REVIEW TOPICS:
Azerbaijan offers Iran to hold meeting between security agencies
Inspection of Russia’s Investigative Committee related to fighting of Kremlin power clans
Litvinenko associate seeks political asylum in Britain - newspaper
Federal Security Service searching secret apartments of extremist movement in Tatarstan
New exhibition of Russian secret services opened in St.Petersburg
Security Service of Ukraine received equipment to trace illegal drug delivery
Former SBU officer agrees to transfer records on Ukraine Popular front leader’s death
Azerbaijan offers Iran to hold meeting between security agencies
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| Flag of Azerbaijan |
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Baku offers Tehran to hold a meeting between the security bodies to solve Iran’s disagreement on the announcement by the Azerbaijani Security Ministry on detention of a criminal group cooperating with the Iranian special service organizations, online agency Trend reports.
“In a meeting with the representatives of the Iranian Foreign Ministry we offered to organize a meeting between the relevant bodies so that to clarify the issue,” Abbasali Hasanov, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Iran, is quoted as saying in a telephone interview from Tehran today. Taking into consideration the comprehensive and successful Azerbaijani and Iranian cooperation, the best method to solve the problem is to organize a meeting of the official of the Security Ministries of the two countries, noted Hasanov.
Last weekend the Iranian daily Tehran Times reported that the Iranian government is dissatisfied with announcement spread by the Azerbaijan Security Ministry which indicated the relationships between the recently detained ‘Said’s gang’ in Azerbaijan with the corps of Iranian revolution’s defenders Sepah, targeting seizing the state power by force. The Azerbaijani Ambassador was called to the Foreign Ministry of Iran to clarify the situation. Report spread by the Azerbaijan Security Ministry indicated the relationships between ‘Said’s gang’ and Sepah, the daily wrote.
AIA wrote last week that the verdict on the armed group known as Said’s gang (named after Said Dadashbeyli), was made in Baku on 10 December. The group arrested in January 2007 was accused of forced seizing the state power in Azerbaijan.
Inspection of Russia’s Investigative Committee related to fighting of Kremlin power clans
The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia ordered an inspection of the Investigative Committee's activities on December 14, and analysts immidiately referred to opposition of two powerful Kremlin clans. Daily Kommersant reported that the inspection order from the prosecutor's office was worded to leave no doubt that violations would be found.
The check and ascent of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as Russian President’s preferred successor indicate that the group of deputy chief of presidential staff Igor Sechin has been overpowered by a rival clan led by Viktor Cherkesov, chief of the Federal Drug Control Service, and Viktor Zolotov, head of the president's personal security service, the experts said.
Sechin's group is thought to include Federal Security Service director Nikolai Patrushev, FSB deputy director Alexander Bortnikov, Putin aide Viktor Ivanov, and Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee, The Moscow Times writes today. The other group is believed to include Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and to enjoy good relations with Medvedev and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. The former security service officer said the group also has ties with Putin's longtime friend Yury Kovalchuk, who controls Bank Rossiya; Gennady Timchenko, an owner of the oil trader Gunvor; Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Sobyanin; billionaire Roman Abramovich; and former Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Voloshin.
"Medvedev's appointment was a catastrophic defeat for Sechin's clan, but the president had no other choice," The Moscow Times cites a former security service officer. He said the recent arrests of Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak and Alexander Bulbov, a senior Federal Drug Control Service officer, by Sechin's allies had scared Cherkesov's clan and made it feel vulnerable for the first time.
According to observers, Putin appears to have long served as a mediator between the clans, trying to prevent one of them from prevailing over the other, but Sechin's clan became so strong over the past six months that the balance was nearly broken.
By choosing Medvedev, who lacks a security service background, Putin managed to deal a blow to Sechin's group without openly supporting its rival, The Moscow Times cites Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who tracks the political elite.
Andrei Soldatov, an analyst at the investigative web portal Agentura.ru, is quoted as saying that Sechin's clan did not want Putin to pick a successor; they wanted him to stay for a third term. The source of The Moscow Times from the security service confirmed this. He said Sechin's clan wanted Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to become Putin's successor to return the post to Putin in about a year.
The Kremlin infighting is not over yet, the former security officer and Agentura.ru's Soldatov said, and Sechin's clan is likely to fight to get back its influence in the corridors of power. If Kremlin infighting continues, Putin might decide to back a second candidate to challenge Medvedev in the March election, according to an anonymous government official.
Litvinenko associate seeks political asylum in Britain - newspaper
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| Andrei Sidelnikov |
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Andrei Sidelnikov, 32, a man linked to the murdered former Russian FSB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, sought political asylum in Britain, daily The Guardian reports.
