1/2: #Russia: The Siloviki and Putin. Adam E. Casey @adam_e_casey @umichWCED, Postdoctoral Fellow, Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies

Photo:  Patriarch Job of Moscow (from Tsarskiy titulyarnik): Saint Job, Russian Svyatoy Iov, first Russian Orthodox patriarch of Moscow (1589–1605).

Also: 
.https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/feb/12/1 ("Russian Patriarch 'was KGB spy'")

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_groups_under_Vladimir_Putin%27s_presidency#/media/File:Major_informal_groups_of_the_second-term_Putin_presidency.gif

1/2: #Russia: The Siloviki and Putin.   Adam E. Casey @adam_e_casey @umichWCED, Postdoctoral Fellow, Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies

Adam E. Casey  @adam_e_casey @umichWCED, Postdoctoral Fellow, Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, University of Michigan

In the Russian political lexicon, a silovik is a politician who came into politics from the security, military, or similar services, often the officers of the former KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, FSO, the Federal Drug Control Service, or other armed services who came into power. A similar term is "securocrat."  Traditionally, the Patriarch, head of the Russian Church, is a Colonel in the KGB/FSB.