FSB
 FSB  (Intelligence agency)   | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | FSB |
| Predecessor |  KGB |
| Formation | 12 April, 1995 |
| Parent organization | Russia |
| Headquarters | Lubyanka Square, Moscow, Russia |
| Leader | Director of the Federal Security Service |
| Staff | 250,000 |
| Russian intelligence agency, successor to the KGB | |
The FSB (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti - Federal Security Service) is the main Russian intelligence agency.
Contents
History
Known as the KGB during the days of the Soviet Union, the secret service was dismantled in 1991 and its successor FSK (Federalnaya Sluzhba Kontrrazvedki or Federal Counterintelligence Service) was reorganised into the FSB in 1995. [1]
Russian Apartment bombings
- Full article: 9-99
- Full article: 9-99
The Ryazan incident provides strong evidence that the FSB, at the time, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, carried out or orchestrated the Moscow apartment bombings of 1999. The official narrative blamed them on Chechen "terrorists", so the intention may have been to boost support for the Second Chechen War.
Metrojet Flight 9268
On 17 November 2015, Russian investigators announced that Metrojet Flight 9268 had been brought down by a bomb on board. "One can unequivocally say that it was a terrorist act," Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia's FSB security service, told a meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin, according to a transcript published on the Kremlin's website. He said traces of explosives had been found in the wreckage of the Airbus A321, which crashed shortly after take off from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport and was packed with Russian holidaymakers heading home to St Petersburg. Citing experts, Mr Bortnikov said the plane disintegrated in mid-air after the detonation of a bomb with the equivalent of a kilogram of TNT.
In a statement on its website, the FSB said it was offering a $50 million reward for "information helping to arrest the criminals" behind the bombing. President Putin ordered Russia's foreign ministry to contact all Moscow's partners for assistance and said that it was counting on "our friends" to help find and punish those responsible for the sabotage of Metrojet Flight 9268.[2]
Activities
In 2019, a hack revealed that the FSB was employing SyTech to work on de-anonymising the US funded internet anonymisation tool, Tor.[3]
References
Events carried out
| Event | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9-99/Ryazan incident | Russia 9-99/Ryazan incident | Moscow FSB officers discovered wiring up what looked like a bomb in the basement of a building by night. Local FSB unaware. Claimed to be a terror drill but no documentation was presented. Instead documents were sealed and discussion of it prohibited in the Duma. |
| Russian apartment bombings | Russia | A 'Russian 9/11' which boosted support for the second war that was launched in Chechnya |
Employee on Wikispooks
| Employee | Job | Appointed | End | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vladimir Putin | Director of the Federal Security Service | 25 July 1998 | 9 August 1999 | Note that the 9/99 bombings were carried out in September 1999 |
