Yuri Felshtinsky - A Regime of Assassins - How the KGB/FSB Came to Dominate Power Vertical in Russia

The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union. It emerged as a direct successor of preceding agencies such as the Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, and was nominally attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and secret-police functions. Did it morph into the current FSB, or is that a different beast? Did any of the culture, traditional and methods of the KGB pass to its descendant agency and operatives? What can we know for sure of this brutal and secretive organ of power, and what relation does it have to Putin and his kleptocratic regime?
----------

GUEST: Dr Yuri Felshtinsky is an author, historian, and journalist.
----------

#ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation
#hybrid warfare #foreign policy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet
----------

WATCH NEXT:
John Sipher
   • Russia Must not be Allowed to Beat Ukraine...  
David Satter
   • Resurgence of Soviet Terror and Manipulati...  
Mark Galeotti
   • Mark Galeotti - Criminality, Conflict and ...  
Vlad Vexler
   • Vlad Vexler - The Long War: Defending Soci...  
----------

CHAPTERS:
00:00 The emergence of the KGB after the Russian revolution
08:15 Bolsheviks were a small, threatened, paranoid minority
12:38 Origins of administrative dictatorship in Tsarist times
16:16 does the FSB have it's own class identity and culture?
24:42 Russia cannot ressurect imperial dream without Ukraine
30:40 Power has been concentrated under one body - the FSB
42:26 Ukraine has showed how to root out a ruling clique
53:40 Black swan events that could put pressure on Putin
57:40 Could the FSB clique replace Putin as head of state?
----------

PLATFORMS:
Twitter:   / curtainsilicon  
Instagram:   / siliconcurtain  
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6...
Linkedin:   / finkjonathan  
Patreon:   / siliconcurtain  
----------

SPEAKER:
Dr Yuri Felshtinsky is a prominent author, historian, and journalist, and expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union. He has appeared in print, TV, and radio interviews worldwide, and is widely known as co-author of the book “Blowing Up Russia” with Alexander Litvinenko, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the FSB who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006. His latest book – “Blowing up Ukraine: The Return of Russian Terror and The Threat of World War III”, was researched before the invasion of Ukraine and is the first comprehensive investigation into the lethal methods Russia has used since 1999 to take over Ukraine – culminating in the full-blown unprovoked war in 2022 and mounting atrocities.
----------

BOOKS:
Blowing up Ukraine: The Return of Russian Terror and The Threat of World War III (2022)
Blowing up Russia: The Book that Got Litvinenko Murdered (2019)
The Putin Corporation: The Story of Russia's Secret Takeover (2012)
Lenin And His Comrades: The Bolsheviks Take Over Russia 1917–1924 (2010)
----------

Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.