How do high-ranking Russian officials protect themselves from assassination?

Vladimir Putin is probably the most highly guarded man on the planet. He pays his personal guards well, and not just in money — he makes them governors of regions in Russia and gives them large factories and land holdings.

2025 Russia is much more a feudal state than a modern country.

Loyalty and service to the tsar (Putin isn’t a president but a dictator, who usurped power in the largest country in the world) is rewarded with land and governor rights, as well as money.

The FSO guards who are guarding Putin are well-paid and they won’t live better without him in power. Plus the perks for loyal service are enormous.

Putin believes in buying people.
Just need to pay them enough.
And also in blackmail — keeping their families hostage.

The FSO (federal protection service) is also guarding Putin’s family and all his residencies — even when he’s not there. The nearby areas are designated “no fly zones”. In residences on the coast, it’s “no sail” marine zones. Even to be able to pass miles away from Putin’s residences by the sea, requires a permit from the FSO.

The FSO also protects:

• The Secretary of the Security Council
• The head of the Central Bank,
• Presidential envoys
• Patriarch of Orthodox Church.
• The prime minister
• Speakers of the Federation Council and the State Duma
• The head of the presidential administration and his deputies
• The chairperson of the Central Election Commission
• The director of the FSB
• The ministers of defense and Internal Affairs
• The head of the High court
• The prosecutor general
• The head of the Investigative Committee
• Anyone else the president directs to be guarded.

(For instance, the FSO apparently guards Putin’s current female favorites — that’s how external observers keep track of dear leader’s liaisons.)

There are 785 employees working only in the FSO headquarters.

In total, there are reportedly 30,000 operatives and officers in the FSO.

• The FSO is not only involved in physically guarding Putin, but also in building and repairing his residences, conducting public opinion surveys — and even preparing meals.
• If other agencies (police, Russian National Guard) participate in state security, the FSO coordinates their actions.
• The FSO has the right to seize land for state needs, close roads, use ports and airfields free of charge, and classify the data of officials.

After the recent assassination of the chief of Russia’s chemical protection forces in Moscow, other high-ranked military commanders demanded FSO protection.

General Igor Kirillov was in charge of the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces since 2017. Kirillov and one of his aides were killed after an explosive device planted in a scooter near the entrance to his apartment building was remotely detonated.

Heads of regions are guarded by the National Guard, which employs 350,000 enforcers.

The FSO are both the bodyguards protecting Russian officials from assassination and the hostage holders — and they can also be the ones letting an executioner in, if ordered by Putin.

They are Putin’s warranty that the important people in his state machine won’t defect. They are his eyes and ears, ensuring loyalty.