of the FSB? Well, I
00:28:30rather assume that she will be appointed as...
00:29:03Then the Kremlin clan decided to strengthen control over
00:29:06the special services purely personally, and
00:29:09therefore, I rather assume that the director could
00:29:12be one of the employees of the President's Security
00:29:15Service. Do you mean, among others, one of his
00:29:18bodyguards?
00:29:20Well, they are all bodyguards, the President's Security Service is
00:29:23bodyguards, essentially. Yes, there are different areas
00:29:27of protection, from technical
00:29:31measures, analysis.
00:29:41Well, or the FSO, that's a larger group of people, there are
00:29:44more, more personnel, although I think
00:29:48that if he does go down this path, the decision will be made at the
00:29:51Presidential Security Service level. As for a civilian, well, what civilian
00:29:54person, why a civilian person? Putin doesn't
00:29:58like such decisive breakthroughs, why would he need
00:30:01that? What could he be unhappy with? Well, the First
00:30:05Service, the counterintelligence and military
00:30:08counterintelligence service. Here, in terms
00:30:11of counterintelligence, as I said, the tasks are narrowing, the circle of foreigners
00:30:15is shrinking, so there is less
00:30:19work left. In terms of military intelligence, the most
00:30:22important thing is ensured. It's already the
00:30:25fifth year that the military on the front line
00:30:29obediently go to their deaths, not trying to evade what...