RT, 4 Feb 10: A presidential think-tank has proposed radical changes in Russia, including a return to certain liberal elements of Yeltsin’s policy, a multi-party system and cutting the president’s term. The Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), whose board of trustees is chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev, outlined its vision of the country’s future in a 66-page report entitled “21st Century Russia: the Image of Tomorrow We Want”, which was released Wednesday. “Modernization” and “innovation” have become key words characterizing Medvedev’s presidency so far. The head of state has called for changes in almost all spheres of the political and social life of the country. . . .
. . . . Liquidation of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), Federal Security Service (FSB) and State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (STSI): The authors see the overhaul of the law-enforcement system as one of the key reforms in the overall reorganization of the internal security system in the country, and the system should change from its current repressive style to one that puts the security and rights of the people first.
In the new model, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be replaced by a new organisation called the Federal Service of Criminal Police. Special police units would exist in the regions to deal with social security and minor crimes. Instead of internal forces there will be a National Guard, and a municipal militia would be active in cities and villages. The former responsibilities of the liquidated State Traffic Safety Inspectorate would be divided between the militia and a Civil Road Traffic Service.
A newly created Federal Financial Police Service would investigate economic crimes. Two institutes would be created instead of the Federal Security System: the Federal Counterespionage Service and Federal Service for Constitution Security (which would deal with terrorist acts and the prevention of separatist activities).
The report says that some of the proposed measures are already being implemented. For instance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army are being reorganized, but it says there needs to be a new stage of reforms and the gap between enacting those stages should be not be years, but months. . . .
CI Centre Course – 191: Russia’s SVR/FSB/GRU Intelligence: An Introduction to Today’s Russian Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operations and Methodologies
RT, 28 Jan 10: Counterintelligence should remain a key priority for Russia’s Security Service (FSB) because of spies’ interest in state secrets, President Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with the agency’s board. “The foreign special services’ interest in our state secrets and newest developments remains high,” Medvedev said. Therefore, the president urged the country’s intelligence to respond promptly “to any attempts to collect classified information”. Criminal cases should be initiated whenever such facts are spotted. For his part, the head of state promised to provide support for the agency and its employees.
The focus of Medvedev’s meeting senior FSB officials on Thursday was, quite obviously, state security. Among major tasks in that respect the president named the necessity to provide the most up-to-date equipment at Russian borders. . . . President Medvedev said he that is satisfied with the FSB’s work in 2009 and the agency managed to accomplish its tasks. Over 80 terrorist attacks were prevented and 500 leaders and members of militant groups were neutralized, thanks to security forces efforts. However, “criminal attacks in Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya show that terrorism is the main threat for society,” he cautioned. Therefore, Medvedev has called on the federal security service to continue “systematic work to neutralize criminal groups, their leaders and people who carry out terrorist attacks.” He added that terrorism had to be fought by the authorities and society together. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: Russia Intelligence Services: Operations & Methodologies
RFE/RL, 28 Jan 10: The son of former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia has officially been accused of collaborating with Russian intelligence services, RFE/RL’s Georgian Service reports. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested in October for allegedly shooting and injuring his neighbor, David Bazhelidze. But this week he received documents regarding that case and also was told that he is being charged with cooperating with the Russian secret services.
During mass protests in Tbilisi in November 2007, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested and accused of working with Russian agents. The charges were later dropped and he was released. Supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his son are holding protests in front of the U.S., Swiss, and Lithuanian embassies in Tbilisi, demanding that the new charges against Gamsakhurdia be dropped. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia’s lawyers announced that their client believes the charges against him are politically motivated. Zviad Gamsakhurdia became the first democratically elected president of Georgia in 1991. He died under mysterious circumstances on December 31, 1993, at the age of 54 in the Zugdidi region during an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish control over the country.
Reuters, 28 Jan 10: President Dmitry Medvedev urged Russia’s security agency on Thursday to act decisively against a persistent threat from foreign espionage, Russian news agencies reported. A series of spy scandals contributed to an increasing chill in relations with the West under Medvedev’s predecessor Vladimir Putin, a long-time KGB officer.
Putin cast Russia as beset by foreign forces eager to bring it to its knees, and he cracked down on NGOs he accused of serving masters abroad. Medvedev, Putin’s hand-picked successor, has largely steered clear of such rhetoric and has overseen legislation moderately easing controls on NGOs. But the ITAR-TASS agency quoted him as telling top officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), domestic successor of the Soviet KGB: “The interest of foreign intelligence services in our state secrets and the newest developments by our scientists is not weakening.”. . . . .
RIA Novosti, 23 Jan 10: A Madrid court has agreed to hold a behind-closed-doors trial of a former Spanish intelligence officer accused of selling classified information to Russia, a Spanish newspaper said. Roberto Flores Garcia, 44, was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of selling secrets to Russia for at least $200,000 from 2001 to 2004. He resigned from his position at the Spanish spy agency CNI in January 2004. A request for a closed trial has been submitted by Spanish prosecutors because the case contains documents with highly-classified materials, the El Pais newspaper said on Friday. The alleged double agent, who is still kept in a pre-trial detention center, could be sentenced to as many as 12 years in prison if convicted of treason.
During the investigation, Garcia admitted that he felt “sympathy” for the Russian people and admired “the professionalism” of the Russian secret service in its efforts “to safeguard peace and global security.” Garcia also wrote in a letter to his alleged Russian handler Pyotr Melnikov, who worked at the time under the cover of a consultant at the Russian embassy in Madrid, about his leftist political ideology, and his rejection of U.S. foreign policy.
Alberto Saiz, director of the CNI, said after Garcia’s arrest that Spain’s national security was never threatened, nor was there a threat to security at NATO and the European Union. However, the mole allegedly revealed the names of dozens of Spanish spies, possibly including double agents inside Russia who had been working for the Spanish secret service and the seven Spanish spies killed in an ambush south of Baghdad in November 2003.
Un ex agente secreto español niega haber pasado información a Rusia (Eco Diaro, 25 Jan 10)
