Many in the FSB Despise Putin as Much or Even More than Opposition Groups Do, Shipilov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 14 – The upper reaches of the FSB are completely loyal to Vladimir Putin, but those lower down in the table of ranks, the analysts, linguists and administrative workers, a group that forms a majority of its employees, despise the Kremlin leader as much as or even more than opposition groups do, according to Andrey Shipilov.

            These officials, whom the Moscow journalist calls “FSB plankton, an analogue to office plankton,” are paid well and have better medical care than the population at large, “but on the whole they have the same standard of living” as other ordinary Russians do (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5B729195AAF60).

            Recently, Shepilov says, he has had the opportunity to speak with representatives of the FSB plankton, and those talks lead him to conclude that the level of hatred to Putin and the current Russian regime among such people is something “you will not find in any ‘opposition milieu.’” 

            “Unlike the majority of the population,” he continues, “they are more informed about the essential features of the processes which are taking place in the country and really understand what is occurring and how this may become a threat in the final analysis … No one has to convince them that Putin and his friends are stealing from the budget” and so on.

            Of course, these people are not angels and one can hardly feel sympathy for them. Many in fact simply want to become like their bosses and be in a position to steal from everyone for themselves.  But at a time when the regime has shut down most opposition groups, these employees of the FSB constitute a remarkable resource for change.

            “I don’t know what this plankton will do with the country if it comes to power. Perhaps, it will build a great and really free Russia … Perhaps it will divide it up among themselves … Perhaps it will drown it in a system that will make Orwell’s description seem a paradise … And perhaps after a short thaw, everything will return to the same place as if nothing had happened.”

            Shepilov continues: “I don’t know how everything will end after this regime will be destroyed, but on the other hand, I are certain that this regime will be overthrown not by protest meeting and not by professional fighters against the regime – or by us jedai warriors who have settled abroad.”

            What is possible is that this regime may blow up from the inside.  And one possible bomb that could go off leading to that end are the FSB plankton, the very people Putin probably thinks  remain completely reliable.