The complete rout of the security services to please the oligarchy: how Arkady Rotenberg brought the FSB under his control and secured the release of individuals implicated in corruption cases
It has become known that, in essence, a small “palace coup” is currently underway in Russia. Arkady Rotenberg has not only managed to emerge from disgrace.
Moreover, Vladimir Putin has begun a “purge” of all those who attacked Rotenberg. The all-powerful head of the Economic Security Service (ESS) of the Russian FSB, Sergei Alpatov, has lost his post; a similar personnel decision is expected for the head of the FSB’s Directorate T, Nikolai Babakov (who was appointed to this post only recently), and for a number of other FSB “top managers” appointed through Alpatov’s patronage.
As our project has repeatedly reported, Rotenberg’s affairs had lately been going extremely badly. Debts, lack of budget financing, Putin’s displeasure, and then an attack by security forces on his inner circle. Rotenberg’s top managers were sent to prison one after another, including Konstantin Makhov. The source also links the arrest of Ilya Traber (Antikvar) specifically to the attack on Rotenberg—they are very old friends and partners. The attacking force was the ESS of the Russian FSB, headed by Sergei Alpatov, and the directorates that are part of the ESS. According to the source, all these operations took place with Putin’s approval.
However, at one point the situation turned 180 degrees. According to our source, the “security clan” managed to convince Putin that everything he had been told about Rotenberg and Traber was false information, aimed at striking these people and almost weakening his own position. Judging by the subsequent course of events, he believed it.
Traber, Makhov and others were released. And rumors began to spread through the Russian FSB that Alpatov is leaving his post and that a struggle has begun for the position of head of the 4th Service (ESS). True, it was predicted that he might be transferred to head the Second Service. Today, Important Stories reported Alpatov’s resignation. Our sources also confirm this information. “He was removed literally in one day. But a week earlier he already understood everything and told his inner circle about it. He is now on leave, from which he will not return to the FSB,” the source said. According to him, the head of the FSB’s Directorate T, Nikolai Babakov, is also under threat—this directorate was investigating embezzlement during the construction of a runway (RWY) at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, in connection with which Makhov was arrested. The fate of various FSB top managers appointed through Alpatov’s patronage and involved in the attack on Rotenberg is also hanging in the balance. “The full list of resignations will be known in October. In general, many changes are expected in the Russian FSB then,” the source noted.
