In Karelia itself, no one yet knows the future senator from Karelia

On Monday, July 24 at 18.00, Artur Parfenchikov, a candidate from United Russia - but not a member of United Russia, was registered as the first official candidate for the gubernatorial seat at the Karelian Central Election Commission. We didn't expect any surprises: Parfenchikov and someone else would be there to indicate competition. The question rested on which business and political elite in the region the new head would rely on. The indicator should have been the candidacy for the post of second senator. And then a surprise happened.

Position for three

It is difficult, very difficult to obtain membership of the Federation Council if you come from the executive branch. Few people understand the intricacies of forming the upper house of the Russian parliament (especially since the rules are constantly changing), so I will explain again.

Each subject of Russia is represented in the Federation Council by two senators. One is elected from among the deputies of the regional parliament. Everything is usual here: nomination, intrigues and agreements, voting, nomination again... With the second member of the upper house of the Russian parliament, not everything is so simple. When a person is running for governor, he is accompanied by three candidates, one of which, if elected, the new head will send to sit in Moscow on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. The newly elected head of the region issues the corresponding decision the next day after taking office.

As I already wrote, senatorship in Russia is a post that many people strive for. Especially - senatorship from the executive branch. This is even better than the State Duma, because you don’t have to travel around the region and meet with voters. And for the rest - salary, compensation for all expenses, housing in Moscow, a “flashing light”, parliamentary immunity. What else is needed to meet old age?..

So it was expected that Arthur Olegovich would appoint someone who had especially distinguished himself there. One could safely call such a person, who, according to our sources, is very close to the administration of the acting head of the region. In theory, all you need to have to gain senatorial status is age over 30, an impeccable reputation and residence in the region you represent for at least 5 years. And although Vitaly Vladimirovich, let’s say, does not always have enough respectability, he meets the requirements. That’s why Parfenchikov nominated him, albeit as the last number.

We haven’t heard anything about the rest of the applicants yet, and they have very little time left, literally hours: on July 26 at 18.00 the acceptance of documents for registration will end. At risk of being left out are pensioner Olga Ilyukova from Patriots of Russia, Commissioner for Entrepreneurs in Karelia Elena Gnetova from the Growth Party, and director of the audit agency Igor Alpeev from the political party People Against Corruption.

By the way, the latter’s misadventures do not stop - if anyone follows the political fate of this candidate. At first it turned out that he still had not left United Russia, which did not give him the right to run for another party. Now the party itself has distinguished itself. Our colleagues from several regional media outlets immediately found out that the NPC appealed to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation with a complaint that they were being prevented from collecting signatures for their candidate in Karelia. The reaction of the Central Election Commission has not yet been reported.

For us, the most interesting thing is that on the official website of the People Against Corruption party there is not a word about Igor Alpeev, or about the elections in Karelia, or about any complaints. You can’t even find normal photos of Alpeev himself on the Internet.

Like General Rakitin...

Alexander Bortnikov is one of the most secret persons in Russian politics. This is the real eminence grise of the country. A person who has enormous influence, but is not at all public. However, his position obliges him to do this - he is the director of the FSB of Russia and a KGB officer with forty years of experience. Our article will tell you about the biography, career and personal life of this famous person.

Bortnikov's childhood and youth

Almost nothing is known about the origins and childhood years of the country's chief FSB officer, unlike, for example, his predecessor, Mr. Patrushev. Official sources only say that Alexander Bortnikov, whose biography began on November 15, 1951, was born in Perm during the life of the great leader of the peoples Joseph Stalin and is Russian by nationality.

Even ubiquitous journalists are silent on this topic - either they do not know, or for some reason they remain silent. The only thing that leaked into the media space was the characterization of young Bortnikov. He was a modest and quiet child, did not like public activity, and achieved academic success solely through perseverance, diligence and hard work.

The same can be said about the student years that Alexander Bortnikov spent at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers named after. Obraztsova.

Start of work

It is not known whether Bortnikov dreamed of becoming a railway worker since childhood or whether the choice of university was completely random, but after graduating from the institute in 1973, he got a job in his specialty and worked diligently at the enterprises of Gatchina in the Leningrad region.

It is quite possible that Bortnikov did not intend to throw in his lot with this area of ​​life, but was simply working out his assigned term. One way or another, but two years later his life changes dramatically.

