There could be new developments related to the case of mass riots on May 6, 2012. According to the “NG” [Nezavisimaya Gazeta], investigators are questioning the opposition activists detained on that day on Manezhnaya Square who “diverted the police forces” from other protesters. The “NG” managed to get hold of a list of opposition activists […]
Former NSA employee Edward Snowden, who remains in the transit area at Sheremetyevo Airport, could remain there indefinitely, even as the US attempts to have him extradited for the disclosure of information about government surveillance of electronic communications. This matter is regulated in Russia under Art. 31 of the Law on Entry and Exit. According […]
[This article, written in two parts, analyzes the attempts by Russia’s ruling party to restrict internet privacy, and compares the operations of the Russian Federation to the US PRISM program unveiled by Edward Snowden.—Ed.] The harassment of non-profit organizations, the toughening of the law on public rallies, the teeth-gritting propaganda of the federal television channels, […]
Russian media outlets are reporting that Edward Snowden, the former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor and National Security Agency employee, is spending his third day in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Moskovsky Komsomolets says Snowden is likely staying in a Japanese “capsule” hotel without windows to ensure privacy, and likens him to a legendary Indian who was said […]
[In this article, Yulia Latynina argues that arrest last week of the powerful Mayor of Makhachkala, Said Amirov, has signaled the FSB’s assertion of direct control in the republic of Dagestan. Latynina speculates that this is partly motivated by the desire to stem the growing power of salafists in the region.—Ed.] In a Hollywood movie-type, […]
[Russia’s security services have shocked the public by arresting Said Amirov, the Mayor of Makhachkala in the Republic of Dagestan, alleging his involvement in conspiracy to murder and involvement in the narcotics trade, among other serious crimes. Amirov has dominated Dagestani politics for fifteen years, and his arrest has raised questions of whether the state […]
Last week, the Guardian’s former Moscow correspondent Luke Harding reported on the near collapse of Britain’s long-awaited and long-bedeviled inquest into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former FSB agent turned MI6 spy, who was brutally assassinated with a radioactive substance in London in 2006. The inquest has taken years to commence owing mainly to […]
[The strange case of Ryan Fogle, a US diplomat arrested by the FSB on charges of espionage, continues to preoccupy the Russian media. Below is state-controlled Channel One, relying on FSB sources, quoting from alleged telephone conversations Fogle had with a Russian intelligence officer he was trying to recruit. –Ed] The American ambassador visited the […]
Today’s announcement that a US “spy” working in the American embassy in Moscow had been captured by the FSB has raised more than a few eyebrows about not only the details of this case (the alleged spy’s Get Smart paraphernalia) but also the timing. I asked Professor Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian intelligence, what […]
Federal Security Service (FSB) agents arrested an alleged CIA agent who was accused of trying to recruit a Russian officer to work as a US agent. Ryan C. Fogle was the third secretary in the political section at the US Embassy in Moscow. As reported by Interfax agency, “Late at night on May 13, FSB […]
