Putin Out the Fire
Forensic analysis of the FSB state
An irregular archive on the FSB state, built from named open sources and bounded claims.
- Cadence
- irregular archive
- Filed here
- 9 editions
Archive
Editions preserved on this site. The original publication remains linked where it is available.
- EN
№011 · Putin and the FSB State
By mid‑2026 the FSB is no longer the regime’s instrument - it is the regime’s operating system. This issue traces how that happened and what it means for succession, coercion, and the long arc of Russian power.
Open edition - EN
№010 · The Bottleneck State
This issue examines budget growth alongside delayed contractor payments, reduced dual-use imports, hiring constraints and uneven factory throughput.
Open edition - EN
№008 · Codified Control
Recent legal and administrative changes give Russian security agencies wider access to communications data, organisational records and regional enforcement.
Open edition - EN
№007 · The FSO Shadow
The Federal Protective Service secures the Russian president and controls access to the people, information, and secure channels around him.
Open edition - EN
№005 · Succession Without Change
How Putin engineered a succession system that survives without a successor.
Open edition - EN
№004 · Russia and China: Dependence and Friction
A source review of trade, banking restrictions, defence inputs and stalled energy negotiations in 2025 and 2026.
Open edition - EN
№003 · War as Governance
How the Ukraine invasion restructured Russian politics from personalist authoritarianism into a militarized administrative state - and made conflict the organizing principle of the state itself.
Open edition - EN
№002 · The Quiet Purge
How the FSB became the regions, the budget flows, and the succession mechanism.
Open edition - EN
№001 · The Architecture of Continuity
How the FSB became the state - and what that means for succession.
Open edition