Viktor Cherkesov
[1] From 1992 to August 1998, Cherkesov led Saint Petersburg Directorate of MBR/FSK/FSB, successor organization to KGB.[citation needed] From August 1998 to May 2000, he was a First Deputy Director of FSB under Vladimir Putin and Nikolai Patrushev.[citation needed] In early October 2007, several senior officers of the Federal Drug Control Service were arrested by agents of the FSB, which was considered by analysts as part of a longtime battle between Viktor Cherkesov, Igor Sechin and other members of Vladimir Putin's inner circle.[2] On 9 October 2007, an article signed by Cherkesov was published in Kommersant, where it was claimed that the Russian Drug Enforcement Administration officials detained on criminal charges earlier that month are the exception rather than the rule, that the turf battle among the secret services could undermine the nation's stability, and that the only scenario for Russia that is both realistic enough and relatively favorable is to continue evolution into a corporativist state ruled by security services officials.[4] On 12 May 2008, he was sacked by President Dmitry Medvedev as Head of the State Committee for the Control of the Circulation of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances and appointed by Prime-Minister Vladimir Putin Head of the Federal Agency for the Procurement of Military and Special Equipment.