Alexander Bortnikov
Alexander Bortnikov | |
---|---|
Алексaндр Бoртников | |
Sergei Smirnov | |
Preceded by | Nikolai Patrushev |
Personal details | |
Born | Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov 15 November 1951 Syrian Civil War |
Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Бо́ртников; born 15 November 1951) is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) since 2008. He is one of the most powerful members of the silovik faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle.[1][a] A Hero of the Russian Federation since 2019, he also holds the rank of General of the Army, the second highest grade in use in the Russian military.[b] According to some experts, it's likely Bortnikov played a key role in Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in 2022.[2]
Early life and career
Bortnikov was born in
Bortnikov's break came in June 2003, when Sergey Smirnov, chief of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast FSB, was sent to Moscow to become the principal deputy to the director of the agency amid the Three Whales Corruption Scandal. Bortnikov was promoted to fill the vacancy. On 24 February 2004 he was moved to Moscow and made chief of the Economic Security Service of the FSB, a deputy director of the agency. Sergey Naryshkin, the current head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was transferred from St. Petersburg to Moscow at the same time.[citation needed]
In February 2007, Russian magazine
In May 2007, he was reported to have been implicated in a
Director of the FSB
On 12 May 2008, Bortnikov was appointed Director of the FSB by president Dmitry Medvedev.[9] His tenure as FSB director has seen the agency return to the "punishing sword" once ascribed to the Cheka.[10]
Bortnikov is widely seen as a hawk and a willing participant in the Russian government's political repression at home and subversion abroad, however, compared to his peers, Bortnikov has a reputation as one of the more individually honest figures. One former FSB officer claimed Bornikov is "uncomfortable with the condition of the agency, the blatant corruption, the indiscipline, the mercenaryism. But he doesn't know what to do about it, and thinks it's not as important as doing the [political] job'."[11]
In a December 2017 open letter published by
Bortnikov and his son Denis are members of the Navalny 35, a list of Russian human rights abusers compiled by Alexei Navalny, both have been subsequently sanctioned by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.
In March 2021, a law was enacted to allow presidential appointees like Bortnikov (who turned 70 in 2022) to serve past statutory retirement age.[13]
Sources say Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 was influenced by a small group of war hawks around him, including Nikolai Patrushev, Yury Kovalchuk and Alexander Bortnikov. Bortnikov's FSB convinced Putin that most Ukrainians would welcome Russian troops as liberators.[2] Konstantine Skorkin, a Russia Expert at the Carnegie Center, told New Voice of Ukraine in an interview that Bortnikov and Patrushev were formed by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and "believe that a bloc confrontation with the West is a reasonable and correct world order. And in order to return to a predictable and manageable confrontation, it is necessary to divide the zones of influence through war, even with the risk of a clash with NATO. According to Patrushev and Bortnikov, Ukraine should be in the Russian zone of influence".[2]
On 20 March 2022, the
On 25 March 2022,
Shortly after the
Diplomatic role
In February 2015, at the invitation of the United States, Bortnikov led a Russian delegation to a
On 27–28 January 2018, Bortnikov again visited the United States on a highly unusual trip together with the head of the
As chairman of the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee and Chairman of the Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the
Personal life and family
Bortnikov is married to Tatyana Bortnikova (née Borisovna).[21] Together they have one son, Denis Aleksandrovich Bortnikov (born 19 November 1974), who is deputy director of VTB Bank, the second largest financial institution in Russia. Bortnikov's brother, Mikhail Vasilyevich Bortnikov, born in 1953, is a retired colonel, his sister Olga Vasilievna Bortnikova, born in 1958, is a pensioner.
