The New Nobility of the KGB (34 page)

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Authors: Andrei Soldatov

Tags: #History, #Europe, #Russia & the Former Soviet Union, #Political Science, #General, #International Relations, #Security (National & International), #Intelligence & Espionage, #World, #Russian & Former Soviet Union, #Social Science, #Social Classes

BOOK: The New Nobility of the KGB
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11
A. Yu Andropov,
Izbrannie rechi i statii
[The selected speeches and articles] (Moscow, 1979), p. 275.
 
12
Bukovsky’s archives are available at the Web site
http://bukovsky-archives.net/
.
 
13
Radio Free Europe, “Rossiyskie archive zarkivayutca” [Russian archives are closing], March 7, 2008.
 
14
National Security Archive, “The Moscow Helsinki Group 30th Anniversary: From the Secret Files,” May 12, 2006.
 
15
Agence France-Presse, “Russia Rejects Probe into Katyn Massacre,” January 30, 2009.
 
16
Memorial, “Preporirovannaya istoria ili PR po-chekistsky” [Fixed history or PR in the CheKa way], March 16, 2009. See also Wojciech Materski, Anna M. Cienciala, and Natalia S. Lebedeva,
Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008).
 
CHAPTER 9
 
1
For details of the FSB’s support in producing
Lichny Nomer
, see Elena Egereva,“Igri Patriotov” [Patriots’ games],
Afisha
, December 6, 2004.
 
2
A cassette was passed to the
Independent
, which published it. See Helen Womack, “Russian Agents ‘Blew Up Moscow Flats,’”
The Independent
, January 6, 2000.
 
3
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, “Chekistsky Zakas na Mifi” [CheKa’s demand for myths],
Ezhednevny Journal
, May 3, 2006, available at agentura.ru.
 
4
Yuri Gladilshikov, “Mejdu Dogvillem I Manderlaem” [Between Dogville and Manderlay],
Russky Journal
, December 30, 2004.
 
5
The first press office in the KGB was created on Andropov’s order in November 1969 (Oleg Khlobustov,“KGB bez prikras 1954-1991 godi” [The KGB without embellishment], proza.ru, May 23, 2007). According to Oleg Nechiporenko, then an officer in the KGB’s First Chief Directorate (foreign intelligence), the main task of the bureau was not to answer journalists’ requests, but to work with them: “The press bureau carried out much more diverse tasks than communications with the media. In particular, it worked with the creative people, wishing to create product—film or book—on a subject of secret services. Authors sent their works (stories, scripts, etc.) or asked the bureau to help with documents. . . . In their works they mostly created a positive image of the secret services” (“Oleg Nechiporenko: Bitva s golovoi kak glavny front” [Oleg Nechiporenko: The battle with the head as a main front],
Soobshenie
no. 4 [2005]).
 
6
Liza Novikova and Maya Stravinskaya, “Polozhitlny opyt KGB” [The positive experience of the KGB],
Kommersant
, February 7, 2006. For the FSB version of the resurrection of the KCB competition, see also Sergei Ignatchenko, a chief at the FSB Center for Communications, “Premia FSB” [Competition of the FSB],
Argumenti I Facti
no. 14, April 6, 2006. Also available at the FSB Web site
www.fsb.ru
.
 
7
“Podvedeni itogi konkursa FSB Rossii na luchee proizvedenie literaturi I iskusstva o deyatelnosti organov Federalnoy Sluzhbi Bezopasnosti” [The results of the competition of the FSB are anounced],
www.fsb.ru
, December 8, 2006.
 
8
Andrei Soldatov, “Britanci ne ostavili kamnya na kamni” [The British did not lose a rock],
Novaya Gazeta
, January 26, 2006
.
 
9
For details of the spy rock scandal, see also Jeremy Page and Richard Beeston, “The ‘British’ Spy Operation Found Lurking under a Rock,”
Sunday Times
, January 24, 2006.
 
