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A major occupant was liquidated in Ukraine.

In Krasnodar, 46-year-old FSB lieutenant colonel Dmitry Molchanov was buried. There is a funeral wreath on his grave with the inscription "From the department". Let's talk about his rank.

The most famous KGB colonel is Putin. But there's one thing. Putin was not a colonel of the KGB - he was made a colonel of the FSB before the elections, a rank he retired with. He left the KGB with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Although there are questions here, too.

In East Germany, he worked as a major. And when Soviet Union started to fall apart, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel or remained a major. Versions differ...

Formally, he was given a colonel in the FSB in early '99 when he was already head of the FSB.

One way or another, they molded Putin into the image of a dashing colonel for the election, because Colonel sounds better than Lieutenant Colonel. To say nothing of a major.

Why do I cling to these ranks? In the Soviet-Russian hierarchy, all OGPU/MGB/NKVD/KGB/FSB employees may wear similar military ranks. Nevertheless, they are 1-2-3 ranks higher than their army and navy counterparts.

Especially Russians like to relish such episodes of "subordination" in their numerous films about "Smersh", when a major of "state security" puts cuts an army colonel to his size. They shoot soap operas and epic action movies about it.

That is, a destroyed FSB lieutenant colonel is the level of a destroyed army colonel or major general. The "department" this lieutenant colonel belonged to and what he forgot in Ukraine is also interesting.

In fact, the FSB includes border guards, as it was in Soviet times. As we know, the border region is as troubled + he is a border guard from Krasnodar (=borderland).

As of today, at least seven FSB workers are known to have been killed - six border guards from the Bryansk region + this Lt. Col. Molchanov.

Anton Pavlushko, Facebook