In Russia, if no one is spying on you, you need to revisit your life and do some soul-searching. That means you are too unimportant. You better get your act together and set higher aims in life.

Luckily, most of the time in Russia, it’s impossible to tell for sure if anyone is actually spying on you. Our secret services are highly professional and don’t appreciate competition from amateurs. Therefore, if you think highly of yourself, you better assume: someone is most likely watching you, right there, right now.

This is exactly the thinking of oligarchs—and everyone who is someone in Moscow. This means that our oligarchs all most likely observe a set of straightforward rules:

• No confidential conversations over the phone
• No confidential personal stuff on your PC or the phone, or something else that can be stolen from you, or searched in your absence.
• No sensitive discussions in your car, your home, or your office. If unavoidable, have the radio on high, and use written notes for the most sensitive information.
• Rotation of secondary phone sets and numbers, registered on someone but yourself.
• Avoid taking telephones and other devices over the border. Use the “Russian” set of devices at home and the “foreign” one abroad.
• Two-factor authentication. Telegram for texting. VPN for emails. When in doubt, sweep clean the disks, reset the phone, and re-install the OS.

The purpose of these, and many other precautions for oligarchs, is not so much to dodge the attention of Putin’s servants, but to keep themselves safe from the prying eyes and ears of each other. Because if they find a chink in your armor, they will use it—and if they can’t, they may employ the help of someone in the government.

The strength of Putin’s rule is not so much in his iron grip on everyone’s life, or the sophistication of his spies. It’s the deep-ingrained belief of many Russians, both among the elite and commoners, that the government is the only thing that can protect each of us from the rest of us.

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