Siloviki
The
Siloviki (the word is
plural and rooted in a Russian term for
power) are Russian men from the old security or
military services, often the
KGB and military officers or other security services who rode into power on the coattails of
Boris Yeltsin or
Vladimir Putin.
Some think they have Russia by the throat and threaten their fragile democracy, and their power is immense. Some contrast them to American gangsters such as Al Capone, who nearly ran the American city of Chicago.
They tend to favor a statist ideology at the expense of individual rights and freedoms.
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