Reshuffling the Security State

Russia’s Top Prosecutor Takes the Throne of Justice

Judge is the boss

If it feels like you’ve already hit rock bottom and there’s nowhere further to fall, it may be worth thinking again. Even in the worst possible situation, there’s always a chance things can get worse still. In recent years, Russia’s judicial system may have seemed the embodiment of injustice. But now it’s clear that things will deteriorate further: Russia’s courts are set to become an efficient punitive machine, and judges will be reduced to obedient executors of the FSB’s will.

The new chairman of Russia’s Supreme Court will be 49-year-old Igor Krasnov, the current Prosecutor General. This is a very unorthodox personnel decision by Putin. Until now, in Russia, as in other countries, it was assumed that the head of the judiciary should at least be a judge — preferably even a member of the Supreme Court. But that rule no longer applies. A prosecutor at the head of the Supreme Court — that is Putin’s will, his new staffing innovation. Moreover, Krasnov is not an ordinary prosecutor: he is an FSB protégé, a hard-line representative of the so-called siloviki clan in Russian power. Members of Russia’s legal community are in shock — they believe the very notion of legality in Russia is gone forever.

Igor Krasnov

In April 2024, the Supreme Court was taken over by Irina Podnosova, Putin’s former classmate from the law school at Leningrad State University. At the time, it was expected that the judiciary would become even more submissive. Yet in practice Podnosova turned out to be the last defender of justice. For nearly a year and a half, the head of the Supreme Court waged an uncompromising struggle against Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov. For example, he sought to introduce confiscation lawsuits — granting the Prosecutor General’s Office the right to strip any entrepreneur of their business at will. Surprisingly, Podnosova stood firm, and the Supreme Court blocked the idea. It was Putin’s own classmate who unexpectedly became the final barrier to the security services’ bid to carry out a wholesale redistribution of property in the country.

But on July 22, the 71-year-old Irina Podnosova died of cancer, having spent just over a year as chair of the Supreme Court.

Irina Podnosova

Sources close to the Kremlin began spreading rumors that her potential successor might be Alexander Bastrykin, the 71-year-old head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, also a classmate of Putin’s and even the senior student leader of his group at university. Bastrykin is a fairly notorious figure, often making scandalous statements: blaming migrants for all of Russia’s problems, insisting that “a man is always right,” and calling for the return of the death penalty (currently abolished).

In reality, things turned out even more intriguing. According to a source close to the Supreme Court, the Bastrykin rumors were just a “cover operation” — in the Kremlin, all major personnel changes are carried out like special operations: suddenly, shockingly, so that no one guesses in advance and everyone gasps.

On August 22, Putin awarded Krasnov the title of “Honored Lawyer of Russia” — under the law, the holder of this title can become a judge without passing the qualification exam. But on August 25, the Prosecutor General nevertheless decided to sit the exam. And on August 26, he submitted his candidacy for the post of Supreme Court chairman. It is obviously Putin’s settled decision — Krasnov, not yet even a judge, will be the sole candidate, with the legally required procedure nothing but a formality.

“Krasnov is the FSB’s and the siloviki’s man. For a year and a half he fought with Podnosova for power and for prosecutors’ right to run rampant. She managed to resist. Now she is dead, and he is not just on horseback, he’s on her throne. This is a symbol, a demonstration of who’s boss. He will turn the Supreme Court into a barracks,” one prominent Russian lawyer laments.

Krasnov and Putin

A source close to the Supreme Court agrees: Russian courts were never independent — they were run under so-called “telephone justice,” meaning that in important cases judges would get calls from the Kremlin or the FSB dictating the correct decision. But in all other cases, judges could rule independently — though acquittals in Russia were still below 1 percent. Now, the source believes, the situation will completely change: judges will lose all autonomy and be required to consult their superiors on every matter. That is, they won’t wait for a phone call — they will be obliged to call themselves and ask what to do. “This horrific, macabre transformation is about to unfold,” the source predicts.

One Russian lawyer notes that the press debates whether this appointment is a promotion or a demotion for Krasnov — after all, “from now on he will have almost half as many subordinates,” as the newspaper Kommersant observes, with Russia’s 33,000 judges fewer in number than the army of prosecutors. “In a normal country the chief justice is by law primus inter pares, first among equals, not a boss. A chairman is simply an administrator of the court in rule-of-law states. In our system he is god, tsar, and master. I expect less of a shake-up in personnel than a global shift in trends,” the lawyer concludes.

The Siloviki Shake-Up

Still, the new head of the Supreme Court is only the tip of the iceberg. It is clear that in the coming days Russia will see a large-scale reshuffling of its security leadership.