REVIEW TOPICS:
Arrest of Russian FSB officer not related to journalist Politkovskaya murder probe – official
Russian governor accuses christian missionaries of spying, "religious expansion"
Finnish Security Police knew Rusi was innocent in 2003 - paper
Ukrainian Security Service poses fair parliamentary elections under threat – ombudswoman
State Security Service of Ukraine: Transport Ministry is corrupt
Belarus KGB interrogates young regional journalists
Polish Internal Security Agency arrest former Interior Minister
Romanian Securitate files on Orthodox clerics were burned to keep their names secret
Bulgaria’s State Commission on Information Security gives archive to Secret Files Committee
Arrest of Russian FSB officer not related to journalist Politkovskaya murder probe – official
The arrest of an agent from the Moscow directorate of the Russian Federal Security
| |
|
 |
|
| FSB emblem |
|
Service is not linked to the criminal investigation into the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, news agency ITAR-TASS reports, referring to spokesman for the Moscow District Military Court Alexander Menchanovsky.
"The grounds for sanctioning the arrest of Pavel Ryaguzov have nothing to do with Politkovskaya's murder case," Menchanovsky said today. According to him, the FSB officer is accused of office crime - abuse of authority. Earlier, the Moscow garrison military court met the Prosecutor General's Office's petition seeking his arrest. However, Pavel Ryaguzov was earlier named among the ten suspects arrested within the framework of the Anna Politkovskaya murder probe. „ The FSB special security services were watching Lieutenant-Colonel Ryaguzov because of information received regarding his possible involvement in a criminal group and participation in blackmail and actions that went beyond his powers," it was a few days ago when news agency Interfax cited Alexander Kupryazhkin from the Federal Security Service.
Online paper Grani.ru marks that it has been told in the court that unlike figurants of Politkovskaya case, the FSB officer Rjaguzov has been arrested for two months, not for ten days like others. There is no official information on what is Ryaguzov suspected in. According to Grani.ru, his arrest is connected with a case dated back in 2002 - then the officer was accused of beating an arrested person. The colleagues of the arrested person explain the circumstance that the name of the FSB officer was promulgated by the head of internal security department of the FSB, Alexander Kupryazhkin, with his conflict with the management of the directorate. According to the conflict has been connected with the fact that Pavel Ryaguzov tried to prevent beating of detained officer-submariner Alexander Pumane in a police station in 2004. Subsequently Ryaguzov became one of witnesses in the murder case of Pumane.
Novaya Gazeta’s investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down inside the entrance to the apartment building in Lesnaya Street, where she had rented an apartment, on October 7, 2006.
According to Russia’s Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika, the organizers, accomplices in and executors of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder have been exposed and detained.
According to Euronews, Politkovskaya's son fears that political grandstanding could harm chances of justice. He said the investigators had done professional work, but the grandiose announcements by the prosecutor general and the Federal Security Service were being made for political reasons. In his turn, the editor of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta said many unfounded accusations were being made.
Those suspects in Politkovskaya murder case who have been released from detention guards were let free because of their relation to secret services. It was announced by Murad Musayev, the lawyer of one of the suspects who remain in detention, according to radio Ekho Moskvy. "In this case, I am afraid, they were released because of their relation to certain circles, it is quite probable, that they belong to secret services", radio cited the lawyer.
Russian governor accuses christian missionaries of spying, "religious expansion"
The governor of Russia's Tula region accused Christian missionaries of spying for the United States, according to an August 28, 2007 article in the local newspaper Novotulsky Metallurg.
Governor Vyacheslav Dudka made this accusation at a conference on inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations in the region. He singled out Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses as part of a religious expansion into Russia, stimulated by "foreign intelligence agencies." Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union is quoting on its online site Dudka as saying the following: "An agent of the USA's military intelligence is on the staff of one of these religious groups." The governor has continued with charges, without specifying which group he was talking about. There was no mention in the article about how the governor or other officials participating in the conference propose to deal with this issue.
Finnish Security Police knew Rusi was innocent in 2003 - newspapers
Finnish newspapers Turun Sanomat and Keskisuomalainen reported yesterday that the
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
Rusi on Finnish TV |
Finnish Security Police (SUPO) had held information in 2003 proving that diplomat and former presidential aide Alpo Rusi could not have been a communist East Germany security agency Stasi informant, news agency STT reports.
According to the papers, Helmut Moeller-Enbergs, a researcher at the German Stasi archive, submitted a report on Rusi to the German police, which then informed SUPO, in January 2003.
"According to the Stasi papers, when the spy known as IM Pekka started his work, Alpo Rusi was only 16 years old. A person of that age could not have filed, in German, the complicated economic reports about issues like trade relations between Finland and the Nordic countries then supplied by IM Pekka," Moeller-Enbergs was quoted by the media as saying. He told the papers that he had not testified before Helsinki district court because the invitation had arrived too late for his employer to establish whether German law allowed his giving testimony in Finland.
The Security Police refused to admit to any mistakes earlier this week, although it was called upon to do so by Ahtisaari, Helsingin Sanomat writes. SUPO head of counterespionage Harri Sarvanto said that former Stasi officer Peter Keller had told them about the links between the code XV/11/69 and Rusi.
