Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as the director of the Russian Federal Security Service since 2008.
14 Facts About Alexander Bortnikov
2.
Alexander Bortnikov is one of the most powerful members of the silovik faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
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Alexander Bortnikov was born in Molotov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1951.
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Alexander Bortnikov graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers in 1973, joining the Communist Party nearly immediately upon graduation.
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Alexander Bortnikov then worked as a railway engineer in Gatchina for two years before joining the Committee for State Security in 1975.
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Alexander Bortnikov's break came in June 2003, when Sergey Smirnov, chief of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast FSB, was sent to Moscow to become the principal deputy to the director of the agency amid the Three Whales Corruption Scandal.
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On 12 May 2008, Alexander Bortnikov was appointed Director of the FSB by president Dmitry Medvedev.
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Alexander Bortnikov is widely seen as a hawk and a willing participant in the Russian government's political repression at home and subversion abroad compared to his peers, Alexander Bortnikov has a reputation as one of the more individually honest figures.
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In March 2021, a law was enacted to allow presidential appointees like Alexander Bortnikov to serve past statutory retirement age.
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Alexander Bortnikov's FSB convinced Putin that most Ukrainians would welcome Russian troops as liberators.
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On 20 March 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine alleged that Alexander Bortnikov was a favorite to replace Vladimir Putin among a group of Russian elites plotting to assassinate Putin in a bid to stabilize the economy and reestablish ties with the West following sanctions imposed on Russia for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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On 25 March 2022, The Moscow Times noted that Alexander Bortnikov had disappeared from public view since around 11 March 2022, along with other senior siloviki including Sergey Shoigu, Igor Kostyukov and Viktor Zolotov.
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In February 2015, at the invitation of the United States, Alexander Bortnikov led a Russian delegation to a Washington, DC summit on countering violent extremism.
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From November 2004 to May 2008, Alexander Bortnikov was a member of the board of directors of Sovcomflot, Russia's largest shipping company and hydrocarbon transporter.