Meet Denis Kurilov, second person with an FSB background at Russia’s Consulate General in Kirkenes
In Kirkenes, the Russian consulate increasingly resembles a branch of the FSB border service: staff without diplomatic status live in the consulate building and appear at official meetings and public events. The Barents Observer can today present the second person at the consulate connected to the FSB.
Another person with a past in the FSB structures is working at the Russian Consulate General in Kirkenes — 33-year-old Denis Kurilov, Barents Observer has found out. His name does not appear in the official lists of employees with diplomatic status in Norway, but he resides at the consulate and participates in its public activities. According to leaked databases, Denis Kurilov, a native of the Voronezh region, served in military unit No. 9804 in the Yaroslavl region. He lived and worked there from 2017 to 2023.
This unit belongs to the FSB border troops. In photographs published on his mother’s page on Odnoklassniki – a Russian social media platform – Kurilov is wearing the uniform of FSB border institute cadets — the epaulettes bear the ‘K’ sign, used to denote students. Additionally, one of his brothers also works in the FSB border service structure in the Moscow region, according to the same leaked database. In Norway, Kurilov does not have diplomatic status, but he lives in the same building where the Consulate General is located in the centre of the town. According to information from the Norwegian online phone directory, his namesake Tatiana Kurilova is also registered at this address.
The building is arranged so that the consulate’s workspaces are on the ground floor, and the service apartments for employees are on the second. The Consul General Nikolai Konygin also resides in this building. Kurilov himself is also present in the phone directory, but under the altered surname ‘Kunilov’. This discrepancy may be explained either by an operator error or by the data being provided in a distorted form. The Barents Observer contacted Kurilov by phone, but he refused to answer the journalist’s questions.
“No, unfortunately [I cannot comment],” said Denis and hung up. Consul General Nikolai Konygin also did not answer questions by phone and asked to have them sent by email. The email is not answered. The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) declined to comment on questions from the Barents Observer about the case. Kurilov regularly appears at public events in northern Norway involving the Consulate General: including at events dedicated to Victory Day and the Liberation Day of east-Finnmark, where he usually stands with the Russian flag.
In addition, the Barents Observer noticed him at a meeting of Norwegian military representatives with a delegation from the FSB Border Directorate, which took place in Kirkenes in September this year. According to one eyewitness, the Russian Consul General in Kirkenes, Nikolai Konygin, addressed Denis Kurilov with the Russian language formal “You”, maintaining an official and markedly respectful tone. The witness notes that Konygin communicates with other employees in a noticeably less formal manner. Second FSB linked employee The name of another consulate employee, Nikolai Ruzaev, became known earlier. He worked at the Russian Consulate in Kirkenes as a security guard — checking documents, controlling access and video surveillance, and during elections, he was involved in voter registration.
In the leaked data, he is also listed as having served in military units No. 2450 and No. 9594, which are part of the FSB border system and are based, among other places, at Vnukovo Airport. In Kirkenes, Ruzaev lived with his wife, Anastasia Ruzaeva, who worked as a consulate attaché and is an employee of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When directly asked about his service in the FSB, Ruzaev claimed that he had a “civilian education” and that he had no connection to the special services.
Some time after the Barents Observer published the information, the Ruzaevs left Norway. Immediately after his departure, Kurilov arrived in Kirkenes – he was first seen in public in Kirkenes in May 2025. Consul General Nikolai Konygin has not replied to the following question from the Barents Observer sent by email: Is there a deliberate selection of employees with service experience in the FSB or other security agencies for work at the Consulate General? If so, what is the rationale behind this approach?
