Mapping the Russian security services

Happy Friday! I hope you are having a chocolate-filled end of the week, even if you couldn't care less about Easter!

This week, I want to talk about mapping the Russian security services. As you have undoubtedly noticed, the security landscape in Russia is incredibly complicated: Not only are there many, many institutions with overlapping areas of responsibility, but even within organisations there are multiple subunits with similar names and – yes, you guessed it – overlapping areas of responsibility. And that's without considering the myriad regional and local branches. All of which makes for an incredibly complex and confusing picture.

Bringing clarity (maybe)

This has always annoyed me – especially when media outlets mention a subunit without properly explaining where it fits within an organisation. The situation becomes even worse when dealing with English-language reporting, since the same unit might be rendered differently across sources, making it hard to work out whether they are talking about the same thing.

One of the things I've been doing in recent weeks is mapping the organisational structure of the key federal-level agencies, starting with the FSB. This is what the organisation looks like:

Don't worry if you can't make out the details – when I do something with this, I'll make sure it's readable and navigable. The point, really, is that the structures are complicated, and visualising them is one thing that can bring some clarity to discussions.

Over time, I plan to produce the same for the other main organisations and confirm, where possible, the current leadership. Of course, some of the pieces of the puzzle may move in the process, because there are contradictory reports on where some fit within the organisational structure.

This is all part of a bigger project to provide a baseline for analysis of the security services.

Making it useful

My question for you, dear reader, is: what would make this type of information more useful? Are there particular things you would like to know from this type of organisational mapping – or about the organisations themselves? Are there topics or questions that you would like to be able to answer about the Russian security services?

If there are, then hit reply and let me know! I'm still in the process of shaping the bigger project, so your feedback would help me to produce something that is actually valuable to people like you!

And once you've hit reply, go enjoy some chocolate!