DECLINE OF RUSSIA’S SECURITY FORCES
Russia has one of the largest surveillance and security forces in the world including, according to a 2022 Kremlin decree, 934,000 regular police officers and an estimated 75,000 personnel working for the FSB (excluding border guards).
That isn’t the world’s highest per capita concentration, but it’s a lot: The US, with a population well over twice the size of Russia’s, has a similar number of police at 957,000, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in turn has half the staff of its FSB equivalent, at 35,000.
China, no security slouch, has twice as many police as Russia for a population 10 times bigger.
The FSB, however, is the successor organisation to the Soviet KGB. Its senior officers and organisational DNA – including Putin’s – come from the Soviet era and are more focused on controlling society than protecting it. As with his top military officers, Putin values the loyalty of his security chiefs over their competence or even results.
According to Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, analysts and critics of the FSB, the organisation has in recent years been retrenching to the more brutal practices and mindsets of the Stalin-era NKVD. As for Russia’s police, they’re better known more for their low salaries and corruption than for law enforcement prowess.
Source: CNA
