PROPOSED FSB REORGANIZATION COULD RESTORE MUCH OF ITS LOST CLOUT.

The proposed reform of the Russian "power" ministries may include another restructuring of Russia’s major security services — above all of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which is the main successor to the Soviet KGB. Russian media report that Boris Yeltsin signed a decree at the end of May that would reorganize the FSB’s subdivisions into five departments — counterintelligence, counterterrorism, analysis and planning, organization and personnel, and logistics. (Delovoi mir, No. 22, 1997) Previously the FSB contained four such structures — the investigation directorate, the directorate of personal security, the directorate of administration, and the operational-surveillance directorate (or external surveillance service).

In addition, the Russian press reports that the FSB’s director, Nikolai Kovalev, has been instructed by the government to form a new subdivision, which will become the directorate for the suppression of the activity of criminal organizations. And finally, possibly by the end of this year, two additional departments — which had become administratively independent following the break-up of the old KGB — could be returned to the bosom of the FSB. They are the Federal Border Service (FPS) and the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAPSI).

The Russian media speculate that there are several candidates for the leadership of a restored FSB, which would acquire much of the former KGB’s organizational might. First among them is the present director of the Federal Border Service, Gen. Andrei Nikolaev, who recently met with First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais. Some six months ago Chubais helped the border service obtain the right to levy a special duty for border crossings. The recent meeting suggests that the promotion of Nikolaev would be in the interest of both men.

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