Who are the Siloviki? Meeting Russia's Security Elite

Meeting the inner circle of Putin's government who control Russia's hard power.

The Siloviki are a subset of the Russian elite who witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and are cogent of the need for the return of Russia as a global power if the Russian Federation is to survive. As a group, the Siloviki are differentiated from the mainstream Russian financial and political elite by their control of much of the hard power that allows the state to function. As with all at the forefront of Russian politics these individuals have had to be ruthless and cunning to rise to the top of their respective industries, fields, and organisations (from the security or military services and sectors). The Siloviki include former KGB and military operatives as well as civilian technocrats and business leaders. They are the individuals most closely tied to Putin and his most trusted advisors making up his inner circle. As a former KGB officer himself President Putin has long made use of the security services to maintain order.

The Oligarchy is the ultrarich Russian class that accumulated wealth in the 1990s in the vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet Union. With this wealth and the lack of strong political centres these Oligarchs managed to wrest much of the political control of the country into their own hands. After the ascension of Putin to power these oligarchs have had to fall into line with Putin’s vision; This was achieved after the high-profile cases of those oligarchs who opposed Putin being driven out of Russia through intimidation and repression as was the case of the billionaires Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The quid pro quo for the remaining Oligarchs since then has been the allowance to keep their businesses and remain in Russia, provided they offer undivided loyalty to the Kremlin.

With the collapse of the oligarchy as the power brokers of the Russian state the more select group of the Siloviki have emerged in their place. Translated literally, the term ‘Siloviki’ means "people of force", AKA "strongmen". These Siloviki are enrolled into all branches of government in Russia though with a particular focus on military and security apparatus. As a result, these Siloviki personally control arms factories, thousands of Russian security agents and spies, draft government policies, and military and paramilitary forces.

Some notable members of this select group include: Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia; Sergei Naryshkin, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service; Alexander Bortnikov director FSB; Sergei Ivanov, former KGB and now Special Representative to the President; Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defence; Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff; Sergei Lavrov, Minster of Foreign Affairs; Dimitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, the state space corporation; and, Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft.

Even within this (infamous but for esteemed) group there are individuals of particular note.

Nikolai Patrushev is the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia and Director of the Federal Security Service. As a former intelligence officer Patrushev believes the US wants to break up Russia as a country and Ukraine is the platform to do that. This is a motivation for trying to get ahead of any initiative the US can take by breaking up or otherwise neutralising Ukraine as a vehicle for attacking Russia.

Sergei Naryshkin director of the foreign intelligence service and has known Putin since the 1990s, he is so influential he is often brought up as Putin’s potential successor. He is also head of the Russian historical society which is charged with whitewashing interpretations of Russian history. He reportedly believes that the poisoning of Navalny was a US plot to increase international opposition to Russia and was the one who started the narrative of Ukraine being led by a secretive Nazi cabal.

Alexander Bortnikov, director of the FSB (Federal Intelligence Service), is one of the key power brokers in Russia. His security apparatus in the FSB employs hundreds of thousands of agents charged with overseeing counterintelligence, electronic surveillance, suppressing political dissidents, and border security.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Minister of Defence, doesn’t come from military or intelligence background but is a technocrat who climbed the rungs of power. He is largely responsible for modernising the Russian military and often is key in security policy decision making. Being key in overseeing the Russian Crimean invasion and Syria, he ordered the military build-up near Ukraine, his health may depend on how things are going in Ukraine. In fact, for almost 2 weeks in March Shoigu disappeared from public view amid reports that Putin was furious with progress in the conflict in Ukraine. When he reappeared he seemed downbeat and solemn.

Also worthy of note is Ramzan Kadyrov –the head of the Chechen Republic and commander of the republic’s armed forces. With a large personal military force that is essentially separate to the wider Russian military he’s worth mentioning because his Chechen forces are a significant group in Russia simply because of their military utility.

As an aside Kadyrov is also reportedly not a friend to the other federal Siloviki and has a fierce personal rivalry with Bortnikov that goes back at least a decade.

This is not an exhaustive list of the Siloviki there are many coming from diverse backgrounds but collectively they possess remarkable hard power and the will to use it (the FSB has at least 160,000 agents and Kadyrov says his Chechen forces are about 70,000).

These Siloviki have to look at both domestic and foreign threats and they believe that domestic order is the number one priority for ensuring the survival of the Russian state. Something they are wary of having seen Russia suffer catastrophic collapses twice in the 20th century.

But they are not omnipotent, and they are not always united. In 1991 when Gorbachev reforms set the dissolution of the Soviet Union going the security forces of the time (forerunners of the Siloviki) intervened and detained Gorbachev. Even though the coup failed and the Soviet Union collapsed anyway it shows the precedent for the Russian power brokers to intervene of necessary. They have the numbers, know-how and legitimacy to depose Putin if the war in Ukraine or any other crisis threatens Russia’s survival.