Because of this, the Security Police launched a preliminary investigation into Rusi in 2002, on suspicion that he had committed aggravated espionage on behalf of East Germany.
Alpo Rusi is claiming damages from the Finnish state for mental suffering and financial losses incurred as a result of a preliminary investigation carried out by SUPO.
Ukrainian Security Service poses fair parliamentary elections under threat – ombudswoman
Monitoring of violations of the election legislation during early parliamentary elections, which the Ukrainian Security Service (Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny, SBU) is ready to conduct, can result in exceeding the service’s commissions and fulfilling functions which are not in its competence, that this or that way will influence free expression of the people’s will, Ukrainian Supreme Rada Ombudswoman Nina Karpacheva believes, according to news agency Regnum.
According to her press office, Karpacheva addressed acting head of the Security Service Valentin Nalyvaychenko asking to render information about legal grounds for carrying out activity in monitoring violations of the election law by the security service.
As it was reported earlier, to implement the President’s decree of July 4, 2007, about securing Ukrainian voters’ rights, law, transparency and openness of the election process at the forthcoming elections to the Ukrainian Supreme Rada, heads of regional SBU units were told to keep informed the service’s command, law enforcers and governmental agencies about violations of the election legislation. Special phone lines are already active and operative headquarters have been established in order to collect and analyze data necessary to make administrative decisions. However, in this case, the ombudswoman says in her statement, the SBU can exceed its commissions and fulfill functions that are lying not within its competence in breach of the Ukrainian Constitution and the Ukrainian law on the Ukrainian Security Service.
In particular, the law does not say that the SBU has the function of control over securing citizens’ voting rights. Besides, the abovementioned actions can be treated by the Ukrainian and international community as pressure from the side of SBU, interference into the election process and, consequently, violations of rights for free expression and personal freedom. “Besides, point 6 of the abovementioned presidential decree, says the ombudswoman, foresees that the Ukrainian Security Service is instructed to act exclusively within certain powers. It means, to take action only to secure the public order and safety during the election process, particular, on the days of voting and votes counting.”
State Security Service of Ukraine: Transport Ministry is corrupt
The State Security Service of Ukraine (Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny, SBU) demanded that Minister of Transport and Communications, Mykola Rudkovsky, eradicate corruption in his ministry but had received no response, daily Ukrayinska Pravda reports.
The acting head of the SBU Valentin Nalyvaychenko stated this in an interview with Radio Liberty.
“I made several written inquiries about anti-corrupt measures to Mr. Rudkovsky personally. Many of his deputies are corrupt. We addressed the Minister as our partner and a man which approved the Law Combating Corruption asking him to get rid of corrupt officials, ” he told the radio.
“We have received no response because so far each head covers up his subordinates. If an official violates the law, his chief should be interested in cleansing his office from corruption,” added Nalyvaychenko.
He pointed out that system corruption as well as lack of normal, coordinated and honest functioning of all state services and law enforcement agencies damages a law-governed state, the paper notes. The acting SBU chief also said that on August 31, it is scheduled to convene a coordination meeting at the Office of the Prosecutor General where law enforcement agencies headed by the President will draw up a plan for combating corruption.
Belarus KGB interrogates young regional journalists
Staff officers of the Committee of State Security (KGB) of Belarus last days have carried out a series of interrogations of young journalists days in the country’s regions, press service of Belarus Association of journalists announced.
Yesterday, an inspector of the KGB directorate of the Mogilev area has invited for interrogation “as a witness” a Mogilev journalist, member of Belarus Association of journalists” (the person has asked to not identify her name). The journalist arrived to the questioning, however she did not find out, what occasion had caused the interest of the security service - the inspector who sent the official summons to her, did not appear in his offfice, and the meeting was transferred.
Nasha Niva onine edition under the headline People’s News has piublicised information on interrogation by the employees of the KGB in the Grodno area of two young men (they also have wished to remain unnamed). Their frequent trips to Poland appeared to be the reason for interrogations.
On August 28, several young people were kept in the local KGB office for about three hours. Two inspectors, one of whom named himself as Alexander Iosifovich, asked, whether the young people have any relation to the TV channel Belsat. According to Nasha Niva, employees of the KGB were warning the young people over the criminal liability for espionage and an discreditation of Belorus. At parting inspectors have promised to ask their parents for interrogation.
Polish Internal Security Agency arrest former Interior Minister
| |
|
 |
|
| Janusz Kaczmarek |
|
Janusz Kaczmarek, former Minister of Interior and Administration of Poland – along with former police chief Konrad Kornatowski - was arrested by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) this morning, Polish radio reports. The ex-minister is likely to be charged with an attempt to hinder the investigation of the information leak during the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s investigation into corruption in the agriculture ministry, Wojciech Brochwicz, according to spokesman for Kaczmarek. The head of the state national insurance giant, PZU, Jaromir Netzel, has also been detained. The security agency arrested Kaczmarek between 6 and 7 a.m. this morning and the former Interior Minister has confirmed the arrest by telephone to reporters, radio says.
