New book casts light on the workings of the FSB

It is the most powerful, influential institution in Russia. The shadowy security service sprouted out of the nation’s Cold War era security agency, the KGB, in the mid-nineties when at its helm was Russia’s now President, Vladimir Putin. But beyond that, what do we know about the shadowy FSB?

Out now, The Russian FSB takes a timely look at the nation’s main domestic security service, going back to its roots to unravel its mindset and reveal what makes it tick.

“The FSB is one of Russia’s most powerful tools to keep its own people in line and to collect intelligence in Ukraine,” said author, Dr Kevin Riehle.

“There is not a lot available in English on the workings of the FSB, so this should help with that,” added Brunel’s Dr Riehle, who lectures in Security and Intelligence Studies.

Tasked with counterintelligence, counterterrorism and surveillance inside Russia, the agency has an unusually wide remit, including counterintelligence, counterterrorism, surveillance and guarding political stability. Dr Riehle’s book describes the agency’s origins, its place in Russian history, the government’s power structure and wider Russian culture. He traces the FSB’s traits inherited from tsarist regimes and the Soviet era, shedding light on its mysterious modes.

The FSB is not, like many people think, a simple carbon copy of the KGB, says Dr Riehle (above). “It is a mixture of the KGB structure and mindset, alongside pre-Bolshevik security history and memories of the chaos in Russia in the 1990s. The FSB is a powerful tool of the Russian government to ensure that the weakness of the 1990s never returns.”

One of several striking surprises might be that the FSB might not share the Russian government’s public political line on a strategic relationship with China. Like the Soviet-era KGB, The FSB sees China as an intelligence threat, recruiting Russians as spies, hacking into Russian computers and illegally importing Chinese goods into Russia. 

The lasting lesson is that the FSB is one of Russia’s most powerful agencies no democratic country has an equivalent for. “Some mistakenly say that the FSB is the equivalent of the US FBI or the British Security Service,” says Dr Riehle. “However, it combines in one organisation the security, law enforcement, counterintelligence, border control and intelligence powers that in democratic countries are distributed across multiple agencies.”

Before arriving at the Brunel Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies  (BCISS), Dr Riehle spent longer than 30 years working in intelligence and counterintelligence with the Defense Intelligence Agency, US European command, and the FBI. He has written dozens of books about Russian intelligence and defectors. Read his latest BCISS blog unpicking the puzzle of the five Bulgarians accused of spying in Britain.