As the international press continues to publish disclosures on the National Security Agency, attention has begun to shift slightly to the figure who stole 1.7 million national security documents. Edward Snowden’s whereabouts in Russia, how he attained asylum there, or what the real public interest is of leaking information about Swedish and Norwegian espionage against […]
In the aftermath of terrorist attacks and during times of societal turmoil, it is quite common to see the introduction of security or emergency measures which give security services increased powers. Sometimes these powers are time-constrained and meant as a temporary measure to—at least publicly—reduce the constraints on the security services ability to counter terrorism, […]
The Microsoft Corporation (which owns the internet telephone service Skype) is prepared to store information on conversations and correspondence for six months, in order to provide it, along with user data from within the Russian Federation, to Russian law enforcement agencies, according to a response from Microsoft’s press service to a request from ITAR-TASS. “Microsoft […]
At least 32 people have been killed in two bombings over the space of less than 24 hours in the southern Russian city of Volgograd. Updates are below. Click here to jump to a summary. UPDATES: 1726 GMT: A total of 34 people have now died in due to the two bombings in Volgograd. ITAR-TASS […]
This article was originally published in Kommersant, originally titled “Mikhail Khodorkovsky Surrenders to Pardon.” It reports on what was happening behind the scenes when Mikhail Khodorkovsky made the decision to ask for a presidential pardon. The claims have not been verified, but in an official statement, Mikhail Khodorkovsky wrote, “the issue of admission of guilt […]
This week, The Interpreter has translated the story of the ‘Slavonic Corps,’ a group of Russian mercenaries recruited in St. Petersburg to go and fight against Syrian rebels. The initial investigation by the St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka concluded that a private military contractor, Moran Security Group, hired the Hong Kong ‘Slavonic Corps’ to assist the Assad regime in […]
A Syrian rebel group claims that it has ambushed and killed a group of Russian mercenaries who may have been working for a Chinese security contractor. The jihadist fighters from an Al Qaeda affiliate “Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS)” claim to have killed the mercenaries in a battle near Homs. At least […]
Russia has long been a country identified with secretive and elite security and police agencies; from the Oprichina of Ivan the Terrible, the Okhrana of the Tsar’s, the Cheka and KGB of the Bolsheviks and Soviet Union, to the FSB of today. Due to the multitude of differing agencies, often times with varying levels of […]
Below is the transcript between between Aleksandr Bogomolov (Federal Patriotic Herald) and State Duma Deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov after opposition leader Alexei Navalny was temporarily released from prison so that he might pursue a campaign for Moscow’s mayor, pending his appeal.. -Ed. Novaya Gazeta has asked the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Health to […]
A group of prominent representatives of the legal community issued an open letter about the growing threat to the rule of law in our state. We publish the text of the letter. The lawyers who signed the letter are listed in the order they signed it. We, the people who are professional lawyers, have to […]
