Posts tagged as:

Russian intelligence

Former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev adds to his pile with The Independent

5 March 2010

Times of London, 4 March 2010: Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB spy, is the new owner of The Independent, industry sources told The Times. The purchase of the loss-making title and The Independent on Sunday comes after the Russian billionaire’s surprise takeover of the London Evening Standard for £1 last January. . . . .
. [...]

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Court passes judgment on former Azerbaijani serviceman accused of spying for Russia

1 March 2010

APA, 26 Feb 10: The Court of Grave Crimes has completed the trial of the former serviceman accused of high treason, APA reports. Rashid Huseynov presided over the hearing. The court passed a judgment. Ruslan Adil Alikhanov was sentenced to 12 years in jail. The prosecutor had demanded 13-year imprisonment for him.
According to the indictment, [...]

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FSB Moves to Extend Its Control of Russian Journalists, Moscow Experts Say

17 February 2010

Georgian Daily/Paul Goble, 16 Feb 10: The FSB has expanded both the number of officials entitled to order the monitoring of journalists and also the basis for issuing such orders, according to a leading Moscow analyst, the clearest possible indication that the Russian security service is seeking not just to track journalists but to control [...]

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NeoClassics Films brings L’AFFAIRE FAREWELL to the US in May; story of KGB officer Vladimir Vetrov

12 February 2010

Broadway World, 11 Feb 10: Canadian-based NEOCLASSICS FILMS LTD. has acquired all US rights to the international hit thriller L’AFFAIRE FAREWELL from Pathé International. A film by Christian Carion, whose MERRY CHRISTMAS was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film in 2006, and produced by Christophe Rossignon, the cold war era spy epic [...]

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Spanish Ex-Spy Convicted of Stealing Secrets

11 February 2010

AP, 11 Feb 10: A former Spanish intelligence officer was convicted on Thursday of trying to sell secrets to Russia and imprisoned for 12 years, in Spain’s first treason conviction since returning to democracy in 1978 after decades of military dictatorship. The Madrid Provincial Court said Roberto Florez Garcia, 44, took documents relating to spy [...]

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Polish cipher officer worked for Russian intelligence?

10 February 2010

thenews.pl, 10 Feb 10: A Russian weekly claims that Stefan Zielonka, a cipher officer who mysteriously disappeared in April 2009, worked for the Russian secret service. Polish military intelligence denies the news.
“There is nothing worse for the intelligence to lose its cipher officer. All secret services dream of recruiting one” writes “Argumenti Niedieli” a Russian [...]

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Sorge’s Spy is Brought in From the Cold. A Soviet-Okinawan Connection

8 February 2010

Japan Focus, 7 Feb 10: The Sorge espionage case concerns one of the most spectacular instances of clandestine influence in the history of international relations.
In the mid-1930s, the former Soviet Union enlisted the German national, Dr. Richard Sorge and four others in Tokyo, secretly to collect information on the likely policies of the Japanese government [...]

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FSB Accuses Georgia of Aiding al-Qaeda in the North Caucasus

8 February 2010

Jamestown Foundation, 5 Feb 10: Insurgent violence has continued unabated in the North Caucasus this week, with five federal servicemen dying in a shootout with insurgents in Chechnya yesterday (February 4) and Russia’s security services again accusing Georgia of aiding militants in the North Caucasus. . .
. . . . On February 3, the [...]

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Whittaker Chambers’ Farm in Jeopardy

5 February 2010

AIM, 4 Feb 10: A library featuring the personal papers of anti-communist hero Whittaker Chambers is being planned on the site of his farm in Maryland. Unfortunately, local authorities are considering a water project that could damage part of the property. Chambers’ son John is asking for help to save the farm. Time is of [...]

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Conflict zones are an indispensable springboard for Russian security services

4 February 2010

ExpertClub, 3 Feb 10: Conflict Zones such as Transnistrian or occupied regions of Georgia are indispensable for the security services of Russia as a springboard for conducting intelligence activities and for implementation of various special operations, including subversive acts. That was a comment made by president of “the Club of Experts” and former Minister of [...]

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The “strange story” of Russian spies in Ukraine

4 February 2010

RT, 3 Feb 10: A spy row between Moscow and Kiev may influence the Ukrainian presidential election, observers say. Ukraine’s security service the SBU has revealed it uncovered a spy network and expelled four Russian officers from the country and detained another. According to SBU head Valentin Nalivaychenko, the group was trying to obtain “state [...]

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Russia’s Future: New ‘Federal Counterespionage Service’?

4 February 2010

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 [...]

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Ukraine Finds What It Calls Russian Spy Ring

2 February 2010

New York times, 2 Feb 10: Ukraine has detained a Russian intelligence officer and expelled four others, breaking up what it said Tuesday was a spy ring that intended to steal military and state secrets. The announcement came less than a week before presidential elections in Ukraine, and might stir new tensions between the neighboring [...]

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Georgian diplomat sentenced to 20 years on charges of espionage

29 January 2010

RT, 29 Jan 10: Vakhtang Maysaya, a former employee of Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was found guilty of espionage by the Georgian city court on Friday. Maysaya now faces a 20-year prison sentence. Maysaya, who was arrested in May 2009, was charged with transmitting classified data to foreign intelligence services during the time that [...]

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Medvedev calls on counterintelligence to protect state secrets

28 January 2010

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 [...]

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Former Georgian President’s Son Charged With Spying For Russia

28 January 2010

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 [...]

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Kremlin demands swift response to spy threat

28 January 2010

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 [...]

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Spanish intelligence officer who spied for Russia to face closed trial

25 January 2010

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. [...]

