REVIEW TOPICS:
Ukraine’s Timoshenko taken under reinforced protection due to possible attempt threat
Security Service of Ukraine accuses acting minister of missappropriation
SBU to create interdepartmental staff on struggle against contraband on Ukraine’s borders
Spanish spy sold valuable secrets to Russia, "endangered state security
Kremlin’s Igor Sechin appears to talk to widows of Russian security service officers
Murder suspect Lugovoy labels British Council a 'nest of spies'
US Secret Service agent involved in car accident in Romania
Ukraine’s Timoshenko taken under reinforced protection due to possible attempt threat
Protection of Yulia Timoshenko block leader, Yulia Timoshenko, has been reinforced, news agency Interfax reports from Kiev, referring to Alexander Turchinov, one of leaders of this Ukrainian political block.
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According to Turchinov, in Ukraine there are people who "because of economic crimes are very much afraid fo Timoshenko's eventual leadership in the government". "They can settle on anything", he noted. Turchinov said warnings had come from a known Russian political scientist.
Turchinov emphasized that "such similar information, undoubtedly, deserves to be listen in and compels us to go for reinforcing of security issues and to provide presence of Yulia Vladimirovna [Timoshenko] in the parliament without obstacles". The Yulia Timoshenko block works "in close contact" with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), investigatory and law enforcement bodies, Interfax is quoting Turchinov as saying.
The head of Institute of Political Researches in Moscow, Sergei Markov, was the first who yesterday started talking about a possible attempt at the Ukrainian politician. He announced that political elites of Ukraine consider murder of Yulia Timoshenko. The Ukrainian politics, Markov noted, was so criminalized, that this attempt at all did not become unexpected – similar precedents had been quite enough.
At the same time, the Russian political analyst marked that protection not always can help «even the President of the United States"." I do not think, that protection of the Ukrainian politicians is better than that of [US President Ronald] Reagan. Though today Yulia Timoshenko, probably, has been protected more carefully, than the country’s President», - Markov is cited by online paper Obozrevatel. «Murder of Ukrainian politicians can be favourable only to their enemies inside the country. It is absurd to speak that the Russian secret services are involved in attempts of elimination of the Ukrainian politicians», Obzorevatel quotes Markov.
Security Service of Ukraine accuses acting minister of misappropriation
Acting Minister of Transport of Ukraine, 39-years old Nikolai Rudkovsky has been called for questioning to the Security Service of Ukraine as a suspect of waste of budgetary funds for private needs, Gazeta po-ukrainski reports. Rudkovsky denies all blames, declaring, that it is revenge of the Presidential secretariat. According to the SBU spokeswoman Marina Ostapenko, Rudkovsky has quickly left for abroad; papers name Russia as his current location.
SBU supposes that the minister flied at the state expense to Paris. According to the acting SBU Chairman Valentin Nalyvaychenko, 41, Rudovsky has taken along one of the „Miss Ukraine" contestants. The plane was set in the French capital for three days. According to Nalyvaychenko, 300,000 Hryvna was spent from the state budget for the trip. It is a monthly pension for a thousand of pensioners, — the acting SBU chairman commented. Rudkovsky says he was on a trip to France twice lately and both trips have been coordinated and approved by the Council of Ministers. Investigatory directorate of the SBU has initiated a criminal case on the fact of assignment of budgetary money by the minister, Ukrainska pravda writes.
SBU to create interdepartmental staff on struggle against contraband on Ukraine’s borders
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) schedules till December 20 to create an interdepartmental operative staff on struggle against contraband on state borders, news agency UNIAN reports, referring to acting Chairman of the SBU Valentin Nalyvaychenko, who spoke with the press folowing the second session of interdepartmental working group of the SBU and the State Office of Public Prosecutor concerning counteraction to contraband and violation of customs rules.
«The operative staff is called to immediately respond to attempts of infringement of the customs order and on information exchange in working conditions», Nalyvaychenko is quote dby the agency as saying. He added that the special operation Tsunami on struggle against contraband will be continued and the interoperability between various law enforcement bodies should be strengthened. According to the acting SBU chief, in particular, it is necessary to inform customs officers and borderguards in advance of possible commitment of offences and the information will be provided by the SBU and the Ministry of Interior. «The operative staff will immediately react and make a decision about who will leave for the border zone not to tolerate illicit import or transportation of transit cargoes into the territory of Ukraine», Nalyvaychenko said. He added that in this staff will be included, except for representatives of the Ukrainian law enforcement bodies, a representative of Mission of the European Union, and Ukraine will also receive customs information from the EU countries and NATO to enable Ukrainian security forces and borderguards to react adequately, UNIAN notes.
Spanish spy sold valuable secrets to Russia, "endangered
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state security”
A Spanish spy who was arrested in July and accused of selling state secrets to Russia seriously endangered state security, Madrid-based daily El Pais reported today.
