REVIEW TOPICS:
Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service as major players in Russia’s new commission on history interpretation
Car bomb killed Russian Federal Security Service officer in Igushetia
Polish military intelligence officer’s mystery continues
Estonia’s police prefect detained by Security Police
Reform of intelligence services to be considered in Romania – parliamentary committee head
Azerbaijan’s security services still unsure of motive of Air Force chief’s murder
Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service as major players in Russia’s new commission on history interpretation
The Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) will be among leading members in the new special commission to counter attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russia's interests, according to news agency RIA Novosti today’s report.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the establishment of such commission, the news
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| Soviet propaganda poster |
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agency marks, referring to the Kremlin administration. It says the commission will be headed by the presidential administration chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin.
The new commission will comprise 28 officials also from the presidential administration, the State Duma, the Public Chamber, the state archival and science agencies, as well as the ministries of foreign affairs, regional development, justice, and culture, RIA Novosti expands.
The WWII and the Stalinist repressions continue to be a contentious issue in Russia's relations with Estonia and Latvia, Ukraine, Poland and some other countries. The councilor of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) chairman, director of the SBU branch state archive Vladimir Viatrovich called the establishment of the committee “return to the Soviet practice to control history”, online paper MIG News reports. “The committee consists of statesmen, politicians and officials of the Federal Security Service of Russia. It means the aim of Medvedev’s decree is not a search of historical truth, but subordination of history to own needs. I hope all threats addressed to Ukrainians will remain just yackety-yak, but anyway Russians’ actions should not influence Ukraine’s policy”, online paper cites Vladimir Viatrovich.
Car bomb killed Russian Federal Security Service officer in Igushetia
Investigators say a car bomb blast has killed an intelligence officer in Russia's restive Ingushetia province, news agency The Associated Press reports, referring to a spokeswoman for the provincial Investigative Committee.
According to Svetlana Gorbakova, the spokeswoman, the bomb was reportedly placed beneath the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) officer's car in the regional capital, Nazran, and exploded in the morning after he got in. Nobody else was hurt.
Police and other law enforcement officers are attacked almost daily in Ingushetia. Much of the violence is seen as a spin-off from the separatist insurgency that sparked two wars in neighboring Chechen Republic of Russia.
Polish military intelligence officer’s mystery continues
AIA already reported that the Polish Military Intelligence Services (SWW) and police are searching for Warrant Officer Stefan Zielonka, 52. It has been a month since the signal officer who knows the deepest secrets of Polish army disappeared, Polish Radio reports.
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Stefan Zielonka |
Press reveals that the officer suffered from depression and wanted to quit the army, but his superiors did not agree. Zielonka also had family problems. The coder is divorced, but he lived in the same flat with his ex-wife. It was she who annoucned that he disappeared on April 19.
Polish Radio cites Defense Minister Bogdan Klich as saying that the search is going on and different versions are being verified. Klich stressed that Zielonka’s disappearance had no impact either on the security of the Army Defense Intelligence Service, or the security of the state.
Zielonka accumulated a significant amount of money in his bank account, but since his disappearance, it remains untouched, radio notes.
Zielonka worked for intelligence services for 30 years as a coder. The officer’s knowledge is unique and if any foreign intelligence service were to get access to it, it would cause of one of the biggest scandals of recent years in Poland, claims newspaper Dziennik. Zielonka knows code names of Polish officers working abroad and has access to secret sources of information and contacts, including to NATO’s codes.
Estonia’s police prefect detained by Security Police
Estonia’s Security Police (KaPo) on suspicion of fulfilment of a number of crimes detained the prefect of Ida police prefecture, former head of Lounas police department Aivar Otsalt, daily Postimees reports.
Two weeks ago Otsalt together with his former subordinates started gathering compromising
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| Aivar Otsalt |
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evidence about Tarmo Kohv who has been appointed the new prefect instead of Otsalt.
The chief commissioner of Tartu criminal police Raivo Kiisk who privately carried out shadowing of Tarmo Kohv was deprived for the period of carrying out of investigation of supervising powers, the paper noted.
The KaPo managed to get convincing proofs for the court, both records, and evidence which on demand of Minister of Interior Juri Pihl who supervised the KaPo operation, was an immutable condition for detention of one of the most skilled police prefects of Estonia.
The proofs presented by the Security Police on embezzlement of money by a group of persons, organization of private shadowing, illegal use of weapons and assistance to illegal hunting and fishing, have been convincing, Postimees writes. Money allegedly appropriated by Otsalt, exceed the amount of EEK 10,000, according to Lounas Offices of Public Prosecutor, and belonged both to Ida and Lounas prefectures.
It was not a secret in the Tartu area that a group of policemen have been illegally and unpunishedly hunted in Southern Estonia, they had no sanctions to shooting of a bear, too, the paper adds.
Reform of intelligence services to be considered in Romania – parliamentary committee head
Bucharest-based daily Gardianul notes that the head of Romanian parliament's committee controlling the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) Cezar Preda yesterday said that the members on the elect committee in charge with drawing up security legislation were preparing to overhaul the normative acts thought by the previous National Liberal Party government.
Moreover, he said that the reform of the intelligence services will be considered, arguing that their number should be curtailed and that the line ministries should have only internal protection services for their staff, the newspaper marks.
Azerbaijan’s security services still unsure of motive of Air Force chief’s murder
Three months have passed since the head of Azerbaijan’s air forces, Lieutenant-General Rail Rzayev, 64, was shot dead while sitting in his car in central Baku, however, investigators are still on the hunt for suspects, and remain unsure of the motive for the crime, Eurasia
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Rail Rzayev |
Insight reports. The last update on investigation was released in February.
The Baku-based opposition newspapers Yeni Musavat and Bizim Yol have come up with their own version of events. They are marking that two persons, General Rzayev’s aide-de-camp, Aydin Rafiyev, and Rafiyev’s son, Anar Rafiyev, have been arrested in connection with the murder. The Rafiyevs are being kept in a pre-trial detention center run by the Ministry of National Security, according to the Committee Against Torture chairman Elchin Behbutov who spoke to EurasiaNet. One source from the Military Prosecutor’s Office noted that the two men were held on charges of theft, rather than murder, as they allegedly tried to steal valuables from his office and money from his safe, online paper adds.
Even observers with connections to Azerbaijan’s security agencies confess themselves to be at a dead-end for leads. Sulhaddin Akper, a former deputy National Security minister, believes that investigators may never find Rzayev’s killer. Even current ministry officials can offer no scenarios about the reasons for Rzayev’s death, EurasiaNet concludes.
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