Who will head Russia's new 'FBI'?

The Kremlin has long toyed with the idea of creating a centralised police and counter-intelligence agency generally, if perhaps misleadingly, compared with the United States' FBI. Authoritative sources suggest this may be imminent. Decisions made about this new agency's leadership will say much about the likely evolution of Russian domestic security under President Dmitry Medvedev.

At present, the responsibility for combating foreign espionage, terrorism and serious crime is divided between a wide range of often competing agencies. The Federal Security Service (Federalnaya sluzhba bezopasnost: FSB) has prospered under President Vladimir Putin (one of its former directors) incorporating much of the former electronic security agency and dominating the National Counter-Intelligence Committee (Natsionalny antiterrorismicheskoi komitet: NAK).

The FSB's efforts at further empire-building have been limited by concerns about the creation of, in effect, a new KGB and the combined efforts of its various rivals, who agree on the need to constrain such ambitions. However, this has ensured that security and law enforcement is deeply politicised and has created serious problems with information-sharing and joint operations.

In this context, a rationalisation of the security and law-enforcement structures is long overdue, with responsibilities made clear and obstacles to co-operation cleared away. This is certainly the rationale being presented for the creation of a new Federal Investigative Service (Federalnaya sluzhba rozysky: FSR) from investigations elements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del: MVD), Investigations Committee (Sledstvennyi komitet: SK), FSB and Federal Drug Control Service (Federalnaya sluzhba narkokontrolya rossii: FSNK).

Putin seems to be fast-tracking the plan in his last days as president. Whatever the potential benefits - and they are considerable - there seems a clear political dimension to it. The current front-runners to head the FSR are Alexander Bastrykin, current head of the SK, and Alexei Anichin, head of the MVD's own investigations committee. Both are seasoned insiders, but perhaps most telling is that both were former classmates of Putin's at Leningrad State University.

Early suggestions are that the FSR will report to the prime minister rather than the president: a role Putin is likely to assume under Medvedev. As a result, this hurried reform could be interpreted as a way to consolidate investigations assets into Putin's grasp before he surrenders the presidency. 373 of 1,033 words