Lubyanka Square, 1991-now

Lubyanka Square.  Federal Security Service headquarters is the gray one to the left side.    https://www.systemaspetsnaz.com/lubyanka-the-kgb-headquarter

   

         After coming to power Yeltsin tried to control the KGB by dividing it into a dozen agencies and diminishing their power.  He eliminated the feared Fifth Directorate which pressured dissidents and spied on ordinary citizens.  Later Yeltsin became heavily dependent on the military and security services in carrying out his agenda.

  In 1992 Yeltsin never made a clear statement of his plans for the security services, except for occasional claims that the new services would be very different from the KGB.  Nevertheless, early in 1992 certain trends already could be discerned.  Generally speaking, Yeltsin had three main aims for the internal security services.  Above all, he wanted to use the services to support him in his battles with high-level political opponents.  Second, he wanted the security apparatus to counter broader domestic threats--ethnic separatism, terrorism, labor unrest, drug trafficking, and organized crime. Third, he intended that the security apparatus carry out counterintelligence against foreign spies operating in Russia.  [Source: Library of Congress]

  By the mid-1990s the remodeled KGB had regained much of its power.  Yeltsin gave the secret police broad powers as part of is his anti-crime initiative.  Police were allowed to conduct searches without warrants, tap hones, set up front organizations, interrogate suspects for days, and make arrests without charges.  They were also put in charge of the prisons.

 Parliament members and former Yeltsin ministers complained they were being bugged.  But the KGB provided poor intelligence on Chechyna and worsened that situation.  The KGB was renamed the Federal Security Service (FSB). It leaders accompanied Yeltsin on hunting and fishing trips and reportedly provided him advice on the occult and astrology….

  In July 1998 Putin was made head of the FSB,…Putin helped Yeltsin by firing people who were loyal to Yeltsin's main rival at the time, Vevgeny Primakov, who concurrently was moving in on Yeltsin, his family and supporters.  In August 9, 1999, Putin was appointed Prime Minister by Yeltsin after the sacking his predecessor Sergei Stepashin.  Some say Putin was selected by Yeltsin because of his connections to the FSB (KGB) and ability to protect Yeltsin after he left office (Putin’s first decree was to grant Yeltsin and his family immunity from any future prosecution).

  As the Russian president, Putin has been very systematic and patient, carefully analyzing polices through cost-benefit analysis.  Half of Putin's official decisions were classified as secret. He liked to do things in a top-down “vertical power” sort of way and expected loyalty from those below him the same he way he was loyal to those who were above him in the past.  The machinations of power under Putin have been largely opaque.  Putin placed members of the KGB in key positions in his government.  Explaining why, he said, "I have know them for many years and I trust them.  It had nothing to do with ideology.  It’s only a matter of their professional qualities and personal relationships.”  http://factsanddetails.com/russia/Government_Military_Crime/sub9_5e/entry-5203.html

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   After the failed August 1991 putsch, Primakov was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the KGB and Director of the KGB First Chief Directorate responsible for foreign intelligence.  After the formation of the Russian Federation, Primakov shepherded the transition of the KGB First Chief Directorate to the control of the Russian Federation government, under the new name Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).  Primakov preserved the old KGB foreign intelligence apparatus under the new SVR label, and led no personnel purges or structural reforms.  He served as SVR director from 1991 until 1996.^[13] 

    Primakov had refused to dismiss Communist ministers while the Communist Party was leading the process of preparing unsuccessful impeachment proceedings against the president.^[28]   Beginning in 1999, he promoted Russia, China, and India as a "strategic triangle" to counterbalance the United States; he was dismissed as Foreign Minister in May 1999.  Ultimately, Yeltsin resigned at the end of the year and was succeeded by his last prime minister, Vladimir Putin.^[29]    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Primakov
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http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/29/in-russia-nostalgia-for-soviet-union-and-positive-feelings-about-stalin/
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Shasta

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24429795@N04/23213776675
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              The depth of man's inferiority, inefficiency, doubts and fears always stems from past momentums either of the self or of infections carried into the self from other selves....This is a matter of uprooting weeds which have no place in the garden of reality and of cultivating the virtues implanted there which have been choked out by the incumbent growth.  Momentums are built as people go over the old patterns again and again until these patterns become so deeply rutted that it is almost impossible to eradicate them from the face of consciousness....We advocate then in the overcoming of unwanted habits and conditions a recognition of the all-power of God.  

                                  -Maha Chohan:   Pearls of Wisdom 13:33