REVIEW TOPICS:
Russian President ratifies creation of new spy agency
Russian senator hired security services agents in attempt to shadow FSB officer
Russian FSB directive forbids citizens depart even 200 meters from lake’s coast for fishing
Ukraine’s SBU investigates its own housing swindle
Kyrgyz state security agency oficially charges ex-President’s daughter over riots
Separatist South Ossetian KGB slams Georgia of planning acts of terrorism
Detention, investigation of journalist case called Azerbaijan secret services provocation
Security vetting certificate returned to former Czech anti-corruption police chief
Former Russian intelligence officers spy for US capitalism - weekly
Russian President ratifies creation of new spy agency
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree ratifying the creation of a new intelligence service, CanWest News Service reports, referring to Russian news agency reports.
The service, connected to the prosecutor's office, will comprise a chief and 12 deputies, including one who will direct a department for military investigations, the Kremlin's press service said, cited by Russian news agencies.
It will include a staff of more than 16,000, not including military members and civilians who will work for bodies conducting military probes, the Kremlin said. The military investigation team will include 2,034 people, it said.
On July 25, President Putin vowed to expand Russia's spy network to counter ``imbalances'' with the US that include President George W. Bush's plan to set up a missile defense system in eastern Europe.
Russian senator hired security services agents in attempt to shadow FSB officer
Moscow district military court (VS) has ended to sit in judgement on the case of three employees of security forces involved in a case of the former senator of the Russian parliament from Bashkiria, Igor Izmestyev, Moscow daily MK reports, marking that the verdict was accusatory. Oher verdict was adopted by the Moscow City Court the same day in relation with the case of murder in 2003 of one of heads of the defense industry company Almaz-Antey and has ended with the full justification of the accused.
The criminal case maintained by the MOVS, concerned the already ex-staff members of three state agencies — the Moscow Municipal Department of Interior, Federal Security Service (FSB) and State Drugs Control Office. Police officer Alexander Papakhin, state security service officer Dmitry Krivenko and drugs control agency officer Mikhail Timofeyev were accused of trying to scout out for the bounty offered by the then-senator Izmestyev, an employee of the FSB, who had been providing operative support of investigation in the case on large swindle in the Bashneftekhim company, factually supervised by the ex-senator. Timofeyev was detained by transfer to the counterspy of a bribe of $ 10,000 nearby to security service office at Lubyanka square. Former senator Izmestyev has been held in custody on charge in the organization of murder of a Moscow notary, MK adds.
Russian FSB directive forbids citizens depart even 200 meters from lake’s coast for fishing
A special directive of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) establishes certain sites (areas) of internal sea waters of the Russian Federation within the limits of which the frontier conditions are set, online paper Newspskov reports.
Other surface, including the gulf of Finland, Pskov and Chudsk (Peipsi) lakes, will anyway be under a sharp-sighted eye of the Russian border guards, the online paper marks, referring to the directive registered by Justice Ministry of Russia on July, 25, 2007.
As reported by online site 47news.ru, the water border has been delimited across the Pskov lake. However, the control free zone anywhere at the Chudsk lake is not established. Its eastern coast is the territory of Russia, the western coast belongs to Estonia. Proceeding from norm of the directive, signed by the First Deputy Director of the FSB, Nikolai Klimashin, the special conditions extends over all the territory of frontier area water reservoirs, except for those given special reservation. It turns out that Russians do not have the right to depart from the Chudsk lake coast even to 200 meters for fishing, swimming and so on, Newspskov comments.
Ukraine’s SBU investigates its own housing swindle
In Kiev, a scandal is up around of housing swindle with participation of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), weekly Zerkalo nedeli reports.
An elite inhabited new dwelling area of Pechersk in Kiev, that has been erected since 1999 on the ground belonging to the SBU National academy (university) and initially intended for allocation of apartments to employees of the Security Service is in the core of the affair. The general investor, Budova Centr -1 company, should have to transfer to the SBU university a half of apartments upon finishing of construction. It was fixed in the contract with the investor that the academy has rights to change an apartment in the area on habitation in other areas of capital city or regions of Ukraine. However, in reality this scheme led to situation when in an elite house of the SBU academy nothing belonged to the university anymore, according to Svetlana Nezhnova, head of the SBU department of maintenance. Internal ivestigation has started in the SBU and the results will be transferred to city prosecutor's office. The present rector of the SBU academy, Viktor Mikulin, has already submitted judicial claim with the requirement to cancel contractual relations with the Budova Centr -1 company, the paper adds.