From November 2004 to May 2008, Bortnikov was a member of the board of directors of Sovcomflot (SCF), Russia's largest shipping company and hydrocarbon transporter.[22]
Corruption allegations
On 27 July 2015, Novaya Gazeta released an investigative report which claimed Bortnikov, as well as a number of other senior FSB officials, were involved in a land settlement in Moscow's Odintsov district.[23] According to the newspaper, the group arranged the sale of 4.8 hectares (12 acres) of land on the site of a public kindergarten along the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway (along which elite estates including Vladimir Putin's primary residency at Novo-Ogaryovo lie). In exchange for illegally privatizing the public land, each allegedly received around $2.5 million.[23][24] According to the newspaper, the published investigations are one of the reasons the FSB has offered to shut down public access to Rosreestr's registry of property ownership. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of any investigation into wrongdoing.[24][25]
In 2018, Roskomnadzor shut down the investigative reporting website Russiangate.com hours after the site published a report alleging that Bortnikov owned a secret land plot and luxury house in Sestroretsk, 30 kilometers northwest of Saint Petersburg, worth up to 300 million rubles ($5.3 million), on which he had not been paying taxes.[26]
Sanctions
Bortnikov was officially sanctioned by the
On 22 February 2022, in response to Russia recognizing the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine during the
Honors and awards
- Hero of the Russian Federation (awarded by "closed decree" in 2019 or 2020)[29]
- Order of St. George (4th degree)
- Order of Alexander Nevsky
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, full cavalier of the order (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class awards)
- Order of Military Merit
- Order of Honor
- Order of Friendship
- Diploma of the Government of the Russian Federation (2006)
Notes
- ^ Other siloviki close to Bortnikov include Igor Sechin, Nikolai Patrushev, and Viktor Ivanov.[1]
- ^ The one higher rank, the five star Marshal of the Russian Federation, has been held only by Igor Sergeyev, who was elevated to the rank in 1997 and died in 2006. The rank has not been used since.
References
- ^ a b Harding, Luke (21 December 2007). "Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ^ a b c "A look at the trio who convinced Putin to invade". Yahoo News. 9 January 2023.
- ^ "Biographies of the political leaders of the Medvedev Administration" (PDF). Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. 2010.
- ^ "FSB Leadership". Federal Security Service. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ^ Ball, Tom (7 March 2022). "This war will be a total failure, FSB whistleblower says". The Times.
- The New Times№1 5 February 2007.
- NEWSru.com23 May 2007.
- ^ FSB Shuffle Seen Helping Medvedev Archived 17 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Moscow Times 13 May 2008.
- ^ Kovacevic, Filip (21 February 2022). "Meet Putin's Top Enabler, FSB Boss Alexander Bortnikov". Spytalk. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ Galeotti, Mark (16 March 2021). "Korolev's coronation and the rise of the ruthless in the FSB". Raam op Rusland (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ Russian academics slam FSB security chief for comments on Stalin’s purges The Japan Times 24 December 2017.
- ^ "Путин подписал закон о снятии возрастных ограничений для назначенных им чиновников" [Putin signed the law on the removal of age restrictions for officials appointed by him]. Interfax (in Russian). 24 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ Kika, Thomas (20 March 2022). "Russia's elite want Putin out, successor in mind: Ukraine intel chief". Newsweek. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ "Not only Shoigu disappeared from public view, but other key security officials did too – Zolotov, Bortnikov and Kostyukov" [Из публичного пространства пропал не только Шойгу, но и другие ключевые силовики – Золотов, Бортников и Костюков]. The Moscow Times (in Russian). 25 March 2022. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
- ^ [1]
- RosBusinessConsulting(in Russian). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ Goryashko, Sergey; Corerra, Gordon (1 February 2018). "Директор ЦРУ раскрыл тему тайной встречи с главами российских разведок" [Director of the CIA revealed the topic of a secret meeting with the heads of Russian intelligence]. BBC News Russian (in Russian). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ a b c d Kovacevic, Filip (21 February 2022). "Meet Putin's Top Enabler, FSB Boss Alexander Bortnikov". SpyTalk. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ "Russia's Siloviki Head to Tajikistan, Moscow's Important Ally". Warsaw Institute. 28 May 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ "Бортников Александр Васильевич". TAdviser.ru. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ^ "Bortnikov, Alexander Vasilievich". TASS. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ a b Kanev, Sergei (6 April 2016). "Лубянские на Рублевке - Расследования" [Lubyansky on Rublyovka: How the leadership of the FSB of Russia earned millions of dollars on deals with the land of the former departmental kindergarten]. Novaya Gazeta. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ RosBusinessConsulting. 27 July 2015. Archived from the originalon 23 November 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- RosBusinessConsulting. 27 July 2015. Archived from the originalon 23 October 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ "Russian Site Blocked After Report on FSB Chief's Alleged Secret Real Estate". The Moscow Times. 24 January 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ "CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK" (PDF). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ Strohecker, Karin (22 February 2022). "Explainer-How Western sanctions will target Russia". Reuters. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
- ^ Smirnov, Vitaly. "Бортников Александр Васильевич". warheroes.ru. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
External links
- His page in electronic database "anticompromat.ru" (Russian) Archived 23 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine and his index page, by Vladimir Pribylovsky