FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation)

Origins

According to the report of the British inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, after the KGB was dissolved in November 1991 its security functions passed to a succession of organisations; the latest of them is the FSB, established in 1995, and its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK).²

The State Duma adopted the law “On the Federal Security Service” on 22 February 1995; it is dated 3 April 1995 and numbered 40-FZ.³

Status and tasks under the law

Under Article 1, the FSB is a single, centralised system of bodies that carries out security tasks within the limits of its powers; its activities are directed by the President of the Russian Federation. The system includes, among others, the federal executive body, its regional directorates, security bodies in the armed forces and border guard bodies; creating bodies not provided for in the law is prohibited (Art. 2).¹

Article 8 lists the main areas of activity: counterintelligence, counterterrorism, combating crime, intelligence, border activity and information security.¹

The FSB conducts intelligence activity in cooperation with the foreign intelligence bodies (Art. 11 of the Foreign Intelligence Law).⁴

Oversight

According to the summary of the law on the Garant legal portal, control over the FSB is exercised by the President, the Federal Assembly, the Government and the courts within the limits set by the Constitution and federal laws (Art. 23), while supervision of compliance with the law rests with the Prosecutor General and the prosecutors he authorises (Art. 24).³

The Litvinenko case

The British public inquiry chaired by Sir Robert Owen (report of 21 January 2016, HC 695) examined the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and FSB officer, who fell ill on the night of 1 November 2006 and died on 23 November.^2,5,6

According to the summary of its findings in the ECtHR judgment, the Chairman found it established that Litvinenko had been poisoned with polonium-210 by Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun, and regarded it as “a strong probability” that Lugovoy acted under the direction of the FSB. The report also found that the FSB operation “was probably approved” by the head of the FSB and by the President of Russia.⁶

In its judgment of 21 September 2021 in Carter v. Russia, the European Court of Human Rights held that Lugovoy and Kovtun had acted as agents of the state and that the killing was attributable to Russia. It found a violation of Article 2 of the Convention (right to life) in both its substantive and procedural aspects (by six votes to one) and of Article 38 (refusal to disclose the investigation file); it awarded €100,000 in non-pecuniary damages and €22,500 in costs. Judge Dmitry Dedov delivered a partly dissenting opinion.⁶

Sanctions

On 29 December 2016 the President of the United States announced sanctions against the GRU and the FSB, “two Russian intelligence services”, in response to cyber activity aimed at the elections; the FSB was added to the Treasury Department’s list.^7,8

By Decision 2020/1482 of 14 October 2020, the Council of the EU imposed restrictive measures on, among others, the FSB director Alexander Bortnikov in connection with the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. The statement of reasons says that Navalny’s activities during his trip to Siberia in August 2020 were closely monitored by the FSB and that the poisoning was possible only with its involvement.⁹