REVIEW TOPICS:
Russian security service makes clear what information it needs - press
Berezovsky still considers suing the Russian TV over linking him to late Litvinenko’s statements
Russia: chief of the human trafficking group remains in custody
Latvians stand for referendum on security services reform
Latvian Security Police investigates threats to nationalist leaders
Secret services still hold control in Bulgaria – German journalist
Russian security service makes clear what information it needs - press
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Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia disclosed yesterday its internal regulations setting forth new procedures to consider individual complaints. The purpose of new rules is to narrow the information flow that doesn’t relate to the state security. Inspired by the FSB's call to be on watch, the Russians overburdened its officers by data of no interest to them, Kommersant daily writes.
Under the new regulations, the Federal Security Service will be spared from the information outside its competence. If not related to security, the written complaints of individuals will be forwarded to bodies committed to make respective decisions. From now on, FSB is entitled not to respond to repeated questions of the nation. It will react neither to unreadable complaints nor to obscene or abusive ones.
Till yesterday, FSB had been governed by the rules of 2000-year shaped in the wake of terror actions staged in a few cities of Russia. Those rules urged residents to inform about all persons or facts should they find them suspicious. At that time, the billboards with FSB’s hot line numbers could be often seen in the cities of Russia. The slogans read: “Your call will tie hands of terrorists,” “Inform about suspicious objects before you read about them in newspapers” and others. The amount spent for such advertising of FSB has been never officially disclosed. The sources say that in Moscow separately, the cost of that joint effort of FSB and Interior Ministry reached $0.5 million.
The enthusiasm of the nation exceeded any and all expectations of security officers. From 12,000 to 18,000 phoned or personally showed up in FSB and another 50,000 to 60,000 wrote letters to it each day in 2001 to 2005.
FSB public relations department declined to comment on the new regulations yesterday. The document is needed “to establish order,” said a source with FSB on condition of anonymity.
Berezovsky still considers suing the Russian TV over linking him to late Litvinenko’s statements
Russia's London-based fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky is demanding an apology from a state Russian television channel and threatening it with a libel suit, but Rossiya channel denied receiving any warning letters, RIA Novosty reports. Gazeta.ru online edition quoted Berezovsky as saying he would sue the RTR-Planeta, a satellite version of Rossiya, and the Vesti program of the channel in a British court for a report April 1 that said Berezovsky had illegally obtained political asylum in Britain by forcing a security agent to testify he had been sent to kill him. "Britain is a civilized country, unlike Russia," Berezovsky said. "It is common practice to send a letter first demanding a rebuttal and an apology, and such a letter has been sent."
Berezovsky's lawyer, Andrew Stevenson, told Gazeta.ru that the letter was sent April 5 and that a failure to receive a response would enable his client to file a libel suit against the TV channel two weeks later, April 19, with the Supreme Royal Court in London.
The press service of Rossiya told Gazeta.ru that the TV channel had not received any official notifications from Berezovsky or his lawyers. "Therefore, no comment can be given at the moment," a spokesman said.
The author of the TV interview, Andrei Medvedev, declined to elaborate either, saying he had been unauthorized by the channel to comment.
The witness, who appeared on TV with his face hidden and answering to the pseudonym "Pyotr," accused 61-year-old Berezovsky of killing Alexander Litvinenko, who died of radioactive poisoning in London in November. "Pyotr" said Litvinenko, a former security officer, knew how the exiled tycoon obtained political asylum in Britain in 2003. The Rossiya report showed "Pyotr," who lives in London, as saying that Litvinenko, allegedly his acquaintance and an associate of Berezovsky, had offered him from 2 to 40 million pounds if he testified he had been sent to London to murder the businessman who fell out with Russian authorities.
In 1998, Litvinenko himself publicly told a news conference in Moscow that he had been ordered by his superiors at the Federal Security Service (FSB) to assassinate Berezovsky, who was a senior state official at the time. Pyotr said Berezovsky rewarded Litvinenko with financial support while he lived in London.
Litvinenko's mysterious death is still being investigated by Russian and British detectives. In his deathbed note, the former security officer blamed the Kremlin for his poisoning, but the Kremlin denied the allegations.
Russia: chief of the human trafficking group remains in custody
Moscow's city court ruled Wednesday to remand in custody the head of an international criminal ring involved in human trafficking, RIA Novosty reports.
Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Strykanov and more than 20 members of the criminal ring, including the leaders, were arrested in a special operation by the Federal Security Service (FSB) March 14. According to investigators, Strykanov was the head of a criminal group, involved in human trafficking and illegal immigration from South East Asian and CIS countries to Western Europe through Russia. Strykanov's arrest was sanctioned by the Kuzminsky district court March 15. His lawyer Ruslan Kobylev told RIA Novosti the Moscow City Court provided no reason for quashing the appeal against the arrest citing "serious violations of the law" at the Kuzminsky court. Kobylev said military courts should consider cases involving servicemen adding that the charges against Strykanov were absurd. "My client claimed in court that all the charges were harassment," the lawyer said.
