Siloviki at War: The Russian Security Community Since February 2022

Abstract

With the Kremlin moving ever further onto a war footing, the role of the "special services" in its operations at home and abroad has only increased, coming to include a campaign of increasingly brazen sabotage activities in Europe. Domestically, the Kremlin's increasing intolerance of dissent has served to increase the powers and profile of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Abroad, adapting to the new environment - including the mass expulsions of intelligence officers from embassies across the West - has not always been easy for the intelligence services and has led to a growing reliance on both cyber operations and proxies. While these have by no means always been successful, there is little doubt that they will remain central to both domestic and foreign activities.