Sergey Demyanishnikov, a protege of Sergey Alpatov from the “T” Directorate, has been appointed head of the St. Petersburg FSB amid a clan war among security officers
A new chief of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region is expected to take office in the third week of April: Lieutenant General Sergey Demyanishnikov, previously head of the FSB’s Directorate “T.” His appointment comes as the regional office remains embroiled in a long-running internal conflict between rival factions.
Demyanishnikov is considered a close associate of Sergey Alpatov, the influential head of the FSB’s Economic Security Service (SEB), who has placed many former subordinates from Directorate “M” into key positions across the agency. Among them are Aleksey Trukhachev, now head of Directorate “K,” and Nikolay Babakov, a Directorate “M” alumnus serving as deputy head of Directorate “T” and widely expected to replace Demyanishnikov. Alpatov reportedly also backed Demyanishnikov’s earlier promotion to lead Directorate “T” following the explosion on the Crimean Bridge and the dismissal of his predecessor Viktor Gavrilov.
In St. Petersburg, Demyanishnikov will inherit a protracted confrontation between Deputy Regional Chief Sergey Stepants and Alexander Gimadiev, head of Directorate “M” within the regional FSB office. Stepants, viewed as a Moscow appointee, is said to enjoy strong backing in the capital, while Gimadiev is considered closely tied to local elites. The rivalry has persisted for years and, according to reports, has already affected numerous businessmen and security officials aligned with either side.
Attention has also focused on Demyanishnikov’s spouse, Elena Demyanishnikova, a business coach who works with senior executives at major Russian financial institutions. She previously coached leadership teams at Alfa-Bank and VTB and is currently affiliated with the Skolkovo School of Management, as well as a consulting firm whose clients reportedly include Sberbank, Sibur, Norilsk Nickel, Gazprom Neft, and other major state-linked corporations.
The appointment places Demyanishnikov at the center of one of Russia’s most strategically important regions, where political, economic, and security interests intersect — and where resolving entrenched internal rivalries may prove as challenging as managing external threats.
Yaroslav Fokin