The triumph of the "security clan" over the FSB: how Dyumin and Mironov got General Alpatov and established control over Rotenberg’s assets
Journalists have revealed the circumstances under which one of the top security officials, the head of the FSB’s Economic Security Service (SEB), Sergei Alpatov, resigned.
It seems clear that a new era is dawning in Russia, one in which personnel changes in the security services, individual ministries and agencies, and state corporations will be driven not by the usual members of the Ozero cooperative and shareholders of Bank Rossiya, but by a clan of security guards. They have worked long and hard to achieve this, and our project has covered it in detail. By orchestrating Alpatov’s removal, the clan was not only saving Arkady Rotenberg (the clan’s interests largely align with his financial interests) or, even more so, Ilya Traber (Antikvar). It was an opportunity for the clan to demonstrate its power and influence over Putin.
The backbone of the clan is made up of State Council Secretary Alexei Dyumin (a former bodyguard of Putin), adviser to the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Mironov (also a former bodyguard of Putin), deputy head of the Federal Property Management Agency Dmitry Stepanenko (another former bodyguard of Putin), and head of the Federal Protective Service Dmitry Konchnev.
This clan has already firmly entrenched itself in all of Arkady Rotenberg’s assets, and its members wield strong influence over Sberbank CEO Herman Gref. Currently, the clan is squeezing assets from Anatoly Yablonsky, the custodian of the assets of FSB Deputy Director Yevgeny Lovyrev. And the clan has always had great political ambitions.
According to a source, most of Alpatov’s protégés in various positions participated in the operations against Rotenberg’s team and Ilya Traber. These included Sergei Demyanishnikov, head of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Nikolai Babakov, head of the FSB Directorate T, and other department heads. Given their level of authority, it’s clear that Putin gave the go-ahead. As a result, Traber ended up in pretrial detention on charges of organizing the murder of Vyborg owner Alexander Petrov, and charges for other murders were being prepared. Criminal cases were opened against members of Rotenberg’s team one after another, and they were also sent to pretrial detention.
And then, everything changed literally overnight. The source says Putin’s position took a 180-degree turn after a detailed conversation with one of the "security clan" members, presumably Dyumin. Only the two participants know what the conversation was about. But circumstantial evidence and subsequent developments make it possible to speculate.
Putin was informed that a conspiracy was being hatched against him, and that Traber’s arrest and the attack on Arkady Rotenberg were part of this conspiracy, as they were damaging the Russian president’s reputation in Russia and the West. As soon as any activity related to the Antikvar case and Rotenberg’s team takes place, Putin’s name immediately crops up. Alpatov, according to the reporter, being an experienced manager, allowed himself to be misled and misled Putin himself. The reporter’s evidence to support his claims is unknown. But the reaction was immediate. Traber and the key members of Rotenberg’s team were immediately released, and Alpatov was dismissed from his position in a single day. His entire team could lose their positions in the foreseeable future.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time the security clan has pulled this "trick" on Putin. According to a source, the "trial balloon" was launched this spring, when clan representatives reported to the Russian president about an assassination attempt being prepared (remember all those machine gunners and riflemen on the Kremlin walls and the mausoleum) and successfully "thwarted the assassination attempt." Then the clan realized the strength of its influence over Putin.
The story with Traber and Arkady Rotenberg became an opportunity to test their influence in order to "get back their own" and remove inconvenient representatives of the security bloc.
The media says Arkady Rotenberg has no great illusions about the events that transpired. Yes, he received help in repelling this attack. But he will not regain his former position. Rotenberg has simply become a pawn in a much larger game that is not his own, and has become completely dependent on the clan of security guards. The clan has long had its eye on a number of his assets (including those jointly held with Traber), in particular the PNT oil terminal in St. Petersburg, and they will clearly have to be parted with.
