Study: Ex-KGB Fill Russia's Elite

President Vladimir Putin has never hidden his KGB spy past and over
three-quarters of Russia's political elite have tell-tale signs of a
background in the security services or military, a new study says.

"Our research has shown that ... 78 percent of the Russian elite
have signs of being siloviki," Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who has studied
the Russian elite since 1989, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Putin served as a lieutenant-colonel in the KGB during the Cold War.
Under his government the number of siloviki, as former military or
security service officials are known, has increased dramatically and
their influence has spread beyond government.

"Before in the Soviet Union there was a politburo which was not a
KGB organization so there was a brake, a balance on the KGB,"
Kryshtanovskaya said.

"Now there is also a 'politburo' but it is made up exclusively of
siloviki so there is no brake on the hawks," she said.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Putin's deputy chief of staff Igor
Sechin, FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev and drugs tsar Viktor Cherkesov
are among the best known siloviki but the new study turned up
surprises too.

"I was very shocked when I looked at the boards of major companies
and realized there were lots of people who had completely unknown
names, people who were not public but who were definitely, obvious
siloviki", Kryshtanovskaya said.

For the study, her Moscow center for the study of the elite examined
1,061 top officials from the Kremlin, the government, top companies,
the regions and parliament looking for gaps in their resumes
indicating a past as a member of the security or career military
services or related institutions.

"People who worked in the KGB used to be recruited either in the
army or in universities and then were sent to study in special
institutes," Khryshtanovskaya explained.

"In the biographies of those who went to these institutes there is
usually what is known as a hole and this hole means they could have
studied in one of these institutes."

Khryshtanovskaya also looked for other tell-tale signs, such as
service in areas which are historically close to the KGB, such as
human resources departments of Russian corporations and foreign
branches of Russian banks and news organizations.

She said she was reluctant to be drawn on certain names for fear of
reprisals.

Foreign experts on Russia have named Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov,
Gazprom Deputy CEO Valery Golubyev, Rosoboronexport chief Sergei
Chemezov and Aeroflot chairman Viktor Ivanov as figures with a
siloviki background.

During the 1990s rule of former president Boris Yeltsin, Russia's
security services dramatically lost influence. The KGB was broken up
into smaller parts, budgets were cut and thousands of staff left.

But Putin has presided over a big revival of security service power
and prestige.

"This rise of the KGB in high state positions is in some senses a
social recovery," Khryshtanovskaya commented.

In the latest sign of the growing clout of Russia's spies, Putin
last month flew in by helicopter to inspect the $350 million new
headquarters of Russian military intelligence.

He toured the futuristic, glass-clad building, posing James
Bond-style as he shot a pistol in the firing range.

Full Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/13/russia.government.kgb.reut/
/index.html

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