EURASIAN SECRET SERVICES DAILY REVIEW
Axis News
02.07.2008
Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI, gets reorganized Bulgarian security
services in panic due to last minute US top official’s visit UN Court
ordered temporary release of two Serb secret service war crime suspects
Secret Service of Ukraine expelled three spies and five diplomats from
country in six months Head of Russia’s Investigatory Committee has
secret business in Czech Republic; President, FSB chief did not know
about it No reform of Security Council of Russian Federation intended:
Patrushev Azerbaijan opposition leader in Moscow to negotiate release
of arrested businessman son Russian peacemakers accuse intelligence
agencies of Georgia of provocations State Security Service of Abkhazia
Chairman: no bomb explosions in last 24 hours More details of security
forces role in Armenian crackdown revealed International channels of
drugs contraband liquidated in Kazakhstan
Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI, gets reorganized The new
organizational structure of the Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI,
came into effect yesterday, under the resolution dated March 25 by the
Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT), Nine O’Clock reports. SRI
states that its new structure is part of an ample
SRI Headquarters process aimed at cutting down red tape and making
collection of intelligence information more efficient. The Service
wants to communicate more efficiently with both the media and the
civil society. Towards this end, SRI is being counseled by experts
with intelligence services from NATO member states, the paper notes.
The SRI new organizational structure has disbanded inspectorates,
setting up a programme communication Department, an intelligence
information strategy and a new officer career management system.
‘The SRI inspectorates, held as intermediate decision-making
structures, have been dissolved, for ‘better horizontal cooperation
and high reaction capacity in crisis situations. It also has in
view a higher capacity for analysis and prognosis and expanding
assessments over opportunities for promoting Romania’s strategic
interests. Another measure envisages the drafting of the Intelligence
Information Strategy of SRI by developing modern planning documents
adapted to the existing systems in the NATO and EU member states,’
the newspaper cites the SRI press release.
The reorganization also supposes better quality expertise in managing
security information, analysis and prognosis, a corporatist type
management and consolidation of horizontal cooperation within the
institution, the sources quoted by the Nine O’Clock says.
Bulgarian security services in panic due to last minute US top
official’s visit The news that the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza
Rice, is to visit Sofia, Bulgaria, on July 9, came as big surprise
for the Bulgarian Security Services, according to daily newspaper
Standard News, creating panic in the Interior Ministry, the State
Security Agency and the National Protection Services and triggering
numerous emergency meetings.
US special Secret Services’ teams would be arriving in Sofia three
days before Rice’s visit to help Bulgarian Security Services provide
the Secretary of State’s safety, as reported by the Standard News.
Condoleezza Rice would spend only five hours in Sofia and would go
straight from the airport to the office of Bulgarian Prime Minister
Sergei Stanishev. According to the paper, Rice is to advise Stanishev
on the fight against corruption and organized crime just weeks
before the expected publication of the European Commission report
about Bulgaria.
The visit to Sofia has been included in Rice’s agenda at the last
minute, Sofia News Agency says. Rice is scheduled to visit Prague on
July 8 to sign a contract with her Czech colleague for the deployment
of a US radar installation in the Czech Republic. After Prague, Rice
is supposed to go to Poland to sign an agreement for the deployment
in Poland of US anti-missile interceptor rockets. At the last minute,
the 5 hours between the two visits have been booked for Sofia, news
agency notes.
UN Court ordered temporary release of two Serb secret service war
crime suspects Judges at the UN Yugoslav tribunal ordered the temporary
release of two former Serb security chiefs, Jovica Stanisic and Franko
Simatovic, on trial for war crimes end of last week, news
Franko Simatovic agencies are reporting.
The court’s registry said the judges at the court’s appeals chamber
ordered the provisional release of Stanisic and Simatovic while
their trial is delayed due to Stanisic’s health problems, Javno
writes. Stanisic is suffering from complaints including depression
and kidney stones and their trial was halted May 16 for a minimum of
three months while he undergoes a health review, the paper expands.
The two former Serbian intelligence chiefs, Jovica Stanisic, head
of the secret service of late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,
and Franko Simatovic, a commander of elite Serb forces, are accused
of arming and directing secret units of the Serbian state security
service that murdered and persecuted non-Serbs during the Balkan wars
in Croatia and Bosnia. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution appealed against the decision, saying the release
should not be granted in view of an article from the Serbian newspaper
Blic and a press release issued by the country’s government stating
that the interior ministry had arrested police officers, lawyers and
doctors on suspicion of complicity in protecting individuals accused
of war crimes, Institute for War and Peace Reporting says.
Head of Russia’s Investigatory Committee has secret business in
Czech Republic; President, FSB chief did not know about it Alexander
Bastrykin is the Chairman of the Russian General Prosecutor’Office’s
Investigatory Committee and a classmate of Vladimir Putin. Member of
Russian parliament and journalist of the Moscow daily MK (Moskovsky
Komsomolets), Alexander Khinstein, reveals in today’s issue of the
popular Russian paper that the main inspector of the country already
for many years has been secretly conducting his own business in
Central Europe.