10
“V FSB chtitayut, chto popavchee v ruki Rossiyskoi Spetscluzhbi ustroistvo, kotoroe ispolzovalos britanskoi razvedkoi v Moskve, yavlyaetca plodom supersovremennikh tekhnologiy” [The FSB believes the device taken by Russian secret service that was used by British Intelligence is a product of supermodern technologies],
Interfax
, January 26, 2006. Also available at the FSB Web site:
www.fsb.ru
.
 
11
That the different rock was taken by the FSB was confirmed by Sergei Ignatchenko, a chief of the FSB Center for Public Communications, at a press conference on January 23, 2006. Available at the FSB Web site:
www.fsb.ru
.
 
12
On Putin’s position toward spy rock scandal see Steven Lee Myers, “Putin Says Foreigners Use Private Groups to Meddle in Russia,”
The New York Times
, January 26, 2006.
 
13
For details of the documentary
Caucasus Plan
, see Radio Liberty, “Russia: Documentary Alleges West Sought Chechen Secession,” April 23, 2008;
RIA Novosti,
“Film Plan Kavkaz osnovan na svidetelstvakh uchastnikov sobitiy” [The documentary is based on testimony from participants in the events], April 25, 2008.
 
14
A special commission was formed to these ends within the framework of the FSB Consultative Council. This council consisted of former and current officers of the secret services. Yury Levitsky, a former foreign intelligence officer, was elected chief of the commission in charge of media. It had a relatively short life, however, and was later disbanded. See details at agentura.ru.
 
15
Full text is published in Vasily Stavistky,
Taini Dushi
[The mysteries of soul] (Moscow: AST, 1999).
 
16
Evgeny Krutikov, “Begushi chelovek” [“Running man”],
Izvestia
, January 29, 2001; Yuri Snegirev, “Kak khoteli vzorvat Volzhkskuyu TEC” [“How they wanted to explode the Volgzhkaya energy station”],
Komsomolskaya Pravda
, January 30, 2001.
 
17
Yuri Borodin, “Vasily K,”
Ogonyok
no. 52 (January 2001).
 
18
Author interview with Tretyakov, March 19, 2009.
 
19
Alexander Mikhaylov, a FSB spokesman in 1994-1996, admitted to Soldatov in March 2002, “Disinformation involves having a direct impact on the enemy, not on society as a whole. And if we’re talking about enemies—well, yes, assistance operations are operations which have an impact on the enemy.” The interview was published as Andrei Soldatov, “Ispoved dezinsormatora s Lubyanki” [The confession of the disinformator from the Lubyanka],
Versiya
, March 2002.
 
20
TV broadcast,
Vesti
, RTR (Channel 2), September 24, 1999.
 
21
Rustam Arifdjanov,“A gorod ne znal, chto uchenia idut” [The town does not know that a training is taking place],
Sovershenno Sekretno
no. 6, June 2002.
 
22
Marina Latysheva, “Recidivist spezsluzhb” [The criminal of the secret services],
Versiya
, September 29, 2003.
 
23
Marina Latysheva, “Bezzashitny advocat” [Unprotected lawyer],
Versiya
, October 29, 2003. Trepashkin spent three years in jail; in August 2005 he was released on parole, but under protest from the Prosecutor’s Office he was sent back to prison. He was eventually released on November 30, 2007. See details at agentura.ru.
 
24
Ekaterina Blinova,“Gostaina propavshego tiraja” [The state secret of disappeared copies],
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
, January 29, 2004.
 