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Agents live to spy another day

7 January 2010

Scotsman, 6 Jan 10: THE Cold War may be 20 years dead and buried but it seems that the old East-West spying game is not only alive and kicking, but gaining vigour. This week, Poland announced it had detained a Russian on suspicion of working for Moscow’s foreign intelligence service. In fitting with the best [...]

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Poland Arrests Russian Spy

6 January 2010

DPA, 6 Jan 10: Poland’s Internal Security Agency arrested an alleged Russian spy suspected of working for Russian military intelligence, the daily Dziennik reported Wednesday.
The suspect headed a small business and lived in Poland for more than a decade, the daily reported. He was arrested after his actions became ‘intolerable’ and ‘harmful’ to Poland, [...]

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Russian spy actor receives posthumous FSB award for best role

23 December 2009

RIA Novosti, 23 Dec 09: A Russian actor has been given a posthumous Federal Security Services (FSB) award for the best role portraying intelligence officer Stirlitz, Russia’s equivalent to James Bond.
The FSB, formally known as the KGB, awards the prize annually, and the ceremony took place this year at the organization’s headquarters building in downtown [...]

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Another Russian soldier seeks asylum in Georgia

23 December 2009

Messenger, 23 Dec 09: A soldier of the Russian Occupation Army abandoned his military post in the village of Perevi on the administrative border with breakaway South Ossetia on December 21. “I have left my subdivision for political reasons and crossed the border to ask for political asylum from the Georgian Government,” explained Vitali Khripun. [...]

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Ex-Soviets, North Korea Conspiring to Arm Iran

23 December 2009

Newsmax, 22 Dec 09: In an amazingly ironic twist, the second foiled shipment this year of North Korean arms bound for Iran led to five former members of the Soviet air force being thrown into the same Bangkok prison where the former owner of their plane is incarcerated – notorious arms trafficker and ex-Soviet military [...]

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Provincial FSB Offices,Little Changed from Soviet Times, Define ‘Spirit’ of Russian Security Services

22 December 2009

Georgian Daily/Paul Goble, 21 Dec 09: The central apparatus of the Russian security services has been subject to numerous reforms since 1991, but the FSB “provincial empire” is little changed from Soviet times, when the KGB and its predecessors sought to impose “total control over the population through repression,” according to a leading Russian specialist. [...]

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Former KGB agent in Vancouver wants federal government to reconsider deportation

21 December 2009

Canadian Press, 18 Dec 09: A former KGB agent who has been hiding in a Vancouver church for the past six months to avoid deportation says the federal government should reconsider his case in light of thousands of pages of newly released documents.
Mikhail Lennikov, who has lived in Canada with his wife and child for [...]

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Over 100 spies uncovered in Russia’s Novosibirsk Region in 2009

18 December 2009

RIA Novosti, 18 Dec 09: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) identified more than 100 foreign agents operating in the Novosibirsk Region in 2009, the regional department said on Friday.
The southwestern Siberian region’s research institutions and technical enterprises are the focus of foreign special services’ interest.
“This year, more than 100 foreigners were revealed who were employed [...]

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Russian ‘Spies’ Barred from Georgia Entry – Official

3 December 2009

Civil.Ge, 3 Dec 09: Georgia is open for Russian tourists and business, but not for Russian spies, President Saakashvili’s spokesperson said while commenting on Georgia’s refusal to give entry visas to two Russian scholars.
A delegation of five Russian scholars arrived in Tbilisi on December 1 to participate in series of meetings with Georgian colleagues to [...]

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Alexander Litvinenko: A very Russian poisoning

2 December 2009

Daily Telegraph, 2 Dec 09: Three years ago, a Soviet defector was assassinated on British soil. Why was he murdered? And who was behind it? In the most detailed account of the killing yet, former Russian military intelligence officer Boris Volodarsky reveals all. . . . .
. . . . His first claim to fame [...]

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Black Sea Fleet halts counterintelligence operations in Crimea

1 December 2009

RIA Novosti, 1 Dec 09: Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has terminated counterintelligence operations in Ukraine’s Crimea and is sending all ’special service’ officers to other posts, a Russian intelligence source said on Tuesday.
Ukraine earlier ordered 19 Federal Security Service (FSB) officers to leave Sevastopol, where the fleet is based, before December 28.
“The special service command [...]

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Putin’s folly

1 December 2009

American Thinker, 1 Dec 09: . . . . . Russia has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for years, and its police force is infamous for being more dangerous to citizens than Russia’s criminals. Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s administration has been characterized from the beginning by a seemingly endless string [...]

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Massive Corruption Threatens Russian State

1 December 2009

RFE/RL, 27 Nov 09: The numbers are staggering by any measure: Russians pay $300 billion in bribes each year, according to the government’s own figures. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says Russia hosts more “economic crime” than any other country; a new study by the firm shows that more than 70 percent of companies polled said they [...]

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A Thanksgiving message from Russia’s spy agency

1 December 2009

Washington Times, Michelle Van Cleave, 26 Nov 09:
Michelle Van Cleave served as head of U.S. counterintelligence under President George W. Bush.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” as our leader Vladimir Putin has said, yet we have much to be thankful for. He has charged us to [...]

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Former Estonian Foreign Intel Chief on Spy Hermann Simm

12 November 2009

Axis Globe:
The Russian intelligence used its agent in Estonia Herman Simm in full, the former head of the Estonian Foreign intelligence Ants Frosch believes.  Speaking today morning on air of the Estonian TV program Terevisioon, Frosch declared that recruitment of the agent and his further work for an intelligence agency of other country first of [...]

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