Skip to main content

Federal Security Service (FSB) — Russian Federation

Russia's principal domestic security and counterintelligence agency, successor to the Soviet KGB. According to multiple investigations by Bellingcat, the UK Litvinenko Inquiry, the European Court of Human Rights, and numerous journalists, the FSB has been implicated in assassinations, poisonings, and the suppression of dissidents, journalists, and defectors both inside Russia and abroad.

FieldDetails
TypeIntelligence / Security Service
Founded1995 (successor to the Federal Counterintelligence Service, FSK, itself successor to the KGB)
HeadquartersLubyanka Building, Moscow, Russia
Active Period1995 -- present
StatusActive
Location(s)Russia (domestic focus); operations allegedly conducted worldwide
Alleged ConnectionImplicated in assassinations of defectors, dissidents, journalists, and political opponents of the Kremlin

Overview​

The FSB was established in 1995 as the successor to the KGB's domestic security functions after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991. The KGB was initially reorganized into the FSK (Federal Counterintelligence Service) before being reconstituted as the FSB. While officially focused on domestic counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and border security, the FSB has been accused by investigators, journalists, and foreign governments of conducting assassinations, political repression, and covert operations both within Russia and internationally.

Vladimir Putin served as Director of the FSB from 1998 to 1999 before becoming Prime Minister and then President. According to critics and historians such as Amy Knight and Karen Dawisha, Putin's tenure at the FSB and his subsequent presidency transformed the agency into a tool of political control.

Key Directors​

  • Nikolai Patrushev — FSB Director 1999--2008. According to the 2016 UK Litvinenko Inquiry, Patrushev allegedly approved the operation to assassinate Alexander Litvinenko.
  • Alexander Bortnikov — FSB Director 2008--present. Has overseen the agency during the periods when multiple assassinations and poisonings allegedly occurred.

Alleged Activities​

Assassination Methods​

According to investigations by Bellingcat, the UK government, and international journalists, the FSB and affiliated Russian intelligence services have allegedly employed the following methods:

  • Radioactive poisoning (Polonium-210) — Used in the 2006 killing of Alexander Litvinenko in London. The 2016 UK public inquiry concluded this was "probably approved" by Putin and Patrushev.
  • Novichok nerve agent — A military-grade chemical weapon allegedly used against Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK in 2018, and against Alexei Navalny in Siberia in 2020. Bellingcat identified FSB chemical weapons specialists allegedly involved in the Navalny operation.
  • Shooting — According to Russian prosecutors and journalists, contract killings were used against Anna Politkovskaya (2006), Boris Nemtsov (2015), Anastasia Baburova (2009), and Galina Starovoitova (1998).
  • Defenestration — According to media reports, multiple critics and officials have died after falling from windows or high-rise buildings under suspicious circumstances, including Leonid Shulman and Alexander Tyulakov.
  • Strangulation / staged suicide — Nikolai Glushkov was found dead in London in 2018; UK police determined he died from compression to the neck.
  • Car bombs and explosives — Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was killed by a car bomb in Qatar in 2004; two GRU agents were convicted by a Qatari court.
  • Suspicious circumstances in custody — Alexei Navalny died in a Russian penal colony in February 2024 under circumstances his supporters and Western governments have called deeply suspicious.

The 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings​

In September 1999, a series of bombings destroyed apartment buildings in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk, killing approximately 300 people. The bombings were attributed to Chechen terrorists and used as justification for the Second Chechen War, which consolidated Putin's rise to power.

According to historians Amy Knight and Karen Dawisha, as well as the late journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, evidence suggests FSB involvement. In the city of Ryazan on September 22, 1999, residents discovered FSB officers planting what a bomb squad identified as hexogen explosives with a detonator in an apartment basement. FSB Director Patrushev subsequently declared it had been a "training exercise." According to Knight, the evidence of FSB involvement is "abundantly clear."

