Russian security services official

Sergei Mikhailovich Smirnov (Russian: Серге́й Михайлович Смирнов, born October 12, 1950) is a retired Russian intelligence officer whose career ended with a seventeen year stint as First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB). He was made a General of the Army in 2006.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Intelligence career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Retirement
• 5 Honors and awards
• 6 External links

Early life and education

In 1952, he moved to Leningrad and later became a cl*mate of Nikolay Patrushev and Boris Gryzlov at the school No. 211. Together with Boris Gryzlov in 1973 he graduated from M.A. Bonch-Bruevich Leningrad Electroengineering Ins*ute of Communications .

He completed the Higher Courses of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR in Minsk in 1975.

Intelligence career

Since 1975, he has served in KGB and its successors, mostly in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg.

In 1999, he became the Chief of the Internal Security Directorate of FSB.

From January 5, 2001 to June 2003, he was the Chief of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast FSB Directorate.

Smirnov meeting with Dmitry Medvedev in 2011.

In July 2003 he became First Deputy Director of the FSB, retaining his position after a major reorganization of it in July 2004.

On December 20, 2006, he was made a General of the Army by presidential decree.

Personal life

Smirnov was reported to have had a stroke several years prior to his retirement.

Retirement

In October 2020, Smirnov retired quietly in an apparent dismissal by Vladimir Putin. It was no surprise that he was going to retire, as he had reached the age of 70 and was already in ill-health, but it was a surprise that he departed office with such a lack of fanfare and no comfortable sinecures. He was, after all, a powerful and influential figure within the Russian security community.

Honors and awards

• Master of Sports of the Soviet Union in handball.

• Order of Military Merit
• Order of Friendship
• Order of Honor

External links

• Biography by Vladimir Pribylovsky (in Russian)