REVIEW TOPICS:
Chechen emissary does not believe Russian officer’s MI6 spy story
Official says Russia’s FSB declassifies archives on victims of Soviet-era repression
Russia’s FSB will never declassify information on secret agents
Since 1994, Russian Federal Security Service handed over 60,000 archives documents on Nazi crimes to US
Former Russian FSB colonel’s appeal to be heard July 25
Czech Supreme Court supports tabloid in dispute against deputy who was accused of being Soviet agent
Bulgarian magistrates were in communist secret service – special commission
Bulgaria’s communist State Security archives committee gets office building
Anti-crime outfit's actions improve security in southwestern part of Macedonia
Chechen emissary does not believe Russian officer’s MI6 spy story
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| Akhmed Zakayev |
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Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev said claims by a former major in the Russian tax police and self-confessed spy, that he cooperated with MI6 are ridiculous, news agency RIA Novosti reports, referring to Zakayev’s interview to the daily Kommersant.
Vyacheslav Zharko, who earlier admitted working for British intelligence, has said the murdered Russian secret service defector Alexander Litvinenko and fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky introduced him to MI6. "Zharko's statements have been made to lend credence to the theory floated by the Russian authorities alleging that MI6 was involved in Litvinenko's death," Zakayev told the paper. He added, though, it was quite possible that Zharko might have met Alexander Litvinenko.
Zakayev also dismissed the theory that Litvinenko and Berezovsky could have been recruited by MI6 because they were high-profile figures, adding that was the style of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which does not care much about its reputation or image. Last week, the FSB said it had completed an inquiry into a former security service officer's claim on spying for the British intelligence and launched a criminal case on espionage charges, RIA Novosti reported July 7, referring to the FSB press service. The alleged spy, Vyacheslav Zharko, had disclosed the names of four British intelligence officers, and given locations in Europe where meetings had taken place, including information regarding the assignments he had been given, according to the FSB. Zharko reportedly applied to the FSB following May 31 news conference given by another former security officer Andrei Lugovoy, who accused Russia's self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky of working for British intelligence. The security service’ statements says as follows: "We have inquired into the matter and received enough information, which indicates that between 2003 and 2007 British SIS officers recruited him and later used as an agent for spying to the detriment of Russian Federation's security."
Since 1994, Russian Federal Security Service handed over 60,000 archives documents on Nazi crimes to US
Vasily Khristoforov, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Register and Archives Department, told in an interview to Interfax news agency that since 1994, 60,000 pages of documents dealing with Nazi crimes during World War II, kept at the FSB's Central Archives, had been handed over to the United States. According to Khristoforov, cooperation between American and Russian law enforcement and judiciary agencies resulted in a court ruling to deprive a Nazi accomplice in the extermination of the Warsaw Ghetto of American citizenship.
Copies of trophy documents dealing with the Travniki training center have been sent to the American judiciary to be used in a trial of former Soviet and now US citizens Stadnik and Dmitrenko as part of the work to investigate crimes against humanity, Interfax cites Khristoforov. Khristoforov also said that some documents of the FSB's Central Archives were published by Europe Publishing House in 2006 in releases about the crimes committee by collaborators in the Baltic countries during WWII.
FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev, while addressing the Senate's Intelligence and Security Committee in June 2005, made special mention of the FSB's humanitarian cooperation with US state and non-governmental organizations, he added according to Interfax.
Official says Russia’s FSB declassifies archives on victims of Soviet-era repression
Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) declassified archives are accessible to all who seek access to them, news agency Interfax is quoting Vasily Khristoforov, the head of the FSB's Registers and Archives Department, as saying.
Khristoforov told Interfax that anyone could file a request with the archives, indicating what materials he needs to read and for what purpose. "The request will be processed and if the materials requested are declassified, they will be made available to the applicant," news agency cites the FSB official. Individuals and organizations are free to file their requests with the FSB's Central Archives at 2, Bolshaya Lubyanka, or come to the FSB's reception office at 22, Kuznetsky Most, Moscow.
Regarding the archives documenting mass political reprisals, Khristoforov said that access to these archives was opened after they were declassified by a 1992 presidential decree. Since then, official security classification has been removed from laws and regulatory acts, that were passed between the 1920s and the early 1950, and dealt with political reprisals in the former Soviet Union. Last year, 3,500 requests were processed and 1,500 persons were allowed to read archives materials in an open reading room, Khristoforov said. To prevent incursions into convicted persons' private life, applicants - researchers or journalists - are requested to produce a notarized permit, provided by the convicted person's relatives, Interfax adds.