KGB

Rumor has it that the quiet and inconspicuous Alexander Bortnikov was recruited by the State Security Committee during his student years. At that time, this practice was widespread in the Soviet Union - government officials selected personnel from universities, choosing, perhaps not the most gifted, but at least the disciplined and diligent. And all this seems to be true, since already in 1975 the “recruit” received a diploma from the USSR KGB Higher School. Dzerzhinsky. By the way, at the same time the young strategist (obviously with an eye to the future) joined the ranks of the Communist Party, of which he was a member until its dissolution.

And in the same 1975, Alexander Bortnikov, whose photo is still familiar to few people, entered service in the KGB Directorate for the Leningrad Region. He walked along the corridors of the most mysterious building in the city on the Neva for almost 20 years. There, he probably met Vladimir Putin, with whom he is almost the same age. The current president of Russia played a significant role in the career growth of his not even a comrade - just a good friend. But before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bortnikov’s service was not distinguished by any special ups and downs. At first he was an ordinary opera operator, then he held leadership, but rather minor positions.

in St. Petersburg

But after 1991, things began to move. Alexander Bortnikov, a diligent and patient employee of the (now) FSB in St. Petersburg and the region, first rose to the rank of deputy head of this organization. After some time, he became its leader. He became the main St. Petersburg security officer in 2003, replacing the latter in this post and was transferred to Moscow.

But Alexander Vasilyevich did not have long to work in St. Petersburg. In 2004, Vladimir Putin remembered him and took his old acquaintance closer to him.

On the approaches to the top

On February 24, 2004, Bortnikov took the post of deputy director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, which previously belonged to Yuri Zaostrovtsev, who was fired due to a corruption scandal. Alexander Vasilyevich headed the department for counterintelligence support of the credit and financial sector of the Federal Security Service.

True, he remained in this post for only a month. In March, the department was liquidated, and its head was transferred to the position of director of the economic security service, which actually meant a demotion.

But Bortnikov was not upset about this. As usual, he showed maximum restraint and was soon rewarded. In 2006 he was awarded the title and in 2008 he took a position that one can only dream of...

Head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov: a new stage in his career

In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev became president of Russia. And this year turned out to be significant not only for him, but also for Alexander Bortnikov. He was appointed director of the FSB.

In this post, he replaced whose activities did not satisfy the previous President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Nikolai Platonovich was too active, often appeared on television, and many of his actions were not coordinated with the country's leadership. As a result, he lost his post as the chief security officer of Russia and was transferred to the secretary of the State Security Council. For a position that is more fictitious than real. And his successor took up the real business.

The main activities of FSB Director Bortnikov

FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov received the powers of the country's chief security officer at a difficult time for Russia. In the south it continued to smolder, and from within the state was undermined by increasingly frequent terrorist attacks. And something had to be done about all this...

In mid-spring 2009, President Medvedev signed a decree canceling the Chechen counter-terrorism operation, which had lasted ten years. It was Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, who had to take into his own hands the implementation of this decision in practice. In the fall of 2009, management of the operational headquarters of the Chechen security service passed to the central authority.

Slowly the flames died down, and the Chechens returned to normal life. And those who tried to interfere with this, the FSB tracked and caught. But terrorism has not gone away. In the country, as under Patrushev, houses, trains, metro stations and other objects continued to explode. The number of human casualties did not decrease.

And although the head of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, regularly said in his reports that the fight is going on effectively and more than half of the terrorist acts can be prevented, the facts remain facts. In March 2010, an explosion in the capital’s metro killed forty people, and in Kizlyar (Dagestan) 12 died around the same time. At the beginning of the winter of 2011, a bomb carried into Domodedovo airport by a suicide bomber resulted in 37 victims. 9 residents and guests of Grozny lost their lives during the August terrorist attacks in Grozny that same year.

May and August 2012 became bloody black for Dagestan and Ingushetia. 13 and 8 people died there, respectively. And at the end of 2013, the attention of the whole world was focused on Volgograd, where terrorists first blew up a bus, then detonated a bomb at the railway station, and a day after that they blew up the bus. The total number of victims was 32 people, more than a hundred were injured. And this is not a complete list of the terrible acts of terrorists.

The FSB admits that terrorism is not easy to defeat, since bandits are constantly recruiting more and more henchmen. But he speaks more positively about his work than vice versa.

