The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP).
In September 1999, a series of explosions hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War. The handling of the crisis by Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months.
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia from 2008 to 2024. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs. He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022.
Dvach, also known as 2ch, is the largest Russian anonymous imageboard. Dvach is a successor to an older Russian imageboard with the same name that was launched back in 2006 but shut down three years later in 2009. As of 2024 the imageboard can be accessed via 2ch.hk. It's owned and run by Russian-born azerbaijani Nariman Namazov, nicknamed Abu.
Terrorism in Russia has a long history starting from the time of the Russian Empire. Terrorism, in the modern sense, means violence against civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating extreme fear.
Igor Ivanovich Sechin is a Russian oligarch and a government official, considered a close ally and "de facto deputy" of Vladimir Putin.
Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) since 2008. He is one of the most powerful members of the silovik faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle. A Hero of the Russian Federation since 2019, he also holds the rank of General of the Army, the second highest grade in use in the Russian military. According to some experts, it is likely Bortnikov played a key role in Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in 2022.
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a rebellion in June 2023. Prigozhin was sometimes referred to as "Putin's chef" because he owned restaurants and catering businesses that provided services to the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies whose operations, according to a 2020 investigation, were "tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".
The Mikhailov Case refers to an espionage scandal surrounding the activities of the Center of Information Security (CIS) of FSB, whose employees were implicated in high treason after participating in a number of high-profile criminal cases. January 31, 2017 was arrested that the head of the 2nd department of the CIS Sergei Mikhailov (FSB) and his deputy Dmitry Dokuchaev In the same case, the head of the department of investigation of computer incidents of Kaspersky Lab Ruslan Stoyanov and Georgy Fomchenkov were arrested. The men were convicted of giving information to American private sector researcher Kimberly Zenz, but Zenz herself was never charged, and her requests to testify for the defense were ignored.
The Kerch Polytechnic College massacre was a school shooting and bomb attack that occurred in Kerch, Crimea, on 17 October 2018, when 18-year-old student Vladislav Roslyakov killed 20 people and wounded 67 others before subsequently committing suicide. It was the deadliest school shooting in Russia or Ukraine since the 2004 Beslan school siege.
Yevgeny Nikolayevich Zinichev was a Russian politician and military officer. He served as the Minister of Emergency Situations from 2018 until his death, and was also a member of the Security Council of Russia. In 2016, he served as the acting Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast before being replaced by Anton Alikhanov. He was last ranked General of the Army in 2020.
Events in the year 2021 in the Russian Federation.
The Insider is an online publication specializing in investigative journalism, fact-checking, and exposing fake news. It was founded by independent Russian journalist Roman Dobrokhotov. The publication operates websites in both Russian and English, along with a Telegram channel, an Instagram account, two TikTok accounts, and two YouTube channels: one for on-air programs and another for edited video content.
Protests in Russia began on 23 January 2021 in support of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was immediately detained upon returning to Russia after being sent to Germany for treatment following his poisoning the previous year. Days before protests began, a film by Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) called Putin's Palace, which revolves around the connection between president Vladimir Putin and a palace allegedly being built for him, was released.
Yevgeny Alekseyevich Murov is a Russian politician and government agent who had served as the leader of the Russian special services, and director of the Federal Protective Service of Russia from 2000 to 2016. He is a General of the Army as of 12 June 2004.
Vadim Nikolayevich Krasikov is a Russian security service hitman who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the killing of 40-year-old Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin, Germany, on August 23, 2019. On August 1, 2024, he returned to Russia after a prisoner exchange between Russia and the West. One of the prisoners involved in the exchange for Krasikov, Ilya Yashin, would condemn the fact that he was specifically freed in exchange for him due to Krasikov originally being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Khangoshvili.
Sergei Borisovich Korolev is a Russian intelligence officer currently serving as first deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB). He previously served as head of the Economic Security Service of the FSB from 2016 to 2021. A secretive figure with extensive connections to the Russian mafia, he is considered one of the leading candidates to succeed Alexander Bortnikov as director of the FSB. He has held the military rank of Army General since 2021. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was sanctioned by the EU, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.
The Ethnic National Union (ENU) is a decentralized, neo-Nazi political organization active in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. It was initially an informal association created on the principles of anonymity by a number of former activists of the National Socialist Society, former members of an Azov Regiment, as well as a number of members of other far-right groups.
Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, also known under the pen name Daria Platonova, was a Russian journalist, political scientist, and activist. She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin and a far-right political philosopher, whose support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine she shared.
The Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus is ongoing terror activity of the Islamic State branch in the North Caucasus after the insurgency of the Caucasus Emirate.
