Russia's secretive security agency has gained notoriety around the world with its intelligence a counter-terror operations
But with roots in the Soviet Union's KGB secret police, allegations of state-sanctioned killings and close ties to the president, it faces questions about its true nature and ambitions.
What does the FSB do?
The Federal Security Service (FSB) was set up in 1995, and is tasked with tackling perceived threats to the Russian state. Mr Putin ran the agency before he came to power. It co-operates with foreign police forces in fighting jihadists and some organised crime gangs.
The FSB poured resources into fighting separatist rebels from Chechnya in two wars, in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Russia has tense relations with several of its ex-Soviet neighbours. Part of the FSB's job is to prevent any pro-Western "colour" uprisings in Russia like Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution and Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution
.In 2015 the FSB was involved in a Cold War-style spy swap with Estonia.
A Nato member, Estonia accused Russia of having kidnapped Eston Kohver, the security official exchanged for a jailed Russian spy.
In 2002 the assassination of an Arab jihadist commander in Chechnya, known as Khattab, was attributed to the FSB. His Chechen comrades said he had received a letter laced with poison.
But the Alexander Litvinenko murder case really put the FSB in the international spotlight.
The ex-FSB officer, bitterly critical of President Putin, was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006.
Litvinenko, given asylum in the UK, had been branded a "traitor" in Russia.
The official UK inquiry concluded that the killers probably had approval from Mr Putin and the then FSB chief, Nikolai Patrushev.
Russia rejected the charges and made the main suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, an MP and national hero.
Litvinenko had accused the FSB of running a top-secret hit squad called URPO for assassinating enemies. One of its targets, he said, was the powerful oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who died in the UK years after Litvinenko in 2013 in an apparent suicide.
Just weeks before Litvinenko died, Russia passed a law giving the FSB authority to act against "extremists" and "terrorists" abroad.
Read more: Putin, power and poison: Russia’s elite FSB spy club - BBC News
But with roots in the Soviet Union's KGB secret police, allegations of state-sanctioned killings and close ties to the president, it faces questions about its true nature and ambitions.
What does the FSB do?
The Federal Security Service (FSB) was set up in 1995, and is tasked with tackling perceived threats to the Russian state. Mr Putin ran the agency before he came to power. It co-operates with foreign police forces in fighting jihadists and some organised crime gangs.
The FSB poured resources into fighting separatist rebels from Chechnya in two wars, in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Russia has tense relations with several of its ex-Soviet neighbours. Part of the FSB's job is to prevent any pro-Western "colour" uprisings in Russia like Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution and Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution
.In 2015 the FSB was involved in a Cold War-style spy swap with Estonia.
A Nato member, Estonia accused Russia of having kidnapped Eston Kohver, the security official exchanged for a jailed Russian spy.
In 2002 the assassination of an Arab jihadist commander in Chechnya, known as Khattab, was attributed to the FSB. His Chechen comrades said he had received a letter laced with poison.
But the Alexander Litvinenko murder case really put the FSB in the international spotlight.
The ex-FSB officer, bitterly critical of President Putin, was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006.
Litvinenko, given asylum in the UK, had been branded a "traitor" in Russia.
The official UK inquiry concluded that the killers probably had approval from Mr Putin and the then FSB chief, Nikolai Patrushev.
Russia rejected the charges and made the main suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, an MP and national hero.
Litvinenko had accused the FSB of running a top-secret hit squad called URPO for assassinating enemies. One of its targets, he said, was the powerful oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who died in the UK years after Litvinenko in 2013 in an apparent suicide.
Just weeks before Litvinenko died, Russia passed a law giving the FSB authority to act against "extremists" and "terrorists" abroad.
Read more: Putin, power and poison: Russia’s elite FSB spy club - BBC News
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