Elites play Russian roulette
Updated on 12 November 2007
They're Russia's new elite. The FSB have an iron grip on its money, its energy resources and its political power.
Not since the days of the KGB have the Russian security services wielded such influence. Close allies of President Putin with key posts at the heart of the Kremlin.
But now, as Mr Putin gets ready to relinquish his role, the secret internecine war between Russia's leading security agents has spilled out into the open
A quarter of Russia's elite are today said to have links to the security services. Their grip is almost total on the media, politics and the energy business.
But 20 days from landmark elections, they're falling out among themselves.
The billions floating around Russia are thanks in part to high oil prices, but also to the stability brought in by strongman Putin and his ex-KGB colleagues. The problem with his one man style of authoritarianism, however, is that one day he has to step down as president, and that's coming this March.
What's ensued is infighting between the very men he brought with him to government to bring stability to Russia, and they're fighting over money, power and ultimately who's in charge.
The fight first spilled into the open with the arrest of Alexander Bulbov, the deputy head of the Federal Drugs Control Service. He'd been investigating claims that senior officials in the security services, the FSB, were involved in smuggling cheap Chinese furniture a Moscow store. So, his wife says, the FSB searched their home for seven hours. She next saw her husband in court.
Twenty days from landmark elections, they're falling out among themselves.
His family are now caught between differing clans who both think they are the law. Russia's prosecutor general has said Bulbov should be released. But the FSB have kept him in custody anyway, charged with illegal phone-tapping. His wife is now so sure she's being listened to, she swaps between several phones.
Fearing an escalation, Bulbov's colleagues in the drugs agency broke the security services code of silence.
A direct appeal made to President Putin by Bulbov's boss, Viktor Cherkesov. He wrote an open letter to a liberal newspaper warning that no-one could win "all out war". Putin even replied, telling him not to air dirty laundry in public.
Putin brought into the Kremlin many former colleagues from the KGB. As time has passed, they have split into different factions. The issue at stake is power after Putin. His likely successor Sergei Ivanov, another close confidant and former KGB man, is caught between the two clans as the elite squabble over how secure their grip over the country's energy and money is.
Nobody knows what will happen, so there is huge nervousness. Exactly the opposite of what Putin's authoritarianism was meant to be about.
Putin has tried to answer that question, perhaps trying to stem the infighting. He's hinted he might become prime minister, but then rubbished the idea.
