Blast from the past - Russia's New Nobility

[ck4829]

In December 2000, Nikolai Patrushev, who had succeeded Vladimir Putin as director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), gave an interview to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. He described the FSB's personnel: "Our best colleagues, the honor and pride of the FSB, don't do their work for the money," he said. "They all look different, but there is one very special characteristic that unites all these people, and it is a very important quality: It is their sense of service. They are, if you like, our new 'nobility.'"

Over the last decade in Russia, the FSB, the modern successor to the Soviet secret police, the KGB, has been granted the role of the new elite, enjoying expanded responsibilities and immunity from public oversight or parliamentary control. The FSB's budget is not published; the total number of officers is undisclosed. But even cautious estimates suggest that the FSB employs more than 200,000 people. For ten years, Putin, a KGB and FSB veteran himself, has held power in the Kremlin as president and now prime minister. He has made the FSB the main security service in Russia, permitting it to absorb much of the former KGB and granting it the right to operate abroad, collect information, and carry out special operations.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2010-09-01/russias-new-nobility

This is what a Deep State really looks like... these are Trump's buddies he decided to share information with.

[stevenleser]

1. Even this doesn't qualify as a deep state at this point.

I maintain the idea of a deep state in the US is nonsense to sell books and get folks to read articles. The President absolutely controls the Federal law enforcement and security and intelligence apparatus and can fire anyone therein at will.

Putin maintains the same control in Russia. Once he leaves, that could be in doubt. You may actually have a deep state in Russia at that point.