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Sergei Smirnov
File:File:Sergei Mikhailovich Smirnov.jpg
Smirnov around 2018
First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service

In office
July 2003 – October 2020
President Vladimir Putin
Dmitri Medvedev
Succeeded by Sergei Korolev
Personal details
Born Sergei Mikhailovich Smirnov
October 12, 1950(1950-10-12) (age 74)
Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Alma mater M.A. Bonch-Bruevich Leningrad Electroengineering Institute of Communications (B.S.)
Military service
Allegiance Russia
Service/branch KGB, FSK, FSB
Years of service 1975–2020
Rank General of the Army

Sergei Mikhailovich Smirnov (Russian: Серге́й Михайлович Смирнов, born October 12, 1950) is a retired Russian intelligence officer whose career ended with a seventeen-year stint as First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB). He was made a General of the Army in 2006.

Early life and education[]

Born in Chita in 1950, his family moved to Leningrad in 1952. He later attended school alongside Nikolai Patrushev and Boris Gryzlov at the school No. 211. Together with Gryzlov he graduated from M.A. Bonch-Bruevich Leningrad Electroengineering Institute of Communications in 1973. [1]

He completed the Higher Courses of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR in Minsk in 1975.

Intelligence career[]

In 1975, he joined the KGB and the early part of his career was spent in the Leningrad region KGB and then FSB.

While not a personal friend of Vladimir Putin, he was a member of the Leningrad security clique. When Putin was made director of the FSB in 1998, Patrushev became his deputy and Smirnov moved to Moscow. He quickly acquired one of the key positions within the agency: head of the Internal Security Directorate (UVB), the watchdogs’ watchdog.[1]

In 1999, he became the Chief of the Internal Security Directorate of FSB.

From January 5, 2001, to June 2003, he was the Chief of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast FSB Directorate.

Dmitri Medvedev with Sergei Smirnov

Smirnov meeting with Dmitry Medvedev in 2011.

In July 2003 he became First Deputy Director of the FSB, retaining his position after a major reorganization of it in July 2004.

On December 20, 2006, he was made a General of the Army by presidential decree.

Personal life[]

Smirnov was reported to have had a stroke several years prior to his retirement.

Retirement[]

In October 2020, Smirnov retired quietly in an apparent dismissal by Vladimir Putin. It was no surprise that he was going to retire, as he had reached the age of 70 and was already in ill-health, but it was a surprise that he departed office with such a lack of fanfare and no comfortable sinecures. He was, after all, a powerful and influential figure within the Russian security community.[2]

Honors and awards[]

References[]

External links[]

  • Biography by Vladimir Pribylovsky (in Russian)
Political offices
Preceded by
Viktor Ivanov
Chief of the Internal Security Directorate of FSB
1999 - ??
Succeeded by
Sergei Shishin
Preceded by
Alexander Grigoryev
Chief of the FSB Directorate of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast
January 5, 2001 - June 2003
Succeeded by
Alexander Bortnikov
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