Rights activists welcomed the move, but said that the documents dating back to 1920-1950 should be made available to the general public and not only to relatives, The Associated Press marks. Veteran human rights advocate Lyudmila Alexeyeva told The Associated Press that the 1992 decree allowed relatives, activists and journalists to view the previously classified materials, but access was again restricted in the late 1990s without any explanation.
Russia’s FSB will never declassify information on secret agents - official
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) archives containing data on employed secret security agents and people confidentially assisting them cannot be declassified, news agency Interfax reports, referring to an interview given to the agency by FSB registration and archive department chief Vasily Khristoforov.
The files on people suspected of anti-Soviet propaganda have been destroyed, he told the agency. "We keep information on forces, resources, sources, methods, and plans used in conducting clandestine operations, on their results, on people who infiltrated organized criminal groups, on employed clandestine security agents, on people assisting security agencies on confidential basis, and also on the organization and tactics of search operations," Khristoforov is cited by Interfax. All this information constitutes state secrets, as is the case with any "efficient special service in the world," and such records can never be declassified, he said. "Information on people who infiltrated organized criminal groups, employed clandestine security agents, and people who assisted security agencies on confidential basis can be made public only with their written consent," Khristoforov said. "The archive files on those who were suspected on dissent [during the Soviet era] at the FSB Central Archive have been eliminated," agency cites the official.
Former Russian FSB colonel’s appeal to be heard July 25
A Yekaterinburg region court is to hear an appeal filed by lawyers of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Mikhail Trepashkin protesting a Nizhny Tagil court's ruling to transfer their client from a low-security penitentiary to a medium-security prison on July 25, news agency Interfax reports. The court agreed to postpone its hearings because one of Trepashkin's lawyers could not be present at today's court session, a regional court spokesman told Interfax.
Mikhail Trepashkin was invited by member of Russian parliament Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings. Trepashkin uncovered a trail of a mysterious suspect whose description had disappeared from the files; to his amazement, the man turned out to be one of his former FSB colleagues. He also found a witness who testified that evidence was doctored to lead the investigation away from incriminating the FSB. However on October 22, 2003, a gun was allegedly planted into his car, and Trepashkin ended up behind bars. The FSB colonel was convicted by a closed military court to four years for "disclosing official secrets".
Czech Supreme Court supports tabloid in dispute against deputy who was accused of being Soviet agent
The Czech Supreme Court (NS) has rejected Deputy Chamber of Deputies chairman Jan Kasal's complaint against the tabloid daily Blesk that in November 2003 published an article entitled Kasal was allegedly a Soviet agent, news agency CTK reports, referring to court’s spokesman Petr Knoetig.
Although Blesk wrote that the accusation was false Kasal (junior governing Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) sued the daily demanding an apology and compensation of 1 million crowns. By its verdict, the Supreme Court upheld the previous decision by the Prague High Court. However, Kasal intends to appeal against the ruling at the Constitutional Court. The article referred to anonymous sources, according to whom Kasal was recruited as a Soviet agent during one of his visits to the former Soviet Union in the 1980s.
A month later, Blesk published another article entitled Who seeks to destroy Kasal, in which it admitted that the documents accusing Kasal of collaboration with the Soviet military intelligence were false. "I perceive it as a test of the Czech court system. It is impossible for anyone to publish anything at one's whimp," CTK cites Kasal, who added that his lawyers were ready to take the case to the Constitutional Court.
According to the Prague City Court and the Prague High Court, the article only contained information about the contents of anonymous documents, and not a statement that Kasal really collaborated with the Soviet intelligence, CTK says.
In addition, Blesk gave space to Kasal to comment on the article and Kasal stated that it was an attempt to harm him before the forthcoming party congress and that he underwent lustration several times that confirmed that he had never collaborated with the communist state police, StB. The courts thus ruled that the article was balanced and did not interfere with Kasal's rights. The appeals court also pointed out that by entering politics Kasal should be aware of the increased interest of the public and the media to his person and that his activities would be subjected to higher criticism that in the case of private persons, Knoetig said.
Anti-crime outfit's actions improve security in southwestern part of Macedonia
The security situation in Debar has been significantly improved after deployment of the security forces anti-crime outfit "Alphas" in the southwestern part of Macedonia, news agency Makfax reports. A large number of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles have been put out of circulation in the past couple of weeks by the police because of lack of documentation, including a car and a motorboat belonging to a high-ranking official of the Debar's Office of the Security and Intelligence Administration (UBK), Makfax's correspondent reported.
