The FSB generals, who currently run this service, form the basis of this key structure, which is designed to ensure the national security of the state. The Federal Security Service, in its current state, was established in 1995, and since then, its leaders have received the closest attention.
Director of the FSB of Russia
Only FSB generals are currently in key management positions in this agency. There are no military officers in the lower ranks, neither first deputies nor deputy service directors.
At present, the head of the FSB of Russia is Alexander Bortnikov. He has been in this post since May 2008, after his predecessor Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev resigned.
Bortnikov was born in 1951 in the city of Molotov, so Perm at that time was called. He is a graduate of the Institute of Railway Engineers, who graduated in Leningrad. In 1975 he graduated from the KGB High School. Then he began to serve in state security agencies. He oversaw counterintelligence operations. He remained in this area of service even after the liquidation of the KGB and the formation of the FSB of Russia.
In 2003, Bortnikov Alexander Vasilievich headed the regional administration for the Leningrad Region and the city of St. Petersburg. Then he headed the economic security service, which is part of the department. In 2006 received the rank of Colonel General of the FSB. According to some reports, the next rank of army general received a few months later - in December of that year.
In 2008, he headed the department, simultaneously taking the post of chairman of the national anti-terrorism committee. He is a member of various government and interdepartmental commissions on a wide range of issues.
Vladimir Kulishov
In order to get the most complete picture of the leadership of the FSB department, we dwell on the personalities of the first deputy directors of this department. There are currently two of them. All of them are generals of the FSB of Russia.
Vladimir Kulishov has the rank of army general. He has been the first deputy director since March 2013. At the same time, he heads the Border Guard Service of the Russian Federation, which is also part of the FSB structure.
Kulishov Vladimir Grigoryevich was born in the Rostov region in 1957. He studied at the Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers, which was based in Kiev. After receiving a diploma of higher education, he worked at a civil aviation factory.
He appeared in the structure of state security bodies in 1982. By that time, Vladimir Grigoryevich Kulishov had already graduated from the KGB High School. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he continued to serve in state security agencies. In 2000, he entered the central administration of the FSB of Russia.
Then, during the year, he headed the department for the Saratov region. Since 2004, he began to oversee the counter-terrorism department, and headed the FSB department in the Chechen Republic. Since 2008, he served as deputy director of the federal government. In 2013, he received the post of first deputy and headed the Border Guard Service.
He served in Chechnya, has the Order "For Military Merit" and the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III degree.
Sergey Smirnov
FSB General Sergei Smirnov is another first deputy director of the agency. He comes from Chita, where he was born in 1950. In his infancy, the family moved to Leningrad, where he spent his childhood and youth. At school, he was a classmate of Boris Gryzlov (ex-minister of internal affairs and ex-chairman of the State Duma) and Nikolai Patrushev (ex-director of the FSB of Russia).
He received his higher education at the Bonch-Bruevich Electrotechnical Institute, which was opened in Leningrad. In his student years he was also closely acquainted with Gryzlov, they studied together again. He began to work at the Central Research Institute of Communications.
He fell into the structure of the KGB in 1974. Since 1975, he has been working in the Leningrad administration. He occupied first operational and then managerial positions.
In 1998, he got a place in the central office of the FSB. He headed the department of own security. In 2000, he became deputy director of the FSB, and since 2003 - first deputy. He has the rank of army general.
First Head of Department
Throughout Russian history, 7 people led the federal department of the FSB. The very first in 1993 was Colonel General Nikolai Mikhailovich Golushko. Then the structure was just being formalized and officially called the Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation.
Golushko stayed in this post for only two months, after which he was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin an adviser to the director of the FSB. During the years of Soviet power, he led the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR.
Stepashin - Director of the FSB
In March 1994, Lieutenant General Sergey Vadimovich Stepashin became the head of the Federal Counterintelligence Service. Under him, the Federal Security Service was founded in April 1995. Formally, he became the first director of the FSB of Russia. True, he stayed in this position for only two and a half months.
After that, I did not get lost in high government posts. Stepashin was the Minister of Justice, headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, served as First Deputy and Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, and until 2013 headed the Accounts Chamber. He currently heads the supervisory board of a state corporation that is engaged in facilitating the reform of the Russian housing and communal services.
