‘New KGB’ plans betray Putin’s anxiety

There have been periodic suggestions that the Kremlin plans to bring the majority of the country’s intelligence and security services back into a single agency, effectively reconstituting the Soviet KGB. Vladimir Putin, himself a proud veteran of that agency, has hitherto resisted the idea, but a report in the well-connected newspaper Kommersant in September 2016 claimed that a new Ministry of State Security (MGB) was soon be formed. If true – and there the author said there were grounds to believe the account – then this would be a serious shift in policy, indicating serious concern and dissatisfaction at the current situation. Whatever Putin may hope, it was also likely to make the security agencies even more politicised and dysfunctional.

• Prif ffynhonnell

ESO: Background information: Putin’s hydra: Inside Russia’s intelligence services http://www.europeansources.info/record/putins-hydra-inside-russias-intelligence-services/

BBC News, 22.09.16: Putin names ally Sergei Naryshkin as new foreign spy chief http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37442330

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