Sergei B. Korolev

Sergei Borisovich Korolev (Russian: Сергей Борисович Королёв; born July 25, 1962) is a Russian intelligence officer currently serving as first deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Korolev was born in Frunze, Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR (now Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) on July 25, 1962.

Born into a military family, very little is known about his early life.

Korolev's father was a Soviet military commander and a friend and hunting partner of Viktor Zubkov, former prime minister of Russia and now chairman of the board of Gazprom.

He attended the, graduating in 1979.

Korolev first joined the Soviet security services in August 1979, soon after finishing school.

Little is known of his service during the Soviet Union.

Intelligence Online reports that Korolev served in the GRU, the military intelligence agency of the Soviet Union and Russia, prior to transferring to the FSB.

Korolev's rise following the collapse of the Soviet Union is closely connected to former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, son-in-law of his father's friend Viktor Zubkov, though iStories reported that despite his connections, Korolev's career was built primarily on being "a savvy operative."

Beginning around 1993, Korolev worked in a private security company that guarded the Mebel-Market chain of furniture stores, where Serdyukov was deputy director.

He joined the third department of the Economic Security Service (SEB) of the Federal Security Service (FSB) for the city of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast in 2000, working initially in combating organized crime and supervising law enforcement agencies.

Following questions about his mafia ties in 2004, Korolev was transferred to the Federal Taxation Service, which was also headed by Serdyukov.

In 2004, Saint Petersburg Police found that Korolev maintained a relationship with Oleg Makovoz, owner of a security firm involved in a series of high-profile contract killings, and a member of the "Brothers' Gang", a criminal enterprise based in Irkutsk sanctioned by the United States in 2017.

Korolev’s colleagues claimed Makovoz was a valuable human intelligence source, and that the investigation was trumped up as a byproduct of an ongoing turf war between Korolev and the head of the police department.

At the time the relationship emerged, Korolev was working in the FSB’s Economic Security Service.

In 2007, Serdyukov was appointed Minister of Defense, and Korolev followed, becoming his adviser.

At the Ministry of Defense, Korolev oversaw the GRU, where some say he was largely left in charge of the military intelligence agency's day-to-day operations.

As a result of the Makovoz case, Korolev was transferred to the Federal Taxation Service, led by Anatoly Serdyukov, before both moved to the Ministry of Defense in 2007.

In 2007, then-adviser to Minister of Defense, Korolev was wiretapped by Spanish investigators talking to the leader of the Tambov Gang, Gennady Petrov.

The tapes suggested that the criminal ringleader had lobbied Korolev for the appointment of Alexander Bastrykin as head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, and show Korolev promising to attend Petrov's birthday party.

In the tapes Korolev is referred to by the nickname Boltay-Noga or Guliay-Noga.

The Spanish criminal investigation also implicated Korolev in helping the Tambov Gang secure a promotion for Nikolai Aulov, then the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in the Central Federal District.

With Korolev's apparent assistance, Aulov became the deputy director of the Federal Service for the Control of Drug Trafficking in 2008.

Under Korolev's supervision, the GRU was reformed and the foundation of the Special Operations Forces (SSO) was laid, and in 2009, the Directorate of Special Operations was created in the Special Purpose Center near Senezh, Solnechnogorsk district, Moscow Oblast, on the basis of military unit 92154.

Following Serdyukov's departure Korolev moved to the FSB in September 2011, appointed head of the Internal Security Directorate (known as the 6th Service or CSS).

Oleg Feoktistov deputy

The Internal Security Directorate led by Korolev is known for many high-profile criminal cases, for example, the Case of the GUEBiPK and General Sugrobov, the case of the St. Petersburg billionaire Dmitry Mikhalchenko, the cases of the governors of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh and the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer.

This department also carried out operational support in the case of the former governor of the Sakhalin Oblast, Alexander Khoroshavin, and the mayor of Vladivostok, Igor Pushkarev.

Prior to Korolev, the head of the FSB’s own security department was Lieutenant General Alexander Kupryazhkin, who in July 2011, in the midst of the investigation of the Moscow Casino Case, left the FSB FSB and was appointed curator of the FSB Investigation Department in the high position of deputy director FSB.

It was predicted that the vacant seat of the head of the CSS FSB would be taken by his deputy Feoktistov, but a year later, Sergei Korolev, a colleague of Anatoly Serdyukov, was put in Kupryazhkin's place, who at one time held the position of Assistant Minister of Defense, who during this period was the acting head of the FSB CSS was not reported, but, according to General Denis Sugrobov, in January 2011, the 1st deputy head of the FSB CSS was Major General O. V. Feoktistov, who retained this position until his dismissal in 2016.

Serdyukov's career faltered when Vladimir Putin fired him in 2012 over a purported corruption scandal that many have described as a cover for Putin relenting to senior military leaders anger over the Serdyukov Reforms, though Korolev escaped the investigation unscathed, transferring back to the FSB.

In 2012, according to other sources, no later than September 2011, Sergey Borisovich Korolev headed the Department of Internal Security of the FSB of Russia, it was under Korolev that the Sixth Service, which was responsible for operational-search activities, became one of the most significant units in the CSS.

The CSS, headed by Korolev, was behind many high-profile criminal cases, for example, "The case of the GUEBiPK and General Sugrobov", the case of the St. Petersburg billionaire Dmitry Mikhalchenko, the governors of the Kirov Oblast Nikita Belykh and Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer, operational support in the case of the former governor of the Sakhalin region Alexandr Khoroshavin and the mayor of Vladivostok Igor Pushkarev.

He previously served as head of the Economic Security Service of the FSB from 2016 to 2021.

A secretive figure with extensive connections to the Russian mafia, he is considered one of the leading candidates to succeed Alexander Bortnikov as director of the FSB.

He has held the military rank of Army General since 2021.

As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was sanctioned by the EU, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

In 2019 iStories uncovered testimony by Aslan Gagiev, head of the, a Moscow and North Ossetia based gang accused of at least 80 murders, made to an Austrian court in which Gagiev testified "the head of the ninth service of the FSB took me out of Russia. He gave me 10 thousand dollars and decided that this was the only way he could help me."

Several sources confirmed to iStories that Korolev and Gagiev were well acquainted.

According to OCCRP, FSB leadership, including Director Alexander Bortnikov, were aware that Gagiev and Korolev knew each other.