Watch out for the KGB mafia

Putin will tough it out and survive. But lurking behind him, waiting and wondering and possiby plottling, are the KGB mafia who keep Putin in power. They are known as the Silovik, an organisation that consists of the highest echelons of the security and intelligence services and defence ministry. Key man is Alexander Vasilyevich, head of the FSB, the federal security service. For FSB read KGB. The FSB is all-powerful and keeps Putin in power. So Vasilyevich keeps Putin in power. Like Putin, he is a former KGB officer and is probably now the most deadly threat to Putin's future. Until now he and his old KGB mucker Vladimir Putin have been mates but who knows what the FSB boss is thinking now. I bet Putin doesn't know what Vasilyevich is thinking, let alone plotting. Putin is in overall command of the FSB as the president and commander-in-chief but after the weird and wonderful march on justice on Moscow by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his gang of mercenaries, there seems to be a slight discrepancy between Putin's demands and Vasilyevich's wishes. Putin said there was to be no investigation of Wagner and its boss but apparently the FSB is pursuing an investigation with KGB vigour. So cracks may be appearing and if they get wide enough Putin might fall through the gap. The KGB gap. As Calder Walton, an American intelligence historian, beautifully put it in an article in Time magazine: "Russia is effectively a security service with a state attached." It could be the KGB's big moment. Again.