A History of the Russian FSB
BOOK REVIEW: The Russian FSB: A Concise History of the Federal Security Service
By Kevin Riehle / Georgetown University Press
Reviewed by: Michael Sulick
The Reviewer – Michael Sulick is a consultant on counterintelligence and global risk. He served as Chief of Counterintelligence and Director of the Clandestine Service at CIA and is the author of Spying in America: Espionage From the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War and American Spies: Espionage Against the United States from the Cold War to the Present.
REVIEW — Kevin Riehle’s The Russian FSB is part of the Georgetown University Press series of histories of key intelligence services around the world. The histories are primarily intended for upper level undergraduate and graduate students of intelligence, international relations and history but should also be of interest to laymen and those in the national security field. The author more than satisfies the publisher’s goals for these histories – The Russian FSB is a concise yet comprehensive overview of the Russian internal service’s history, operations, impact on policy, successes and failures, and even its place in the popular culture of the country.
Riehle persuasively argues that the FSB is a direct heir to the tradition of both its Tsarist and Soviet predecessors. Whether Russian internal services have served a succession of monarchs, the communist party or now the Putin regime, their mindset, modus operandi, and role in national security remain the same. As the author notes in the opening sentence of the study, the FSB’s foremost mission is not protecting the nation but ensuring the security of the ruling regime, the same mission its forebearers embraced. The author provides a wealth of concrete examples that illustrate the similarities of Russian internal services through the centuries dating back to the early days of the empire, including proud statements about this tradition by former KGB and FSB senior officers.
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The author also captures well the mindset of the “Chekist,” the term ascribed to Russian intelligence officers that derives from the “Cheka,” a much-needed acronym for the name of the first Soviet security organ, the tortuously long winded “All-Russian Extraordinary Commission on Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR.” From the Soviet era to the present, the Chekist has believed in authoritarianism and strong state control of its citizenry, a conviction aggravated by paranoia, xenophobia, and obsession with the threat of constant siege by foreign enemies. The same mentality that sparked the brutality of Ivan the Terrible centuries ago now shapes Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime and warped vision of history that led to his tragic invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, the world has changed, and the study also discusses the FSB’s evolution from the Soviet era KGB. Riehle provides excellent examples of the post-Soviet FSB, endowed by Putin with broader mandates, spreading its tentacles into the economic and technological spheres, increasing its influence in banking and state enterprises, and its cyber espionage against its western enemies and domestic enforcement of the regime’s draconian controls on telecommunications and internet providers.
One of the strengths of Riehle’s study is his use of Russian source materials, a feature often lacking in Western treatments of the topic. Despite regime censorship, more homegrown literature on Russian intelligence is available now than in the Soviet era, and the author’s extensive bibliography and footnotes indicate broad familiarity and research on a wide range of issues concerning the FSB.
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While the FSB was also given responsibility for certain public corruption cases, the study includes well documented cases of corruption among its own officers (among other cases, video exposés by the late Aleksey Navalny revealed FSB complicity in Putin’s corruption). Ironically, some of the officers arrested for corruption were from the FSB’s Economic Counterintelligence unit charged with investigating and preventing such crimes.
One of the most controversial events concerning the FSB was the tragic 1999 bombing of apartment buildings in Russia which the Putin regime ascribed to Chechen terrorists. Anomalies surrounding the event and its aftermath have led to theories that Putin himself ordered the bombing to foment popular outrage, justify the regime’s harsh reprisals and counter Western critics of his Chechnya policy. The author presents a detailed examination of the FSB’s role in investigating the incident and list of the many anomalies without taking sides on the conspiracy issue – he does, however, note that the inept handling of the incident by the regime, especially the FSB, contributed to the spread of the Russia as culprit theory.
Among the FSB’s broader mandates was an increased role in the former Soviet republics, including Ukraine. The study discusses the apparent FSB intelligence failure, again with a wealth of detail, but the author wisely admits that it is too early for a comprehensive examination of the issue. Revelations will inevitably surface and hopefully will provide the author an opportunity to deal with the topic in a second revised edition.
Riehle’s FSB will serve as an excellent handbook for students and laymen in the intelligence field. The book is also especially timely given Putin’s aggression in Ukraine and the key role the Russia security service plays in the conflict. Those working on current national security issues who are not well versed in the machinations of Russian intelligence would be well served by reading it.
The Russian FSB: A Concise History of the Federal Security Service earns a prestigious 4 out of 4 trench coats
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