Multiple people who investigated the apartment bombings subsequently died:

Suppression of Journalists and Human Rights Workers​

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists and human rights organizations, Russia under the FSB's watch has been one of the deadliest countries for journalists. Cases with alleged FSB or Kremlin connections include:

  • Natalya Estemirova — Human rights activist documenting abuses in Chechnya, abducted and killed in 2009
  • Artyom Borovik — Investigative journalist killed in a suspicious plane crash in 2000
  • Arkady Babchenko — Journalist who faked his own death in 2018 with Ukrainian security services to expose an alleged Russian assassination plot

Targeting of Defectors and Exiles​

  • Boris Berezovsky — Oligarch and Putin critic found dead in his UK home in 2013; officially ruled suicide, disputed by associates
  • Alexander Perepilichnyy — Russian financier who helped expose a $230 million fraud, collapsed and died while jogging in Surrey, UK in 2012
  • Denis Voronenkov — Russian Duma member who defected to Ukraine, shot dead in Kyiv in 2017
  • Maxim Kuzminov — Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine, found shot dead in Spain in 2024
  • Zelimkhan Khangoshvili — Chechen-Georgian dissident assassinated in Berlin in 2019; a German court convicted a Russian national and found the killing was ordered by Russian state authorities

Key Figures​

  • Vladimir Putin — Former FSB Director (1998--1999), President of Russia. According to the 2016 UK Litvinenko Inquiry, Putin "probably approved" Litvinenko's assassination. Putin has denied involvement in all alleged assassinations. He has not been charged in any court.
  • Nikolai Patrushev — FSB Director (1999--2008), later Secretary of the Security Council. According to the UK Litvinenko Inquiry, Patrushev allegedly approved the Litvinenko operation. He has not publicly responded to these allegations.
  • Alexander Bortnikov — FSB Director (2008--present). Has led the FSB during the period in which the Skripal and Navalny poisonings allegedly occurred. He has denied FSB involvement in these operations.

Connection to Intel Murders Project​

The FSB is the most frequently implicated intelligence service in the Intel Murders project's Russian cases. Profiles with alleged FSB connections include:

PersonYearCircumstances
Galina Starovoitova1998Duma member shot dead in her apartment building
Artyom Borovik2000Journalist died in suspicious plane crash
Sergei Yushenkov2003Duma member investigating apartment bombings, shot dead
Paul Klebnikov2004Forbes Russia editor, shot dead
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev2004Former Chechen president, car bomb in Qatar
Alexander Litvinenko2006Former FSB officer, polonium-210 poisoning in London
Anna Politkovskaya2006Journalist, contract killing in Moscow
Anastasia Baburova2009Journalist, shot alongside human rights lawyer
Natalya Estemirova2009Human rights activist, abducted and killed
Alexander Perepilichnyy2012Financier-whistleblower, collapsed in UK
Boris Berezovsky2013Oligarch, found dead in UK
Boris Nemtsov2015Opposition leader, shot near Kremlin
Denis Voronenkov2017Duma defector, shot dead in Kyiv
Sergei Skripal2018Former GRU officer, Novichok poisoning (survived)
Nikolai Glushkov2018Berezovsky associate, strangled in London
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili2019Chechen dissident, shot dead in Berlin
Alexei Navalny2024Opposition leader, died in penal colony
Maxim Kuzminov2024Defector pilot, shot dead in Spain

Notable Books, Documentaries, and Investigations​

  • Blowing Up Russia by Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky — alleges FSB responsibility for the 1999 apartment bombings
  • The Litvinenko File by Martin Sixsmith — investigation into Litvinenko's assassination
  • Putin's People by Catherine Belton — documents the FSB's role in Putin's rise and consolidation of power
  • A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding — details of the Litvinenko assassination
  • Bellingcat investigations — identified FSB officers involved in the Navalny poisoning and Skripal attack
  • UK Litvinenko Inquiry (2016) — concluded Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's murder
  • European Court of Human Rights (2021) — ruled Russia responsible for Litvinenko's death

Why This Group Matters​

The FSB represents a pattern of state-sponsored assassination that has allegedly continued and expanded under Putin's presidency. According to investigators and foreign governments, the agency has used increasingly sophisticated methods — from polonium to Novichok — to eliminate critics, defectors, and journalists both inside Russia and on foreign soil. The 2016 UK inquiry and the 2021 European Court of Human Rights ruling represent rare instances where a judicial body has formally attributed an assassination to a sitting head of state's intelligence service. The Kremlin has denied all allegations of involvement in these deaths.

Sources​

This information was built by Grok and Claude AI research.

Last updated on