Vladimir Putin’s team does its best to promote its own candidates for the foreign policy positions in the Administration of the President of Russia. Supposedly, these very candidates are capable to drag the Kremlin out of international isolation and prove their effectiveness in order to keep power. As for now, everybody who is close to Putin and completely dependent on his tenure in office tries to demonstrate loyalty and useful skills.
On November 11, the influential Russian businessman, Putin’s former-son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, succeeded in lobbying for the appointment of his creature, Daniil Bisslinger, to the position of deputy head of the Department for Multilateral International Cooperation of the Presidential Administration Foreign Policy Department.
Shamalov is the ex-husband of Putin’s daughter and the son of Mykola Shamalov, the co-owner of the bank “Russia”, one of the representatives of Vladimir Putin’s close circle. He is sanctioned by the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Shamalov’s current girlfriend is Anastasia Zadorin, the daughter of Colonel General M.Shekin, the head of the FSB support Service.
Daniil Bisslinger has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad. He spent nearly 6 years at the Russian Embassy in Germany and since 2017 has been working in the Third European Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2014, he has been actively working with the president of the Cyber Security Council of the German Federal Republic H.-V.Dunn, a politician from the pro-Russian ‘Alternative for Germany party’.
With the help of Bisslinger, Dunn also communicated with Andrey Sivovov, the Russian military attaché of the embassy; the latter was invited by Dunn for a personal meeting ‘within the framework of expanding multi-level cooperation with Russia. Thus, with everything mentioned above we can say that Besslinger is linked with the Russian intelligence and works as a recruiter.
In addition, Besslinger collaborated with Volker Chapke, the founder of the ‘Prussian Society’, an ultra-right organization missioned to create a Prussian state, which violates the territorial integrity values of Germany. Chapke’s relationship with Besslinger and representatives of the Russian embassy in Germany started in 2014, the Russia-West confrontation beginning.
Daniil Bisslinger was seeking to recruit Markus Frohnmaier, representative of the AfD conservative party of Germany.
There is a possibility that Russian foreign intelligence looks for the ways to get closer to Putin’s non-security service inner circle with the aim to influence more on Russian politics. Perhaps, that is why Serhii Naryshkin intends to increase his influence on political processes and get Putin’s trust. In this context, the fact of Naryshkin’s participation in the recent November negotiations with the American delegation is worth attention. Thus, by using Kirill Shamalov, who has his own ambitions for the Administration of the President of Russia, the Russian intelligence top-managers try to strengthen their influence on Putin while the struggle of the centers of influence in the Kremlin is in the air.