25
The main point of the allegations against the FSB was that Achemez Gochiyaev, the main suspect according to FSB’s version, was an innocent businessman made a scapegoat by the FSB and falsely accused in carrying out a terrorist attack. In fact, Gochiyaev was well known in his native Karachaevo-Cherkassia, a tiny republic in the North Caucasus, since the mid-1990s as a leader of local Islamist group. Since the early 1990s Karachaevo-Cherkassia has witnessed the growth of local Islamist movements: The Jamaat of the Republic established close ties with Chechen rebels, and the Karachaev Battalion was sent to Chechnya in the late 1990s. Gochiyaev, Adam Dekkushev, and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov were members of the so-called Muslim Society No. 3, founded in 1995. According to the Russian secret services, by 2001 Muslim Society No. 3 counted more than 500 members and began a campaign of terror in nearby regions. In the spring of 2001 a series of terrorist attacks took place in the towns Mineralnie Vodi, Essentuki, and Cherkessk. One of the bombers was soon arrested and turned out to be a member of the society Arasul Hubiev. Then more than twenty members of the society were captured, and some tried to flee to Georgia. But the detentions did not disrupt the society’s activities. It managed to carry out two spectacular terrorist attacks in Moscow: the suicide bombing in the Paveletskaya metro station on February 6, 2004, and the female suicide attack near the Rizhskaya metro station on August 31, 2004.
By then Adam Dekkushev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov had been captured in Georgia’s Pankisi valley by Georgian secret services and handed over to Russia. On the first day of the trial in November 2003, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov partially admitted his guilt, acknowledging that he had accompanied a shipment of the explosives. He also admitted he had received training at a rebel camp. For his part, Adam Dekkushev confirmed that together with Krymshamkhalov he had accompanied a shipment of hexogen, packed in sugar bags, without having any idea as to what was inside. In January 2004 both were sentenced to life imprisonment. For further details, see agentura.ru and
http://studies.agentura.ru
.
 
26
As the Soviet Union was a country with very limited access to many areas, everything depended on the relationship between the journalist and his or her “handler” from the KGB. Sergey Pismensky, in the early 2000s the deputy head of the FSB section in charge of the Interior Ministry (Section M), and in 1980s the KGB “handler” for the German media, told Irina Borogan in 2000 that it was relatively easy to persuade foreign journalists to be loyal in Soviet times: The very first critical report would ruin any hopes for subsequent trips or interviews with high-ranking officials.
 
27
Alexander Igorev, “Nasha rabota interesney shpionskih romanov” [Our work is more interesting than spy novels],
Gazeta
, May 6, 2002.
 
28
Committee to Protect Journalists, “Russian Authorities Deny British Journalist Entry Visa,” June 5, 2006.
 
29
Luke Harding, “To Be a Journalist in Russia Is Suicide,”
The Guardian
, November 24, 2008.
 
30
“Russia Refuses Journalist Entry,” BBC Web site, February 27, 2008.
 
31
FSB Director’s Order, no. 343, “O vnesenii izmeneniy v perechen, utverzhdenny prikazom FSB Rossii ot 14 Sentyabrya 2007 No. 465” [About the changes in the list, established by FSB order no. 465, signed September 14, 2007], July 15, 2009.
 
32
Andrei Soldatov, “FSB stavit journalistov na control” [FSB puts journalists under control],
Ezhednevny Journal
, February 16, 2010.
 
CHAPTER 10
 
1
For details and maps, see the official Web site of Metro 2,
www.metro.ru/metro2
.
 
2
See the official GUSP Web site section on history at
http://gusp.gov.ru
.
 
3
Decree of the President, Russian Federation, no. 349, March 9, 1996.
 
4
Victor Baranets, “U supersecretnoy sluzhbi Rossii poyavilas svoya emblema” [Super secret service obtains insignia],
Komsomolskaya Pravda
, April 12, 2000.
 
5
Decision of the Moscow Mayor, no. 681, July 6, 1998.
 
6
Yuri Zaicev, Metro 2 section,
http://www.metro.ru/metro2/
.
 
7
Vadim Mikhailov answers the questions of Internet customers of the newspaper
Izvestia
, October 29, 2002, available at
http://online.izvestia.ru
.
 
8
Oleg Filin, “Diggeri planeti Undeground” [Diggers of the underground planet],
Noviy Akropol
, January 2002, available at
www.newacropolis.ru
.
 
9
Andrei Soldatov, “Maskirovka” [Camouflage],
Versiya
, May 27, 2002. The story and the map are available at agentura.ru.
 
10
agentura.ru.
 
11
Georgy Aleksandrov, “Sekretnoe metro. Speclinii I segodnyaprodolz hayut stroit” [Secret underground: The lines are still being built],
Argumenti I Facti
, October 15, 2008.
 

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