[Andrey Skorobot report: Permanent Staffer to Combat Bin Ladin Appointed in FSB. Counterintelligence Staffers Get Directorate To Fight International Terrorism"]
[Text] Russia's FSB [Federal Security Service] has completed the structural reorganization in accordance with the edict No. 870 of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin of 11 July 2004. "The structure and T/O of the FSB have been optimized in accordance with the evolution of threats to national security," says Interfax transmitting an official report from the FSB Public Relations Center. Nezavisimaya Gazeta's reliable sources explained how the renovated FSB looks and which people are heading its main subdivisions.
"In the course of the organizational and staffing measures, the Russian Federation President has carried out a significant reshuffle of personnel in the upper echelons of the Russian FSB's management. The number of FSB deputy directors has been reduced by two-thirds," the Public Relations Center reported. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta's information, [FSB Director] Nikolay Patrushev now has two first deputies -- Lieutenant General Sergey Smirnov and Colonel general Vladimir Pronichev (he heads the Border Service), and also two deputies -- Lieutenant General Vyacheslav Ushakov (with the rank of state secretary) and Lieutenant General Vladimir Anisimov. Prior to reform of the FSB, Nikolay Patrushev had had 11 deputies. According to the information provided by Nezavisimaya Gazeta's sources, a reduction as radical as this by no means implies that the FSB has been getting rid of undesirable persons. For the most part the key figures in the leadership have remained in their posts. The sole difference is that instead of heading departments, they now head services.
"Instead of the six departments that existed hitherto with a considerable number of directorates and sections reporting to the Russian FSB Central Office, eight independent subdivisions --FSB services -- have been formed," the Public Relations Center report says. The most substantial changes, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta's sources, are the ones that have been made to the Department for the Protection of Constitutional Order and Combating Terrorism. Aleksandr Bragin who, until June 2003, headed the FSB Directorate [UFSB] for Chelyabinsk Oblast, has been made head of the subdivision which has been renamed as a service. Despite his relatively short experience of combating terror -- little more than a year when Bragin served as deputy chief of the department for combating terrorism -- he is known in the corridors of the special services as "an objective and determined person." Apart from that, a new subdivision has made its appearance in the service -- the Directorate for Combating International Terrorism. According to the information available, Major General Yuriy Sapunov, former chief of the Astrakhan Oblast UFSB, has been appointed the chief Russian fighter against Bin Ladin.
It is also known that in former times Sapunov used to head the Operational Coordination Directorate of the FSB for the North Caucasus which is well known for its tough strong-arm actions against Chechen bandit groups.
As before, the FSB's Investigations Directorate is an entity in itself. Despite the fact that in terms of status it has ended up lower down that the services, investigation remains a subdivision that still reports direct to the Central Office. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta's information, Yuriy Ansimov, its current acting chief, will very soon be appointed its chief. The remand center in Moscow -- the best known Russian prison, known among the public as the Lefortovskaya -- still remains under the jurisdiction of this directorate.
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