The siloviki (‘strong men’) They are Russian politicians who come from the security and intelligence services. The word comes from the term “institutions of force”, used at the beginning of the era of former President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s to refer to military and security services. It is one of the main forces in the Russian Government and a key support for President Vladimir Putin, who has also taken advantage of his divisions to remain in power.
Putin and the strongmen of the Security Council
The term “siloviki” comes from post-Soviet Russia. It began to be used in reference to politicians who came from security institutions such as the KGB or the GRU, military intelligence. They gained notoriety in the late 1990s with the rise of Putin, who was one of them. As the new prime minister and then president he began appointing former KGB colleagues and allies to political positions. For example, Putin installed Nikolai Patrushev as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and later as secretary of the Security Council. Today, Patrushev and other siloviki are part of his trusted circle. Among them are the director of the FSB intelligence agency, Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Narishkin, and the Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu.
The siloviki share the vision of a strong state and economy, as well as a hard line in international politics, following their defense of Russia’s greatness. Their role in the Security Council, an organization that coordinates the actions of the different forces and where they are half of the permanent members, has allowed them to promote this vision and influence Russian politics. For example, Shoigu and Patrushev are believed to have convinced Putin to enter the Syrian war in 2015.
Internal power struggles
Despite the Western perception of unity among the siloviki, they have been a divided group with conflicting interests. In the face of the 2008 presidential elections, for example, the clans of the director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Cherkesov, and the executive director of the state oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin, fought for access to resources and to install a like-minded candidate. to your interests. This confrontation also demonstrated how Putin limits his ambitions to prevent him from accumulating too much power. For example, he allowed Sechin’s clan to take over the Customs Agency and then fired his preferred candidate.
The personal and economic interests of the siloviki have also led them to clash with other political factions, in addition to corrupting the Russian economy. For example, Sechin accused in 2016 the then Minister of Economic Development, Alexei Ulyukaev, of having demanded money in exchange for approving Rosneft to buy more than 50% of the oil company Bashneft years before. Apart from economic interest, Uliukaev was also a liberal figure allied to the then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Sechin’s adversary.
The siloviki war in Ukraine
The antagonism of the siloviki towards the West is also one of the factors behind Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. In particular, the links and alleged influence of Patrushev and Shoigu would have been decisive in convincing the Russian leader. However, the failures in the war have led to criticism against the Minister of Defense and other siloviki from a more radical wing led by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and that of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is now They form a new base of support for Putin.