Bortnikov Alexander is one of the most secret persons in Russian politics. This is a real gray cardinal of the country. A person with great influence, but at the same time not at all public. However, his position requires him to do this - he is the director of the FSB of Russia and a KGB officer with forty years of experience. Our article will tell about the biography, career and personal life of this famous person.
Childhood and youth of Bortnikov
Nothing is known about the origin and childhood years of the country's chief FSB officer, unlike, for example, his predecessor, Mr. Patrushev. Official sources only say that Alexander Bortnikov, whose biography began on November 15, 1951, was born in Perm during the life of the great leader of the peoples, Joseph Stalin, and is Russian by nationality.
Even the ubiquitous journalists are silent on this topic - either they don't know, or for some reason they keep quiet. The only thing,what leaked into the media space is a characteristic of the young Bortnikov. He was a modest and quiet child, did not like public activity, and achieved success in his studies solely by perseverance, diligence and diligence.
The same can be said about the student years that Alexander Bortnikov spent at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers. Exemplary.
Start in employment
It is not known whether Bortnikov dreamed of becoming a railway worker since childhood or the choice of the university was completely random, but after graduating from the institute in 1973, he gets a job in his speci alty and works diligently at the enterprises of Gatchina in the Leningrad Region.
It is quite possible that Bortnikov was not going to tie his fate to this sphere of life, but simply worked out the deadline for distribution. One way or another, but two years later, his life changes dramatically.
KGB
Rumor has it that the quiet and inconspicuous Alexander Bortnikov was recruited by the State Security Committee as a student. At that time, this practice was common in the Soviet Union - employees of the bodies selected personnel in universities, stopping perhaps not for the most gifted, but for those who were disciplined and diligent. And all this seems to be true, since already in 1975 the "rookie" receives the crust of the Higher School of the KGB of the USSR named after. Dzerzhinsky. By the way, at the same time, the young strategist (obviously with an eye on the future) joined the ranks of the Communist Party, a member of whichwas until the moment of its dissolution.
And in the same 1975, Alexander Bortnikov, whose photo is still very few people know, joined the KGB Directorate for the Leningrad Region. He walked along the corridors of the most mysterious building in the city on the Neva for almost 20 years. There, he probably met Vladimir Putin, with whom they are practically the same age. The current president of Russia has played a significant role in the career growth of his not even a friend - just a good friend. But before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bortnikov's service was not distinguished by special ups and downs. At first he was an ordinary opera, then he occupied leadership, but rather small positions.
Federal Security Service for St. Petersburg
But after 1991 things began to move. Bortnikov Alexander, a diligent and patient officer (now) of the FSB in St. Petersburg and the region, first rose to the rank of deputy head of this organization. After some time, he became its leader. He became the chief St. Petersburg Chekist in 2003, replacing Sergei Smirnov in this post. The latter was transferred to Moscow.
But Alexander Vasilievich did not have long to work in St. Petersburg. In 2004, Vladimir Putin remembered him and took his old friend closer to him.
On the approaches to the top
On February 24, 2004, Bortnikov took the chair of the deputy director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, previously owned by Yuri Zaostrovtsev, who was fired due to a corruption scandal. Alexander Vasilyevich headed the department for counterintelligence support of creditfinancial sphere of the Federal Security Service.
True, he remained in this post for only a month. In March, the department was liquidated, and its head was transferred to the post of director of the economic security service, which actually meant a demotion.
But Bortnikov was not upset about this. As usual, he showed maximum endurance and was soon rewarded. In 2006, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army, and in 2008, he took on a position that one can only dream of…
The head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov: a new stage in his career
In 2008 Dmitry Medvedev became President of Russia. And this year turned out to be significant not only for him, but also for Alexander Bortnikov. He was appointed director of the FSB.
In this post, he replaced Nikolai Patrushev, whose activities did not satisfy the previous President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. Nikolai Platonovich showed too much activity, often flashed on television, and many of his actions were not coordinated with the country's leadership. As a result, he lost his position as the chief Chekist of Russia and was transferred to the secretaries of the State Security Council. For a position more fictitious than real. And his successor took up the real business.
The main activities of FSB Director Bortnikov
FSB director Alexander Bortnikov received the powers of the chief Chekist of the country at a difficult time for Russia. In the south, the war in Chechnya continued to smolder,and from within the state was undermined by the frequent acts of terrorism. And something had to be done about all this…
In mid-spring of 2009, President Medvedev signed a decree on the abolition of the Chechen counterterrorist operation, which lasted ten years. It was Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, who was supposed to take over the implementation of this decision in practice. In the fall of 2009, the leadership of the operational headquarters of the Chechen security service was transferred to the central body.
Slowly the flames faded away, and the Chechens returned to normal life. And those who tried to interfere with this, the FSB tracked and caught. But terrorism has not gone away. In the country, as under Patrushev, houses, trains, metro stations and other objects continued to explode. There were no fewer human casu alties.
And although the head of the FSB of Russia, Alexander Bortnikov, in his reports regularly said that the struggle was going on effectively and more than half of the terrorist attacks could be prevented, but the facts remain facts. In March 2010, an explosion in the metropolitan metro claimed the lives of forty people, and in Kizlyar (Dagestan) about the same time, 12 died. In the early winter of 2011, a bomb blast carried into the Domodedovo airport by a suicide bomber led to 37 victims. 9 residents and guests of Grozny said goodbye to their lives during the August terrorist attacks in Grozny in the same year.
May and August 2012 became blood-black for Dagestan and Ingushetia. There were killed 13 and 8 people respectively. And at the end of 2013, the attention of the whole world was riveted toVolgograd, where the terrorists first blew up the bus, then set off a bomb at the railway station, and a day later they blew up the bus. The total number of victims was 32 people, in total more than a hundred were injured. And this is not a complete list of the terrible acts of terrorists.
The FSB recognizes that terrorism is not easy to defeat, as the bandits are constantly recruiting more and more henchmen. But he speaks more positively about his work than vice versa.
Scandal stories involving Bortnikov
The current director of the FSB of Russia Alexander Bortnikov was involved in two high-profile stories. Both of them took place even before he was appointed to the post of chief Chekist of the country in 2008, and both are not confirmed by facts.
The first is related to Alexander Litvinenko, who spoke impartially about the Russian authorities and was eventually poisoned in London. It is Bortnikov that the liberal political forces of Russia, as well as some foreign special services, are accusing of organizing this murder.
The second story concerns the money of Russian officials in offshore accounts abroad, which Alexander Vasilyevich allegedly helped withdraw. And almost no one doubts his participation in this murky case, unlike the scandal with Litvinenko. However, there is no direct evidence for this.
The name of the first person of the FSB of Russia flashed in some other "entertaining" stories. But the aforementioned two were the loudest.
General's personal life
Alexander Bortnikov is married toTatyana Borisovna Bortnikova, with whom they have happily lived together for more than forty years. Today, the wife of the director of the FSB is a pensioner.
The couple has a son, Denis, born in 1974, who is currently the head of the board of JSC VTB Bank North-West. He did not follow in his father's footsteps and preferred the fate of a financier to a Chekist career, graduating from St. Petersburg University of Economics and Finance in 1996 and immediately getting a job in his speci alty.
To all appearances, Denis Alexandrovich, like Alexander Vasilyevich, is a whole and consistent nature. Both father and son, once choosing a path, follow it to the very end. Of course, until the victory.
