Alexander Bortnikov
Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov (; born 15 November 1951) is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) since 2008. He is one of the most powerful members of the "silovik" faction in the Kremlin, and a member of Vladimir Putin's inner circle. A Hero of the Russian Federation since 2019, he also holds the rank of army general, the highest occupied grade in the Russian military. Early life and career. Bortnikov was born in Molotov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Perm, Russia) in 1951. He graduated from the Leningrad Institute  of Railway Engineers in 1973, and worked as a railway engineer in Gatchina for two years before joining the Committee for State Security (KGB) in 1975. He spent the next 28 years working for the KGB, its interim successor the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK), and ultimately the FSB, based in Saint Petersburg/ Leningrad for the entire period. According to "The Times" of London, Bortnikov and Vladimir Putin first met while both stationed in Leningrad in the 1970s, however Bortnikov has never elaborated on rumors about their first meeting. 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 SVR, was transferred from St. Petersburg to Moscow at the same time. In February 2007, Russian magazine "The New Times" wrote about the plan to murder defected FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko with  reference to a source in the FSB, alleging "head of the FSB Economic Security Department general-lieutenant Alexander Bortnikov had allegedly been appointed overseer of the operation." In May 2007, he was reported to have been implicated in a money laundering case investigated by the Russian Interior Ministry in connection with the murder of the Central Bank Deputy Head Andrey Kozlov. Director of the FSB. On 12 May 2008, Bortnikov was appointed Director of the FSB by president Dmitry Medvedev. His tenure as FSB director has seen the agency return to the "punishing sword" once ascribed to the Cheka. In  a December 2017 open letter published by "Kommersant", more than 30 Russian academics criticized Bortnikov for attempting to legitimize the Stalinist Great Purge in an interview he gave to "Rossiiskaya Gazeta" on the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Cheka, in which Bortnikov said the archives showed "a significant part" of the criminal cases of that period "had an objective side to them." Nikita Petrov, a historian who studies the Soviet security services for Memorial, condemned Bortnikov's claims as legal nihilism in an interview with "Novaya Gazeta". In March 2021, a law was enacted to allow presidential appointees  like Bortnikov (who turns 70 in 2022) to serve past statutory retirement age. On 20 March 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) alleged that Bortnikov was a favorite to replace Vladimir Putin among a group of Russian elites plotting to assassinate Putin in a bid to stabilize the economy and reestablish ties with the West following sanctions imposed on Russia for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. On 25 March 2022, "The Moscow Times" noted that Bortnikov had disappeared from public view since around 11 March 2022, along with other senior siloviki including Sergey Shoigu, Igor Kostyukov and Viktor Zolotov . In response state TV programs subsequently broadcast a purported 24 March security council meeting including brief appearances by many of the missing men, including Bortnikov, but it appeared to simply be an edited version of the earlier 11 March security council meeting. Diplomatic role. In February 2015, at the invitation of the United States, Bortnikov led a Russian delegation to a Washington, D.C. summit on countering violent extremism. His flight to the United States debuted a one-of-a-kind FSB operated Tupolev Tu-214VPU airborne command post. On 27–28 January 2018, Bortnikov again visited the United States on a highly  unusual trip together with the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin, and the head of military intelligence of the Russian Forces (GRU), Igor Korobov. The three met in Washington with CIA director Mike Pompeo, and according to press releases from the CIA, reportedly discussed the threat posed by Islamic State fighters returning from Syria to Russia and Central Asia following interventions in the Syrian Civil War by a U.S.-led coalition and separately by Russia. Bortnikov called the meetings "very useful." Bortnikov has often been tapped as an emissary to former Soviet states during times of heightened tension . On 21 May 2019, he appeared in Dushanbe to meet with leaders of Tajikistan about the increasing presence of Islamic State fighters in neighboring northern Afghanistan. During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, he was dispatched to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and led a trilateral meeting headlined by intelligence chiefs from both belligerents. In December 2021, he was sent to Uzbekistan to meet with Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Personal life and family. Bortnikov is married to Tatyana Bortnikova (née Borisovna). Together they have one son, Denis, who is deputy director of VTB Bank, the second largest financial institution in Russia. From  November 2004 to May 2008, Bortnikov was a member of the board of directors of Sovkomflot, Russia's largest shipping company and hydrocarbon transporter. 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. According to the newspaper, the group arranged the sale of 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. 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. Sanctions. On 22 February 2022, in response to Russia recognizing the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine during the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States imposed sanctions on several Russian individuals and banks, including Bortnikov and his son, Denis, who  also serves as deputy president of VTB Bank.