REVIEW TOPICS:
Belarus KGB chairman gives interview to Union State magazine
UK trying to distract attention from problems with Litvinenko probe - Lugovoy
Bulgaria’s right wing nationalist leader says he is closely watched by security services
Dismissed Bulgaria’s Protection Service officer and his colleagues should pass polygraph
Romania’s Intelligence Service to pay RON 50,000 to Rompetrol boss in moral damages
Belarus KGB chairman gives interview to Union State magazine
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Chairman of the National Security Committee (KGB) of Belarus Stepan Sukhorenko exposed the organization’s priorities, such as espionage, secret service and constitutional system protection, in an interview to the magazine Soyuznoye Gosudarstvo (Union State). Online agency Khartiya’97 reporting on the publication, says that major part of the interview is devoted to “treacherous” plans of the Western states regarding Belarus. The KGB chairman, however, reported no sensation in this matter, Khartiya’97 comments.
Sukhorenko has stressed in the interview: “The new worldwide imperial line geared up by the USA and its subordinate transnational corporations doesn’t imply the presence of independent states on the post-soviet territory, and in the area of the former USSR influence on the whole. Our country obtained sovereignty and launched its own line of policy, which, of course, has activated intelligence and subversive activities of foreign special services that act as political ruling tools for their states. Here major efforts were made specifically to destabilize the situation in the republic and provoke the so called dirigible crisis.”
In the interview Sukhorenko talks much about the protection of the constitutional system, but nearly doesn’t mention two other priorities, espionage and secret service activity. According to Sukhorenko, not only foreign secret services and embassies, but also “numerous international and non-governmental organizations, radical opposition in the country” execute “the subversive activities”, the aim of which is “not just a change of the country’s administration, but a change of the ideological paradigm of the society and the country’s geopolitical priorities, a transition to another route of civilization development.”
The last attempt to change “the route of civilization development” of Belarus was made in spring 2006, when the KGB chairman unmasked the plan on poisoning the whole city with one dead rat, Khartiya’97 marks, adding that instead of mortifying thousands of Belarusians, perfidious opponents of the acting powers set up a peaceful camp in the city centre of Minsk.
UK trying to distract attention from problems with Litvinenko probe - Lugovoy
Former Russian security service officer turned businessman Andrei Lugovoy has said he believes that high-profile statements from UK officials over Russia's refusal to extradite him are an attempt to distract attention from problems facing the investigation into the death of former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko, news agency Interfax reports.
"My opinion is that the UK authorities' turbulent reaction to the Russian Prosecutor General Office's refusal to extradite me is not aimed at finding the true culprits in Litvinenko's death. Rather, its goal is to distract domestic attention from the not very professional work of the UK's detectives in this case," Interfax is quoting Lugovoy as saying in an interview to the agency today.
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service in May said it wanted to charge Lugovoy with Litvinenko's murder and the UK formally requested his extradition on May 28. Lugovoy denies the charge and has acccused Britain's secret services of being behind the death of Litvinenko.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said today it was "surprised" by the British official reaction to the extradition refusal since Moscow's position was based on Russian law, which forbids the extradition of its citizens.
"We are surprised by London's position of trying to jeopardize any further development of our cooperation ... because of one issue, that of the extradition of one citizen," Mikhail Kamynin, the chief ministry spokesman, said in comments on the Vesti-24 television channel.
Dismissed Bulgaria’s Protection Service officer and his colleagues should pass polygraph
Dismissed officer of the National Protection Service Nikolai Markov and his colleagues should pass a polygraph, Tikhomir Bezlov, senior expert at the Centre for the Study of Democracy has commented, FOCUS News Agency reports. He termed the scandal as traditionally Bulgarian, and said it would pass away.
National Protection Service cause problems to democracy everywhere, but they are needed; the problem is to find the balance, he further noted. Earlier Markov accused the service in gathering information about guarded entities and later giving itn to Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.
AIA reported that former director of the National Guard Service General Dimitar Vladimirov told Bulgarian public television, commenting on the accusations of the former National Protection Service officer said he was surprised at how one man could stir a scandal in the society and how this scandal was interpreted by the media and the political forces. He alleged that the National Protection Service “should have more psychological tests, especially for people who make such absurd statements”.
Bulgaria’s right wing nationalist leader says he is closely watched by security services
Volen Siderov, controversial Bulgarian politician and chairman of the far right nationalist party Attack, said in Sofia he had more information by insiders who worked in the security services who were coming to him and telling he was under observation and information on him was gathered. Attack Party’s leader spoke about his shadowing in an interview to Darik radio. I am not the only one who is under observation with sure, but I am one of the closely watched persons, he added. Sidorov is known for his hard-line attitude towards minorities in Bulgaria, especially Roma and Turks. Siderov ran for President in the 2006 presidential election. In the first round on October 22 he received 21% of the vote In the second round, Siderov lost with about 25% of the vote, according to FOCUS News Agency.
Romania’s Intelligence Service to pay RON 50,000 to Rompetrol boss in moral damages
The Bucharest Tribunal held that right to privacy of Rompetrol SA company boss Dinu Patriciu’s stipulated in article 8 of the European Human Rights Convention has been violated, and granted him moral damages payable by the Romania’s Intelligence Service (SRI) in the amount of RON 50,000, news agency Mediafax reports. Court ruled the phone interception conducted by SRI had been illegal.
The Bucharest Tribunal also ordered that SRI should pay court expenses of nearly RON 2,000.
Daily Nine o’Clock cites the motivation of the judgment passed by the Bucharest Tribunal in Patriciu vs. SRI: ‘considering the fact that Romania is part of the European Human Rights Convention ratified by Law No. 30 / 1994, the interpretation of the Court is binding on the national court superseding the domestic law, therefore we hold that the defendant’s defense in the sense that the measure was justified by the domestic law cannot stand up’. Judge Ileana Danaila from Civil Chamber IV of the Bucharest Tribunal makes reference to jurisprudence of the European Court in Strasbourg that has constantly held that ‘the possibility of the authorities of secretly surveillance of their citizens is only accepted as a measure that is strictly necessary for the defense of the democratic institutions’. The court also criticizes the fact that the interception had been ordered by the prosecutors (before the law was changed) who are not independent as they report to the Executive. On the other hand, the court did not sustain the count regarding the interception of the IT system of SC Rompetrol SA. In that particular case the court found that there was no evidence to show that the IT system had been interception without authorization.
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