Konrad Kornatowski, former head of police, was also arrested in his flat in Gdynia. Konrad Kornatowski was to be interrogated by the special parliamentary committee looking into the circumstances of the leak to the Anti-Corruption Bureau this morning. The District Prosecutor’s Office has so far refused to disclose any information.
Janusz Kaczmarek was originally accused of tipping off head of the Self defence party, and the then Agricultural Minister, Andrzej Lepper, that the Anti-Corruption Bureau were going to try and entrap him into illegal practices over changing the status of a piece of land, which would greatly increase its value. Lepper was subsequently sacked from his position in the cabinet and as Vice Premier.
Lepper amd Kaczmarek have gone on to claim that it was, in fact, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who tipped off the former interior minister about the sting operation.
Since then, accusations have and allegations from both sides have become increasingly bitter, with Kaczmarek claiming that Ziobro has been using the secret services to spy on people for political ends. Last week, Kaczmarek testified before the parliament's secret services commission, and his testimony was later read to all lawmakers in a closed-door session of parliament. The Internal Security Agency declined to comment on the reports of Kaczmarek's arrest, The Associated Press adds.
In the Polish Parliament, Former Minister of Education Roman Giertych demanded a delay in Parliamentary proceedings about Polish Government use of special services organizations to spy on political opponents until next Tuesday. Giertych wants to hear what the Former heads of the National Police and the Anti-Corruption Bureau have to say when they testify before the Parliament Special Service Committee. The Civic Platform is demanding an investigative committee be set up to examine the allegations made by Kaczmarek. But while claiming there is no basis for the allegations, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is fighting any examination of secret service and Anti Corruption Bureau activities.
Prime Minister Kaczynski told a press conference yesterday that the case of Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who has been accused by the opposition of illegal actions involving secretly taping other politicians, are groundless and that no-one was wire tapped outside the correct procedures, so there is no reason to dismiss the Justice Minister or to suspend him from the post.
Romanian Securitate files on Orthodox clerics were burned to keep their names secret
The files of 16 senior clerics were burned during the 1989 anti-communist revolution in Romania to prevent their links to the country's former secret police, Securitate, from being revealed, poet Mircea Dinescu, a member of the National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), told reporters in Bucharest. He also officially confirmed that a senior bishop who previously acknowledged collaborating with the feared secret police did in fact do so, The Associated Press reports. Dinescu officially confirmed that Nicolae Corneanu, the head of the Banat Metropolitan Church and a member of the Holy Synod, and Constantin Balaceanu-Stolnici, an academic and member of the electoral college that will choose the next patriarch, had
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
Mircea Dinescu |
collaborated with the secret police, Southeast European Times online site expands.
The council is reviewing a list of 20 senior Orthodox clerics, among whom a few almost certainly collaborated with the Securitate, Dinescu said, sixteen of them are suspected of having been informers.
Ahead of the September 12 election of a new Romanian patriarch to succeed Teoctist, who died on July 30, the CNSAS announced its plans to review the files of all top clerics and publish the names of those found to have collaborated with the former secret police. Several church leaders reportedly will be called to hearings at the CNSAS in the coming days in connection with their communist pasts. Earlier this month, a local NGO urged senior clerics with Securitate links not to run for the patriarchal post in a country where the Orthodox Church is still considered the most trustworthy institution.
The archbishop of Suceava and Radauti, Pimen Zainea, the archbishop of Alba Iulia, Andrei Andreicut, and the bishop of Arad, Timotei Seviciu, will be among those to be heard first. "There are indications that these priests had ties with the Securitate and that, following their collaboration, they were nominated to higher posts within the church structures," an unnamed CNSAS source told the Romanian English-language daily Nine o'Clock.
Dinescu angered the Orthodox Church earlier this month by telling the daily Cotidianul that the late head of the Transylvania Church, Antonie Plamadeala, who died in 2005, had been a Securitate officer. He even cited a letter the cleric sent to Romania's communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, asking him to be promoted from colonel to general.
The Securitate is believed to have had at least 700,000 informers when communism was overthrown in December 1989, the International Herald Tribune writes.
Bulgaria’s State Commission on Information Security gives archive to Secret Files Committee
The State Commission on Information Security /SCIS/ refused cooperation and gave the archive , which was in its building, to the Secret Files Committee. This is the archive of the former Secrets Files Committee chaired by Metodi Andreev, Focus News Agency reports, referring to Tsveta Markova, SCIS chairwoman.
The archive was sealed in a metal case by an expert commission on December 19, 2002 and was given yesterday to the Chairman of the Secret Files Committee Evtim Kostadinov.
“The archive was kept in cardboard boxes, with each of them sealed separately. The archive is the correspondence between Andreev’s committee and security services. Andreev’s committee sent letters of inquiry to a security service to find out whether there was information about a person being a collaborator with the former State Security service, and the security service in question made inquiries and sent replies,” Markova explained to the news agency.
“The security services has the information even now,” she added, stressing the archive was not part of the archive of the former State Security service, but it was composed of inquiries drawn up on the basis of the archive of the former State Security service, which is in the security services.
Previous review
List of daily reviews
Main Page | News Page | 007 News | Print
|
