Shortly after Viadimir Putin had taken office as president of the Russian Federation, it became clear that the Russian Security Council was to play a significantly more important role in Russian se curity policy. Both foreign policy and defence policy have been formulated primarily in the Security Council. The secretary of the Security Council, Sergei Ivanov, has been given a prominent position in decision-making. An examination of the role of the Security Council during its decade of existence, reveals that this was not always the case. The influence of the Security Council has varied according to which role the president has accorded to it. A good indicator of the influence of the Security Council in Russian politics has been the influence that its secretary enjoys with the president. The Security Council is a three-dimensional institution consisting of (a) the council and its members (b) its apparatus or staff, which prepares council meetings and collects information (c) its interclepartemental commissions, which consist of representatives from ministries and government institutions. The often-made comparison between the Russian Security Council and the Soviet Politbureau is misleading. It is more rewarding to compare the Russian Security Council with its American counterpart, the National Security Council (NSC) ~ not least since both security councils are highly dependent on the president.