Scandalous stories involving Bortnikov

The current director, Alexander Bortnikov, was involved in two high-profile stories. Both of them took place even before his appointment to the post of the country’s chief security officer in 2008, and both are not confirmed by facts.

The first is associated with Alexander Litvinenko, who spoke unfavorably about the Russian authorities and was eventually poisoned in London. It is Bortnikov who is accused by the liberal political forces of Russia, as well as some foreign intelligence services, of organizing this murder.

The second story concerns the money of Russian officials in offshore accounts abroad, which Alexander Vasilyevich allegedly helped to withdraw. And almost no one doubts his participation in this murky case, unlike the scandal with Litvinenko. However, there is no direct evidence of this.

The name of the first person of the FSB of Russia appeared in some other “entertaining” stories. But the loudest were the above two.

Personal life of the general

Alexander Bortnikov is married to Tatyana Borisovna Bortnikova, with whom they have lived happily together for more than forty years. Today, the wife of the FSB director is a pensioner.

The couple has a son, Denis, born in 1974, who is currently the head of the board of OJSC VTB Bank North-West. He did not follow in his father’s footsteps and preferred the career of a security officer to that of a financier, graduating from the St. Petersburg University of Economics and Finance in 1996 and immediately getting a job in his specialty.

Apparently, Denis Aleksandrovich, just like Alexander Vasilyevich, is an integral and consistent nature. Both father and son, having once chosen a road, follow it to the very end. Of course, until victory.

led by the head of the Russian FSB Directorate for the Western Military District, Lieutenant General A.V. Rakitin.

The meeting, which took place on the banks of the Neva near the monument-chapel, was attended by deputy of the Legislative Council of the Leningrad Region S.I. Aliyev, leaders and residents of the Dubrovskoe urban settlement.

Every year on the eve of Victory Day, counterintelligence officers come to Dubrovka to honor the memory of their fallen comrades and tell young soldiers about the tragic and heroic Nevsky “patch.”

This tradition began in 2011, when, on the initiative of military counterintelligence veterans, a white marble chapel was erected in Dubrovka on the banks of the Neva. Since then, this tradition has been religiously observed and is becoming larger every year.

In 2015, the Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia held one of the stages of the Victory Relay along the state borders of the CIS member countries in the Dubrovsky settlement, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The Victory Relay - a symbol of the unity of all generations and the inviolability of the borders of the Fatherland - became a bright, unforgettable event for all residents of Dubrovka.

And this time, residents of the settlement gathered on the banks of the Neva, war veterans were present, and there were many schoolchildren.

The ceremonial formation was attended by counterintelligence servicemen, a company of the Guard of Honor, and a military orchestra.

Lieutenant General A.V. Rakitin, addressing those present, emphasized that even 71 years after the victorious May 1945, the grief that fascism brought is unforgettable. These are devastated cities and villages, these are the destinies of millions of people burned in the fire of war. A generation has grown up for whom the war is a distant history, but our common duty is not to allow what happened on our land to be forgotten. The national Victory Day unites and will always unite people.

Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region S.I. Aliyev congratulated everyone present on the upcoming Great Victory Day and noted that every Russian family rightfully considers it the most important and dearest. “There is no family that does not remember the war. Our task is to pass on this memory to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so that in 100 years this holiday will be the most important. Our task is to make Russia a prosperous, strong and invincible country!” - he said.

Chairman of the St. Petersburg public organization “Regional Association of Military Counterintelligence Veterans of the Leningrad Military District” A.P. addressed those present. Kontashov. He noted the enormous importance of the battles on the Nevsky “patch” in defeating enemy personnel and equipment, thanks to which in the fall of 1941 it was possible to prevent an attack on the city, and then, in 1943, to break the blockade of Leningrad.

A representative of the younger generation of counterintelligence officers, Senior Lieutenant A.V. Smolkov thanked the veterans for their feat of arms and assured everyone present that the military personnel were also ready to defend the Fatherland.

After a minute of silence, wreaths and flowers were laid at the monument to the chapel.

The meeting ended with a solemn march of the Honor Guard company.

The event continued in Nevsky Park, where guests and residents of Dubrovkaa field kitchen was in operation, performers from the song and dance ensemble of the Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region “Nevsky Watch”, students and teachers of the music school.