The FSB said the criminal group comprises Ukrainians and Moldavians. It has been established that front companies were set up in Russian cities using fictitious employment contracts with Russians in a scam designed to obtain their foreign passports, the FSB said. Criminals subsequently used the foreign passports to apply for European visas, change the passport data and illegally send people to Western Europe, the FSB said. The case has been handed to the Military Prosecutor's Office.
Latvians stand for referendum on security services reform
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Latvian troops |
Over 20,000 Latvians signed a petition calling for a referendum on controversial changes to the security services in the last week, the Latvian Electoral Commission announced Wednesday. 'It's not a whole lot. It shows that those who were sceptical about the ability of a political party or media outlet to mobilize voters were right,' Nils Muiznieks, a leading political scientist at the University of Latvia, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
According to a commission press release, 20,151 Latvians called for a referendum on one amendment and 20,156 for a referendum on the other between the beginning of the signature-gathering process last Tuesday and 1000 local time this morning. Almost 150,000 signatures would be needed to call a referendum on the amendments. On the first week's showing, experts doubt that this number will be reached by the end of the process on May 2. 'Unless a major media outlet, political figure or party makes a major issue of it and explains to people why they should go out and sign, not much will happen,' Muiznieks said.
But with three weeks to go until polling stations close, and the possibility of a late surge in voter activity not ruled out, the outcome is seen as being impossible to predict. 'What is very human is to postpone things to the last moment,' pointed out political scientist Janis Ikstens.
The disputed amendments to laws governing the security services were passed by government ministers on the last day of the parliamentary Christmas break, using emergency legislation.
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga vetoed the amendments in February, saying that they concentrated too much power in government hands. However, parliament voted in March to override the veto. Vike-Freiberga then invoked her constitutional right to freeze the laws while public support for a referendum on them could be gauged. In the wake of her decision, the government both cancelled the amendments and began the process of cancelling the emergency legislation which allowed it to pass them. However, the process of gathering signatures began on April 3. By law, it must last one month.
Latvian Security Police investigates threats to nationalist leaders
The Latvian Security Police (DP) has launched a criminal procedure over murder threats to the leaders of two nationalist partioes: “All For Latvia!” leader Raivis Dzintars and the radical youth organization “Klubs 415” leader Janis Sils, The Baltic Times reports.
Dzintars and Sils turned to the State Police complaining of an anonymous comment that was posted on the website rus.delfi.lv on March 2. In the comment, someone offered remuneration for the scalps that would be taken from the corpses of Dzintars and Sils.
The comment displayed the photos of both nationalist leaders.
Security Police representative Kristine Apse-Krumina told BNS that the criminal procedure has been initiated on the grounds of threats to inflict heavy bodily injuries. While police do not yet have any suspects, the possible sentence is one-year imprisonment.
Secret services still hold control in Bulgaria – German journalist
The German investigating journalist Juergen Roth has issued a revised version of his latest book, which includes Bulgaria's controversial businessman Vassil Bozhkov, the strong arm groupings and a Varna crime circle, Deutsche Welle reported. German radio yesterday aired an interview with Roth, who is mainly occupied with investigations linked directly to organized crime and the secret services in the countries from the former Soviet Block.
"I spent a week in Sofia, I had many talks and I found out the former secret services, especially the military intelligence, are still clutching very tightly the whole country in their hands, the economics sector mainly," Roth said.
Bulgarians' belief that the networks of the former secret services are no longer active is ridiculous, Roth thinks. He said he was mainly interested in companies and businessmen who were seemingly legal. "One cases caught my attention - the exhibition in Brussels of antique objects from Bulgaria and particularly the private collection of a Bulgarian businessman. I investigated his past and assured myself that his money has not come from normal economic activities," Roth said. He has documents proving that the Varna crime circle was founded by ex-contributors to the secret services of the country from its communist past and that the Russian mafia is extremely interested in the Varna crime affairs, Sofia News Agency reports.
According to the German journalist Bulgaria’s secret services keep their close ties with Russian intelligence. Roth said that some documents he had seen and several meetings with journalists and prosecutors convinced him that Russian mafia was interested in Bulgaria’s coastal city of Varna. A gang descending from the Soviet military intelligence was acting in the city.
The big number of public murders showed that the organised crime was still poorly consolidated. EU may congratulate Bulgaria for approving a number of laws, but even the best laws were useless when they should be implemented by unreliable people, Roth said, according to Sofia Echo.
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