In Moscow's Shadows 255: Chekistocracy? Or, Power and the Spooks in Putin's Russia
About this episode
The episode explores the complexities of power within the Russian intelligence services and critiques the notion of a unified 'Chekistocracy'.
“Russia is run by the spooks” is a satisfying line, but it is also a lazy one. Despite talk of a 'Chekistocracy' run by the intelligence and security services, the FSB, SVR and GRU are better understood as competing institutional actors than as a single all-powerful caste pulling every lever in the Kremlin. In that context, "power" itself is a complex phenomenon, and I outline a framework of six different kinds of power: the ability to dictate policy, the court politics of access and tr...
More episodes of In Moscow's Shadows
- In Moscow's Shadows 256: Desperation, Escalation, Mobilisation
- In Moscow's Shadows 254: Endgames
- In Moscow's Shadows 253: The Fall Of Antikvar
- In Moscow's Shadows 252: All the Pieces of Peace in Ukraine
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