The Return of 'Iron Felix' and the Future of Russia's Leadership

The Return of ‘Iron Felix’ and the Future of Russia’s Leadership

Posted: September 25th, 2023

By Mark Kelton

Mark Kelton retired from CIA as a senior executive with 34 years of experience in intelligence operations including serving as CIA’s Deputy Director for Counterintelligence. He is a partner at the FiveEyes Group; a member of the Board of Trustees of Valley Forge Military Academy and College; member of the National Security Advisory Board of the MITRE Corp.; member of the Day & Zimmermann Government Services Advisory Board; member of the Siemens Government Technologies Federal Advisory Board; and a member of the Board of BigMediaTV.

After originally being removed in 1997, a replica statue of “Iron Felix” Dzerzhinsky, has now been placed outside the headquarters of Russia’s foreign spy service.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — The recent dedication of a copy of a statue of the founder of the Soviet state security services, Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky that was originally erected in front of the Lubyanka HQs of the KGB in 1958, now stands over the Yasenovo HQs compound of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) as the latest chapter in a lengthy and ongoing rehabilitation of the man known as “Iron Feliks”.

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