Federal Security Service (FSB)
Autoimmune state security: FSB shadows opposition for years before poisoning them with KGB-developed nerve agents. 78% of Russia's political elite have FSB ties. Primary battlefield is domestic.
The FSB is an autoimmune system that attacks its own body's cells. Navalny was shadowed on 30+ flights over three years before being poisoned with Novichok in August 2020. Boris Nemtsov was tailed by the same unit before his 2015 assassination. Kara-Murza was poisoned twice. Litvinenko died of polonium-210 while writing about FSB abuses. This isn't aberrant behavior—it's core function. The FSB exists to maintain regime security, and in Putin's Russia, that means eliminating domestic political threats. The agency's FSB Criminalistics Institute, a Soviet-era KGB poison lab, developed the techniques. US sanctions named nine FSB operatives for the Navalny operation alone. An estimated 78% of Russia's top 1,000 political figures have FSB connections—not surveillance targets but products of the system. Putin himself was FSB director before becoming prime minister. The agency's power derives from this network penetration of the state itself. Counter-intelligence and border security are formal responsibilities, but the practical mandate is simpler: identify threats to the regime and neutralize them. The methods—surveillance, intimidation, imprisonment, poisoning, murder—scale with the threat assessment. Unlike foreign intelligence services that project power outward, the FSB's primary battlefield is Russian society itself.
78% of Russia's top 1,000 political figures have FSB or predecessor agency connections—the security service didn't infiltrate the state; it became the state.
Key Facts
Power Dynamics
Counter-intelligence, border security, counter-terrorism, investigation of serious federal crimes, surveillance
Regime protection is actual mandate; can target any domestic political threat; operates with impunity against opposition figures; network of former officers controls key state positions
- President Putin (former director, ultimate authority)
- FSB Director (operational control)
- No meaningful judicial or legislative oversight
- International consequences only: sanctions, diplomatic expulsions
- President's Administration (direct authority)
- GRU (military intelligence, sometimes competing operations)
- Prosecutor General (coordinates legal persecution)
- Regional FSB offices (domestic network)
- FSB Criminalistics Institute (chemical weapons capability)
Revenue Structure
Federal Security Service (FSB) Revenue Sources
- Russian federal budget (classified) 100%
Budget tied to regime stability and oil revenues; Western sanctions limit technology access; brain drain as skilled personnel emigrate
Domestic focus unlike CIA/Mossad; more similar to Stasi or KGB predecessor in function
Decision Dynamics at Federal Security Service (FSB)
Navalny arrest February 2021: immediate upon return to Russia
Navalny poisoning: 3+ years of surveillance before August 2020 attack
Kremlin political decisions on when to escalate from surveillance to elimination
Failure Modes of Federal Security Service (FSB)
- Navalny investigation: Bellingcat exposed entire FSB assassination unit from telecom data
- Skripal: Novichok attack killed UK civilian, triggered unprecedented diplomatic response
- 1999 apartment bombings: Evidence suggests FSB involvement, undermining counter-terrorism claims
- Impunity creates sloppiness: operations leave evidence trails (Novichok, polonium)
- State capture means FSB interests distort state policy for agency benefit
- Domestic focus leaves foreign intelligence gaps that GRU fills imperfectly
Regime change could expose FSB crimes and trigger accountability; alternatively, FSB network could determine succession
Biological Parallel
The FSB functions like an autoimmune disorder—an immune system that attacks the body's own cells. Healthy immune systems distinguish self from threat; the FSB classifies domestic political opposition as existential threat requiring elimination. Navalny, Nemtsov, Litvinenko were not foreign pathogens—they were Russian citizens advocating political change. The FSB's response (surveillance, poisoning, murder) mirrors how autoimmune diseases destroy healthy tissue that the body misidentifies as dangerous. The 78% elite penetration means the autoimmune system has essentially become the body.