FSB leadership in the 90s
In 1995, Army General Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov came to the post of director of the FSB. He has been in the KGB system of the Soviet Union since 1964. He was the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin and acted as a witness during the detention of Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Yanayev, one of the inspirers of the State Emergency Committee.
In the 90s, Barsukov was often criticized by colleagues. In particular, accusing him of low professional qualities. For example, according to the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Anatoly Sergeyevich Kulikov, Barsukov’s entire service was held in the Kremlin, he was responsible for the safety of the top officials of the state. Many believed that Barsukov was at the head of the security service only thanks to Yeltsin’s security chief Alexander Korzhakov, who had a certain influence on the president.
In June 1996, he resigned after a scandal during the Yeltsin campaign. His name is closely related to the detention of activists of the election headquarters of President Lisovsky and Yevstafyev, who tried to take out half a million dollars in a paper box.
Director Nikolay Kovalev
In 1996, the service was headed by FSB General Nikolai Dmitrievich Kovalev. Unlike his predecessors, he spent a little more than two years at this post. Nikolai Kovalev since 1974 in the service of state security agencies. He was appointed to the post of director of the FSB after a scandal over alleged violations of the rules of foreign exchange transactions and the conduct of the presidential campaign of Boris Yeltsin in 1996.
During the leadership of the service, Nikolay Kovalev managed to establish a productive work of the department. Its employees became less likely to get to the pages of the press in connection with various scandals.
After dismissal, he became a deputy of the State Duma. Takes the seat of the people's deputy from the third to the seventh convocation inclusive. He is a member of the "United Russia" faction, heads the expert council of the "Officers of Russia" organization.
Future president
Kovalev was replaced in July 1998 by the future president of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. He was the only head of the department, who at that time did not have a military rank. Putin was just a reserve colonel.
The future head of state appeared in the KGB system back in 1975, immediately after graduating from Leningrad State University. He got to the KGB by distribution.
Having become the head of the FSB, he appointed Patrushev, Ivanov, and Cherkesov the acquaintances as his acquaintances. Reorganized the entire service. In particular, it abolished the department for economic counterintelligence, and also liquidated the counterintelligence department for providing strategic facilities. Instead, he created six new directorates. He achieved a significant increase in employee salaries and uninterrupted financing. Interestingly, Putin himself wished to be the first civilian director of the FSB, abandoning the rank of major general, who proposed to assign him Yeltsin.
Putin left the post of director of the FSB on August 9, becoming chairman of the government. Two days earlier, Chechen fighters under the command of Khattab and Basayev entered Dagestan. The creation of the Islamic State of Dagestan was proclaimed.
Already a prime minister, Putin led an operation against militants. In mid-September, they were finally driven out of Dagestan.
Nikolay Patrushev
After the transition of Vladimir Putin to senior positions in the federal government, the FSB was headed by Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev. He held this post for 9 years.
Just during the period of his work, there was a confrontation between militants and terrorists. The Federal Security Service began to occupy a key position in matters of ensuring the country's security.
Currently, Patrushev holds the post of Secretary of the Federal Security Council.
FSB General Ugryumov
Over the years, a large number of officers served as deputy director of the FSB. Perhaps the most noticeable of them was Admiral German Alekseevich Ugryumov. This is the only naval officer holding such a high position.
Ugryumov hails from Astrakhan, in 1967 he got into the Navy. In 1975, he appeared in the system of the Soviet KGB. He oversaw a special department of the Caspian Flotilla. In the 90s, he became one of the initiators of the case against the journalist Grigory Pasko, who was prosecuted for espionage.
As deputy director of the FSB, he oversaw the work of the Special Purpose Center. It was to this unit that the famous special forces Vympel and Alpha belonged. Noted for counter-terrorism operations in the Chechen Republic. In particular, his figure is associated with the release of Gudermes in 1999, the capture of one of the leaders of the militants Salman Raduyev, the release of hostages in the village of Lazorevsky.
In May 2001, he was awarded the rank of admiral. The next day, he died of a heart attack.
General FSB uniform
Distinguishing the generals of the Federal Security Service to whom our article is devoted is quite simple in form.
The last time it was changed by presidential decree in 2006. Now the form of a protective color, different buttonholes and chevrons, as well as cornflower blue color gaps on the shoulder straps.