The daily was quoting a Madrid court which ordered that Civil Guard corporal Roberto Florez, a former agent of the Spain's National Intelligence Centre (CNI), must remain in custody without bail conditions. Florez is in jail near Madrid. He was arrested on the Canary island of Tenerife on 24 July, accused of passing on information about agents, procedures and the internal structure of CNI to Russian operatives between 2001 and 2004. Florez, who apparently received EUR 200,000 for the information, has been charged with treason and faces up to 12 years in prison, according to El Pais. Florez, who was assigned to CNI headquarters in 1992, started being investigated in 2005 after he was asked to resign for insubordination and violating security procedures.
Though the Spanish government and intelligence officials had initially sought to downplay the consequences of having a mole in their midst, new evidence suggests that the leaked information may have been much more significant that originally disclosed, the paper marks. The CNI had earlier said that Florez' spying activities had not affected the security of Spain, the European Union or NATO. In a report written by judges from the Madrid court obtained by El Pais, investigators state that Florez's actions "severely compromised state security." Their finding is based in part on the "abundant documentation" uncovered during a search of his Tenerife apartment.
Kremlin’s Igor Sechin appears to address public second time in eight years to meet widows of Russian security service officers
Deputy head of the Russian Presidential administration, Igor Sechin, one of the least public officials from Vladimir Putin's nearest environment, yesterday together with the Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikolai Patrushev, appeared to meet widows of employees of the security service, daily Kommersant writes. The paper marks that meetings of the FSB leadership with relatives of the lost employees have been taking take place last five years on a regular basis, however, Sechin has never taken part in these events. Sechin, who is one of the most nonpublic bureaucrats in Putin’s environment, even delivered a short speech during the event. The analysts say that his appearance proves the tough standoff amid Putin’s mates, Kommersant points out.
Igor Sechin, who in different positions has been working together with Vladimir Putin since 1991, for all these years has carefully avoided situations in which he should be spoken anything on public. Having filled in on December 31, 1999, the post of the deputy head of the Presidential administration, Sechin makes a public statement only the second time. For the first time it was
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on June 30, when Sechin, who is also the chairman of board of directors of the Rosneft company, took an active participation in the oil company shareholders' meeting.
However, then the format of the event in which hundreds of new "peoples’" shareholders took part, assumed its public character. Yesterday's public appearance of Sechin has coincided with the major decisions accepted last days: Putin has supported Dmitry Medvedev's nomination as the presidential candidate, and Medvedev declared that in case of his victory he would offer the post of the Prime Minister to the current President.
Political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky, who was said to be close to the Kremlin, names these decisions «full apparatus loss of the group lead by Sechin».
According to Belkovsky, the siloviki group standing behind Sechin was going to nominate its man, current Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, as the presidential successor. Had this occured, the balance of forces within the Kremlin would be broken substantially and Vladimir Putin could not be the arbitrator between the two groupings, siloviki and liberals, especially after the presidential election».
In opinion of the Associate director of Scientific institute of social systems, Dmitry Badovsky, Sechin's public performance speaks that «having suffered apparatus defeat, siloviki nevertheless endeavour to show that they do remain on the political floor». At the same time the head of the Foundation of Effective Policy, Gleb Pavlovsky, called yesterday's event in the FSB «an usual undertaking ».
Murder suspect Lugovoy labels British Council a 'nest of spies'
A newly elected Russian parliament member Andrei Lugovoy, wanted by Britain in last year's radiation murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service officer and Kremlin critic in London, claimed that the British Council, a British cultural organisation facing closure in Russia, provides cover for spies, New.com.au reports. In Russia, the British Council teaches a lot of people English and offers rather fewer scholarships to study in Britain.
Lugovoy, who this month entered parliament with the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, vigorously defended Moscow's announcement that regional offices of the British Council would be shut down in two weeks. "It's no secret to anyone that the British secret services work actively in it," Lugovoy, a former security service officer himself, said.
BBC cites the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said the closure was "retaliation" for the British government's decision to expel Russian diplomats from the UK in July. Britain expelled four Russian diplomats then in response to Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy to stand trial in the UK.
US Secret Service agent involved in car accident in Romania
The US Embassy confirmed on yesterday that its attaché, Kevin L. Sandlin, working for a US law enforcement agency, was involved in the traffic accident on the previous night in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, online news agency HotNews reports.
In a press release for the agency, the Embassy confirmed its cooperation with the Bucharest Traffic Police and other Romanian authorities in their ongoing investigation of the accident. The Embassy deeply regrets that the accident took place and wishes the driver of the other vehicle a speedy recovery, the statement says.
Asked by the HotNews, the US Embassy officials said that Kevin Sandlin is a deputy attaché within the Embassy and he works as representative of the US Secret Service on fiscal frauds and cybercrime.
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