Intelligence

The security services are commonly portrayed as one of the most powerful actors in Russian politics. Many observers believe that president Vladimir Putin’s background in the Soviet KGB (State Security Committee) is an important guide to his worldview, and his reliance on the KGB and its successor organizations for many top personnel has further solidied the view that Russian security services are one of the dominant, if not the dominant, political actors today. The perceived inuence of the security agencies often is linked directly to the powerful role of the KGB in Soviet politics. Indeed, in the absence of Communist Party control, many argue that the security services have increased their inuence relative to the Soviet era. Putin’s Russia is, in this view, a “KGB state” (Marten, 2017; see also Anderson, 2006; Bateman, 2014).