Russia: All eyes on September polls

Parliamentary elections take place in Russia on Sept. 18. Presidential elections following in March 2018 could see an end to Vladimir Putin’s 14 years as premier. 
A power grab is already underway in the inner circle of the Security Council with siloviki — led by the Federal Security Service (FSB) — challenging Putin’s authority.
Seven of the 13 permanent members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation have an intelligence agency background, including President Vladimir Putin himself, who served in the KGB for 16 years and headed the FSB. 
Following are pen-pix of the other so-called siloviki (strongmen).
Seven of the 13 permanent members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation have an intelligence agency background, including President Vladimir Putin himself, who served in the KGB for 16 years and headed the FSB. Following are pen-pix of the other so-called siloviki (strongmen).
l Nikolay Patrushev: Secretary of the Council, headed the FSB (Federal Security Service) from 1999 to 2008. Patrushev recently declared in Moskovsky Komsomolets “the strategic goal of the West is the destruction of Russia,” that Russia and Ukraine are “one people”, and “all Baltic states are ours.” The British inquiry into the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 implicated Patrushev.
l Aleksandr Bortnikov: Director of the FSB since 2008, he is believed to be one of Putin’s closest and most hawkish advisers on Ukraine and the Muslim North Caucasus. 
Named on EU sanctions list in July 2014 for allegedly fueling separatism in east Ukraine.
l Sergey Ivanov: Kremlin chief-of-staff and former defense minister talks with Putin daily. “We think more or less identically,” he said in 2013. 
Both served in the KGB in the mid-1990s. 
Ivanov served as deputy to Putin when the latter was head of the FSB in 1998. Under US sanctions over Ukraine.
l Rashid Nurgaliyev: Deputy Secretary of Security Council since 2012. KGB member in 1980s-90s, working under Patrushev. 
Nurgaliyev continued when the KGB became the FSK (Federal Counterintelligence Service) in 1991 and FSB in 1995. 
Joined MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs), and in 2004 became Minister of the Interior. The Beslan Mothers Committee accused Nurgaliyev of “negligence and inaction” following the 2004 Beslan school siege, which led to the deaths of more than 385 people 
l Mikhail Fradkov: Director of the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) since 2007. Served as Prime Minister of Russia from 2004 to 2007. 
The spymaster came under attack in 2010 for failing to expose a double agent in his SVR who betrayed 11 Russian sleeper agents to the United States. Fradkov is considered independent among the Kremlin’s warring clans.
l Sergey Naryshkin: Speaker of the State Duma since December 2011. Served at Soviet Embassy in Brussels in 1988, rumored to be a KGB agent. Naryshkin has called for the break up of NATO. The EU placed Naryshkin on its sanctions list following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Source: Arab News