Kyrgyz state security agency oficially charges ex-President’s daughter over riots
Official charges were brought against Bermet Akayeva, daughter of the former president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, news agency AKIpress reports. The investigation department of the State National Security Committee of Kyrgyzstan charges her in connection with the mass riots in the Kemin constituency in [northern] Chuy Region [in April 2007]. Akayeva entered a not-guilty plea, she said in an interview with the AKIpress news agency.
It has emerged that she is charged with the following Articles of the Criminal Code: obstruction of justice, contempt of court, and stealing, destroying, damaging or concealing documents, stamps or seals, EurasiaNet expands.
Akayeva said that she had filed a request to drop the criminal case against her because of contradictory evidence by witnesses, online source adds.
Separatist South Ossetian KGB slams Georgia of planning acts of terrorism
The press and information committee of the breakaway region of South Ossetia has released an official statement of the State Security Committee [the KGB] of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Rustavi2 TV channel reports. According to the statement, in the Georgian village of Eredvi, a subversive and terrorist group was stationed at the territory of the local school; the subversive and terrorist group consists with eight people, mainly Chechens and Kists. Reportedly, the three terrorists’ identities out of the eight have been already established. Local population of the Eredvi village rejects the information, saying that the school is closed for summer holidays and classes will continue in the school at the beginning of a new academic year, The Georgian Times marks.
Meanwhile the head of South Ossetia's secret service, Boris Atoyev, claimed that Georgia had prepared six acts of sabotage in the conflict zone in the past 12 months, Russian news agency ITAR-TASS says. South Ossetian law-enforcement bodies have succeeded in preventing four of them, Atoyev told a news conference in Tskhinvali on August 3. Two mines filled with a large quantity of damaging elements were defused in Tskhinvali the other day, according to Atoyev. "Law-enforcement bodies learnt about the terrorist attack, and it was possible to prevent it thanks to quick actions of our agent planted in the Georgia's counterintelligence service network," ITAR-TASS cites him. “Information about the location of the explosives was made available thanks to a South Ossetian KGB officer, Inal Kolyev, who had been working undercover within the Georgian secret service for the past six months,” Atoyev said at a press conference, which was also attended by Georgian journalists. Inal Kolyev, who was actually present at the news conference, said he himself had planted the explosives at a spot selected by Georgian security services operatives overnight on July 25. Officials in Tbilisi, however, said the allegations were a propaganda stunt. Davit Bakradze, the Georgian state minister for conflict resolution issues, said the recovery of explosives hadn't even been confirmed, Civil Georgia reports. He said at a news conference in Tbilisi that a joint report, by Russian, Ossetian and Georgian peacekeepers and OSCE observers, had not confirmed the presence of explosives at the site. Representatives of the State Security Committee of the breakaway region of South Ossetia will name preliminary results of an investigation soon, according to Rustavi2. Tbilisi has already rejected the allegation as “ridiculous”, saying they are aimed at undermining upcoming talks in Tbilisi in the framework of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC), online magazine Civil Georgia writes.
Detention, investigation of journalist case called Azerbaijan secret services provocation
The Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS) of Azerbaijan has announced that it condemns the dissemination of investigation material on the case of arrested Bizim Yol journalist Mushfig Huseynov (Tofigoglu) by the National Security Ministry of Azerbaijan and the Chief Prosecutor Office's Department to Fight Against Corruption prior to a court investigation. The broadcasting on TV channels of video footage that was covertly filmed and the labeling of the journalist as a criminal by law enforcement agencies is a violation of Huseynov's right to presumption of innocence. At the same time IRFS condemns the state TV channel and other channels that all day showed the same specially prepared video montage provided by the National Security Ministry and the Chief Prosecutor's Office. The video montage broadcast by the TV channels is biased, unbalanced and based on pre-determined conclusions. It also creates subjective opinions about the incident.
IRFS interprets the incident of 24 July 2007 as a provocation of Azerbaijan's security services intended to discredit the journalism community on the eve of the government's promise to pardon the country's seven imprisoned journalists. IRFS believes that two days after National Press Day (observed on July 22), and on the eve of the president's return from vacation the government in Azerbaijan showed it true attitude toward freedom of expression.
The government, which accuses Mushfig Huseynov of taking a bribe, keeps silent about the fact that the ruined economic state of the independent and opposition press is a direct result of the government's efforts. The lack of a healthy advertisement market, the monopoly over the tele-radio sector, the secret funding and creation by officials of pro-government publications and mass media institutions is one real element of corruption in the mass media.