AIA already reported that Sidelnikov, the leader of a small Russian opposition youth movement, Pora, is known to have met Litvinenko in a London cafe two days before Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210. Sidelnikov told the press he previously travelled to London four times a year, usually meeting Litvinenko. At their final meeting he said Litvinenko told him he was expecting some documents to come from Moscow offering proof of Russian secret service involvement in the Politkovskaya killing, The Guardian writes. Sidelnikov offered to assist the Scotland Yard investigation.
Russian security services last week tried to prevent him to leave Moscow, however, it is understood he arrived in London yesterday from Kiev. When he was stopped at a Moscow airport he said he was given a letter from the FSB saying he was not permitted to leave Russia. Sidelnikov claimed he was followed for several days by officers from the FSB, Russia's biggest security agency. He was also questioned about the murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Sidelnikov said he was making the asylum application as his life was in danger in Russia because of "political persecution" by the Russian authorities, according to The Guardian.
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Transfer of equipment |
Security Service of Ukraine received equipment to trace illegal drug delivery
The Security service of Ukraine (SBU) will trace the so-called controllable deliveries of drugs through territory of the country by means of a satellite system, the SBU online site says. The SBU has received free of charge the corresponding equipment within the framework of the United Nations special development program BUMAD - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova Against Drugs. The SBU has already received six such devices made in Ukraine. Weekly Delovaya nedela writes that the security service have refused to specify, how these systems of satellite tracking look and what is the principle of its functioning.
"The transferred equipment allows to supervise the situation and to obtain precise knowledge, where exactly there is a party of drugs actually in real time", the assistant to the chief of the SBU Central administrative directorate on struggle against corruption and organized crime Bogdan Sokrut marked.
Federal Security Service searching secret apartments of extremist movement in Tatarstan
Searches of apartments in several tens of cities of Russia at once, including Nizhnekamsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and Kazan, have been carried out by employees of the Investigatory Committee and the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, daily Respublika Tatarstan reports.
Investigators claim that all these apartments belong to members of the Nurjular organization. In Russia it is officially not registered, however, works of its founder have been recognized extremist this year, the paper marks.
According to security agencies, renewal of the criminal case raised by Office of Public Prosecutor of Republic of Tatarstan in March, 2005, on excitation of hatred or enmity has served as a reason for the searches by the law enforcement bodies.
According to the investigators, members of the organization have publicly preached ideas of Said Nursi; in his native land - Turkey - not only activity of Nurjular, but also propagation of any literature of the founder of this doctrine is prohibited. In May, 2007, Koptevsky regional court of Moscow has recognized 14 books from collected works of Said Nursi, withdrawn during searches, extremist literature, the paper adds.
New exhibition of Russian secret services opened in St.Petersburg
A new exhibition, Pages of History in Persons; Russian Secret Services in 1920-1990 was opened in the Gorokhovaya, 2 museum in St.Petersburg, branch of the State Museum of Political History of Russia. 128 new exhibits – photos, documents, subjects, being rare objects, have been presented there, online edition of daily Gazeta reports.
Among the declassified materials there is an album with operative pictures of the detained foreign diplomats, agents of foreign secret services between 1968 and 1980, investigatory files and analytical information on events in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1985, etc.
Ludmila Mikhailova, director of the museum, told radio Ekho Peterburga about a new purchase of the museum, a Bioenergy robot. It is the robot which took part in mine clearing of self-made explosives in St.Petersburg and Leningrad oblast in 1996-99, according to Mikhailova. She added that the museum was engaged in gathering materials on history of political police, though, its was exclusively but material on St.Petersburg and Leningrad that had been collected.
Heterodoxy and dissidents is one of expanded themes of the exhibition, according to scientific researcher of the museum, Irina Lukasheva, who reminded the radio about the former KGB chief Yuri Andropov who created the 5th directorate of the KGB to be engaged in preventive treatment of population, and dissidents, in particular.
Former SBU officer agrees to transfer records on Ukraine Popular front leader’s
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| Nikolai Melnichenko |
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death
Today, the former Major of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Nikolai Melnichenko was questioned in the State Office of Public Prosecutor of Ukraine on the death of the leader of Popular front (Narodny Rukh) of Ukraine Viacheslav Chornovyl, online paper Obkom reports, referring to ex-officer’s lawyer Pavel Sichev. As of today Melnichenko is a witness in five criminal cases, online paper adds.
Sichev said Melnichenko had agreeed with inspector Igor Krinin to transfer records concerning the death of Chernovyl exclusively in the territory of the United States of America at presence of representatives of the US Ministry of Justice.
On March 25, 1999, the Popular front of Ukraine chairman Viacheslav Chornovyl and his driver died in a car accident. Former Minister of Interior Yury Kravchenko, not having waited tentative results of investigation, declared that it was a usual road accident, and the version of attempt has been never considered.
However, ex-public prosecutor Svyatoslav Piskun was sure that Chernovyl’s death was " a murder organized by secret services". He also repeatedly declared that his office possesses "all arguments and proofs", confirming this version.
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