In addition, several persons wanted by the police, including a foreigner who had been suspected of involvement in recent lootings in Debar area, have been also arrested in separate operations. In the survey conducted by Makfax in Debar, the local citizens shared the opinion that all types of incidents had evidently dropped after the arrival of the security forces’ squads.
Bulgaria’s communist State Security archives committee gets office building
Almost three months after it was appointed by Parliament, the committee on the archives of the former communist State Security police and People’s Army finally got a home, The Sofia Echo is reporting today.
On June 28, the Government media office said in a statement that the committee will occupy the second and third floors of a building at Sofia’s 1 Vrabcha Street, next to the opera house. Although the committee had not yet moved out from its temporary “residence” in Parliament, the news that it was getting its own premises was welcomed by its chairperson Evtim Kostadinov. He had complained time and again over the past two and a half months that, lacking a building, the committee’s hands were tied. Kostadinov also has complained frequently that state institutions, especially the Interior Ministry, were not co-operating with his committee.
As The Sofia Echo reported on June 15, Kostadinov requested a meeting with Interior Minister Roumen Petkov. The reason was a slowing down of rendering of information about the ministry’s involvement in the former State Security. On April 12, Kostadinov sent a letter to Petkov to which by June 13 there had been no response. After Kostadinov’s request was leaked to the media, a meeting took place. Answering to reporters, Petkov showed more than goodwill about co-operation. “The ministry is ready to send 90 per cent of the former State Security archives to the committee,” Petkov said. He told that within three days he would send the materials on Constitutional Court members, members of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Ombudsman, who were being reviewed by the committee.
This move by Petkov led to announcements that some former constitutional court members had been agents of State Security. Next on the checklist will be magistrates and after that, candidate mayors in the municipal elections in October. A quick overview of the committee’s work in the past two months shows that somewhere between the lack of its own building and the lack of good co-operation with the institutions, the committee has managed to make the news for several times.
Since April the list of “exposed” former agents of the communist secret services has been growing longer. Out of the 145 candidates in Bulgaria’s May 20 elections for members of the European Parliament, six turned out to be linked to the communist services. With the three former constitutional judges “revealed” to have been former agents, the list grew to nine. Beyond doubt, the committee’s intention to investigate the pasts of public figures such as editors-in-chief of print and TV media will gather more interest. When exactly these checks will start is still unknown, The Sofia Echo adds.
Bulgarian magistrates were in communist secret service – special commission
Fifteen current or former magistrates from the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council belonged to the Communist-era secret service, the special commission in charge of opening the state archives announced, according to Balkan Insight. Their names and details of their cooperation with the State Security and the Army’s Intelligence Service between 1944 and 1991 were published in a commission report.
The 25-member judicial council is responsible for preparing and overseeing the state budget for the judiciary. It also sets policy and supervises the discipline of all the judges, prosecutors and investigators in the country’s justice system.
All of the judicial council’s members over the last 15 years were checked. In that period, there were five 25-member teams, serving three-year terms. Some members served more than one term. Out of fifteen named magistrates, ten were employed by the state services and four cooperated as agents.
Three of the named magistrates are serving currently. They are Atanas Neshkov, Angel Aleksandrov and Svilen Turmakov. All three were permanent secret service employees. Aleksandrov recently resigned as the head of the National Inquiry Service and Turmakov is his temporary substitute in that post. The National Inquiry Service investigates crimes that took place entirely or partly outside of Bulgaria, but have to do with the country. The list also includes Deputy Interior Minister Rumen Andreev, who was employed by the state security service.
Ekaterina Boncheva, a member of the commission responsible for opening the files, pointed out that there is a difference between those who were members of the secret services and those who worked as agents. “For those who cooperated, they combined this [cooperation] with another position and for many of them, we can say that they were snitches,” Boncheva told Bulgarian National Radio. “The State Security was a repressive apparatus,” Bancheva said. But “my personal opinion until this moment, formed on the basis of the documents we have looked at, is that the people who were connected to the former state security were serving a different country, a different totalitarian system.”
The magistrates named had no obligation to resign or react to the revelations in any way, said a spokeswoman for the Internal Security and Public Order parliamentary commission, to which the commission reviewing the files belongs. The declassification is intended merely to inform Bulgarian society, she told Balkan Insight. This is the third background check of high public officials carried out by the commission since its inauguration in April. The commission reported in April that six Bulgarian candidates for the European Parliament had cooperated with the state secret services and three judges from the Constitutional Court had done so.
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