Security vetting certificate returned to former Czech anti-corruption police chief
A security vetting certificate has been returned to former Czech anti-corruption police chief Miloslav Brych, the Aktualne.cz news server reports. The certificate was withdrawn after Brych's name appeared on a list of police officers who were in contact with the people seeking to influence the investigation of politically sensitive cases, Aktualne.cz says.
Brych who left the police force this year confirmed that he had received the D security vetting certificate back.
He said he was not planning to return to the police for the time being. He also mentioned that he had asked for additional security clearance that would allow him to handle more secret documents and would then consider whether he would return to the police force.
According to news agency CTK, In Brych's case, the National Security Office (NBU) studied his contacts with Pavel Pribyl, former head of former Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross's office. Police organised crime detectives believe that Pribyl was seeking to influence the investigation of the contract murder of businessman Frantisek Mrazek and the biofuel corruption scandal, CTK expands.
A secret report that was released by police organised crime squad (UOOZ) chief Jan Kubice shortly before last June's general election indicated that politicians from the Czech Social Democratic party, then the senior ruling party, tried to influence the police investigation of many serious criminal cases.The Kubice report also included the wiretappings of Pribyl's telephone that confirmed that he often met Brych, news agency says.
The NBU is completing the security vetting of former Czech police chief Vladislav Husak who now works with the foreigner police, CTK adds. Husak will also receive a security vetting certificate allowing him to handle secret documents if nothing surprising is revealed in the course of the clearance.
Former Russian intelligence officers spy for US capitalism - weekly
Business Week in its latest issue has been acquainting its readers with the only US corporate-intelligence firm staffed by ex-KGB agents – the Trident Group.
Founded in 1996, Trident specializes in helping American companies navigate the woolly Russian market. It's not unusual for spooks to enter the private sector. But Trident appears to be the only US-based corporate-intelligence firm launched and run by former Soviet operatives. Trident's president is former Soviet military intelligence officer Yuri A. Koshkin, and several of its employees are veterans of the intelligence service of the former Soviet Union, the KGB. „Today they're serving as foot soldiers of capitalism, representing American corporate interests in the Motherland,” Business Week marks.
Company founder Koshkin, who has an office in Arlington, high above the Potomac, agreed to be interviewed by Business Week but declined to offer much detail about Trident's current operations, was born in 1958 into a Moscow clan he describes as a "typical family of the Russian intelligentsia." In 1975, he says, he enrolled in the Military Institute of the Soviet Ministry of Defense. There he studied the English and Cambodian languages on his way to becoming an intelligence officer in the Red Army. After graduating in 1980, Koshkin served as a military adviser to Tanzanian forces in Africa. Later he wrote a dissertation at the Soviet Institute of USA & Canadian Studies. He first came to the US as a Russian soldier taking part in a Soviet-American joint working group at the Pentagon designed to prevent accidental and potentially catastrophic clashes between the two superpowers.
With the perestroika, Koshkin became a civilian in 1989, working for an American documentary film company in Moscow. From there he bounced into a job at a public- relations firm in San Francisco that led to a collaboration with Yevgeny N. Pshenichny, a Moscow lawyer who had studied at the same military institute as Koshkin. The two launched Trident in 1996. Through the late 1990s they worked for, among other outfits, East West Invest Ltd., a group of American investors trying to open Subway sandwich shop franchises in Russia. The court ordered the Russian partner to pay East West $1.2 million in compensation. Litigation support in Russia is now a big business for Trident, Business Week underlines, noting at such clients as Washington-based law firms Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.
In another long-term legal battle, Trident represented Kenneth B. Dart, who for several years in the late 1990s, battled with Russian oil giant Yukos in a dispute over the dilution of shares of Yukos subsidiaries in which Dart held an interest. That fight ended in a confidential settlement. Trident was threatened so many times during its work with Dart that one of the firm's employees was getting ready to evacuate his family from Moscow when the two sides settled the dispute in 1999, magazine says.
Today, Koshkin says Trident has 15 employees, including Vladimir Joujelo, a KGB veteran who helped the Russians provide security for world leaders; Alexander Trifonov, a former KGB officer; and Alexander B. Vinogradov, a retired Russian Army colonel who specialized in military intelligence. Koshkin won't discuss most of Trident's clients. Nor will he reveal the firm's billing rates or annual revenues, but he has made a good enough living from it to buy a house from former AOL executive Bob Pittman in Great Falls, Va., and an apartment on New York's Upper East Side, Business Week concludes.
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