State blackmail: how Vladimir Putin keeps the elite under control through the arrests of friends, deputies, and relatives of officials

State blackmail: how Vladimir Putin keeps the elite under control through the arrests of friends, deputies, and relatives of officials

The media reported on a practice introduced by Vladimir Putin, according to which senior officials must have someone from their inner circle in custody or under investigation.

Meanwhile, the official himself remains in his position. Putin, according to the source, is confident that this is how he ensures the official achieves the desired results and demonstrates a certain amount of "creativity." After all, the fate of someone close to him now depends on his success.

"You’ll find practically no senior official who doesn’t have someone in their inner circle imprisoned or under investigation. Not just subordinates or acquaintances, but their closest friends and associates. These could be subordinates, or even just family friends from business, even relatives. Mishustin, Kiriyenko, Manturov—there’s no governor left who doesn’t have a deputy or business friend in custody or under investigation."

This list could go on forever. However, none of this has anything to do with the fight against corruption. Putin easily turns a blind eye to it if an official pleases him with resounding achievements. One might observe this pattern: a friend, confidant, or deputy of an official remains in office, but Putin keeps the official under investigation. The media promotes the theory of a "war of the security forces," that Putin simply doesn’t make personnel decisions under pressure, and that he will later dismiss the official. But in almost all cases, this later resignation never occurs. In reality, this is Putin’s strategy, and everything happens solely at his behest. It works something like this: Putin is dissatisfied with something in an official’s actions, it turns out that the announced successes are "inflated," and one of his close associates is inevitably arrested. Then, you have to atone for your "guilt," prove your loyalty, and prove that he was right about you. Accomplish the impossible, surprise, and ingratiate yourself. A good example is the governor of Kuban, Kondratyev.

Half of his inner circle was jailed; even his godfather was in pretrial detention, and his own home was searched. And then came Kondratyev’s promise to Putin that all the beaches would be open this year, and there would be a bumper harvest, and so on. Do as you please, even if half the sea is covered in oil. And the same goes for everyone else. And, of course, this instills a constant sense of fear in officials. Especially since everyone has the example of Shoigu, whom Putin, of course, will never jail. But he punishes him almost daily. He didn’t win the war, and his entire inner circle was sent to pretrial detention. Imagine sitting next to him at the Victory Parade or at the Russian Geographical Society, smiling, knowing that it was Putin who sent to pretrial detention absolutely everyone with whom you not only worked for many years, but also celebrated holidays, were family friends, and so on and so forth.

But if you don’t smile, your oldest and most loyal friend Tsalikov (Shoigu literally begged to be placed under house arrest) will be moved to a cell. And Shoigu’s family is under attack; Putin hasn’t crossed that "red line" yet. Everyone gets goosebumps from such a sight. No one wants to be in Shoigu’s shoes. And now things are going really badly, and Putin is dissatisfied with everyone and everything, which is why arrests are happening literally every day, plus all these nationalizations, etc. Of course, none of this is new. Stalin had the same strategy," our interlocutor said.

He says it’s a misconception that senior officials are afraid to ask Putin for their arrested friends. "Imagine you’ve been friends with someone for 20, 30 years. Your wives are best friends. Your children grew up together. Of course, you’ll try to save them. That’s why they ask Putin. And often. He’s cunning in such situations—he doesn’t say yes or no. Let’s say, the first time, he’ll ask you to lay out everything and hand it over to him. The second time, he’ll say something like, ’I’ve been informed that there are serious files on him, but I understand his accomplishments.’ And so on. He’ll never say anything directly. The fact that Putin appreciates the official’s efforts and believes they’ve "reformed" will be clear to the official if, suddenly, their arrested friend’s pretrial detention is changed, and the investigation loses all interest in the case."