Kneszdenska Street 767/2c in the district of Troya in northern Prague
is the seat of the LAW Bohemia company. However, the company has
no relation to justice; operations with real estate is mentioned
as subject of its activity in founding documents instead of it. LAW
Bohemia was founded in Prague on March 1, 2000. The trading register of
the Prague city court posesses data about the owners of LAW Bohemia:
Alexander Bastrykin, born on August 27, 1953, from St.-Petersburg,
26 Galernaya Street. His partner is a certain Olga Alexandrova, born
on March 28, 1970, of the same address of residence. Khinshtein notes
that she is Bastrykin’s wife.
In March, 2000, when the company was created Bastrykin was not a state
employee and he could establish any commercial structures. From July,
2001, when he was appointed an acting chief of Federal directorate
on Ministry of Justice in the Northwestern Federal District he was
obliged to resign form the LAW Bohemia CEO post immediately and to
leave structure of the company founders. It was not done for some
reasons, though. The official register (as of May, 2008) says that
Alexander Bastrykin is still the owner of 50 % of LAW Bohemia shares.
Khinstein points out that recently the leadership of the
Investigatory Committee claimed that employees of the department
"have been becoming targets of activity of Western special services
and terrorist organizations". The author wonders whether the head of
Russia’s major law-enforcement department, keeper of the highest level
state secrets, secretly doing business in other other country has not
appeared a target of a delightful opportunity for recruitment by any
secret service. It is very likely that the Czech counterintelligence
has already for a long time been interested in activity of the LAW
Bohemia, Khinstein alleges.
Remaining among founders of a Czech firm, the Chief Investigator had
to understand that he has roughly been breaking various laws. Firstly,
Russian laws on General Prosecutor’s Office and on civil service,
very strictly forbid officials to be proprietors of commercial
structures. Secondly, the tax code: as far it is known, Bastrykin has
not specified his activity in LAW Bohemia in his tax declarations,
thus concealing them from taxes. Thirdly, the Russian Law on State
Secret forbids the keepers of state secrets to freely leave for
abroad. Bastrykin had to make out an official report on every trip
to the Czech Republic addressed to his superior and also to prove
the purpose of the trip. He never wrote such documents, MK marks.
Who will after all believe in honesty and adherence to law of the
Investigatory Committee if its Chairman has been trading real estate
abroad during his leisure time? – author asks.
Alexander Bastrykin uses open support of leaders of the state; this is
why he behaves so confidently, according to Khinstein. It is unlikely
that the President and Prime Minister (not speaking about the Secretary
of the Security Council and the FSB Director) knew until today about
the secret life of their colleague, MK concludes. The author asked to
consider the article an official request of a parliament member to
the President of Russia, Director of the FSB and General Prosecutor
and a basis for checking of all the mentioned facts.
Secret Service of Ukraine expelled three spies and five diplomats
from country in six
SBU Headquarters months Secret Service of Ukraine initiated a
pre-schedule withdrawal of five foreign diplomats, intelligence
services agents, from the territory of Ukraine on the basis of
materials of the counterespionage in the first six months of the year,
news agency UNIAN reports, referring to the SBU press centre. Three
spies have been reportedly detained in this period. It was discussed
at the final session of board of the Security Service on the results
of work in the six months of 2008.
Besides the SBU warned 38 attempts of attraction of citizens of Ukraine
to cooperation with foreign special services. The SBU also brought
2 criminal cases on the fact of distribution by representatives of
unlegalized association, Sevastopol-Crimea-Russia Popular Front, of
appeals concerning encroachment on territorial integrity of Ukrainian
state. 10 criminal cases have been brought concerning protection of
the state secret.
More than 400 crimes in area of struggle against international drug
business have been revealed. 24 senior officers were suspended of
their positions as a result of special operation lead by the division
of internal security. The SBU board supported creating at the SBU
of the Centre of studying archival documents on history of OUN and
UPA with the tasks of search, revealing, study and declassifying of
archival materials.
The SBU named as priority task the work with declassified archive
documents with a view of "finalizing conclusions on findings to bring
the historical truth about the Ukrainian liberation movement to the
society, first of all about activity during the WWII and post-war
period of the Organization of the Ukrainian nationalists, OUN, and UPA,
the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, ITAR-TASS reports.
No reform of Security Council of Russian Federation intended: Patrushev
There is no intention to reform the Security Council of Russia, and it
will continue its work in present format, the Secretary of the Security
Council, Nikolai Patrushev, told news agency RIA Novosti. A number
of mass media outlets have informed in June on ostensibly forthcoming
reforming of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
The Security Council was created in 1992 for realization of functions
of the President of the Russian Federation on management of government,
formation of domestic, foreign and military policy in the field
of security.
Patrushev was appointed to the post of the Security Council Secretary
in May, 2008, and in June, the President of the Russian Federation,
Dmitry Medvedev, approved structure of the Security Council. Patrushev
held the post of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Director before
his new assignment.
Earlier the Head of the Presidential Administration, Sergei Naryshkin,
also has denied reports of mass media on reform of the Security
Council. He named the Security Council a "compact, efficient" mechanism
which has been working effectively, according to RIA Novosti.
More details of security forces role in Armenian crackdown revealed
It is reported from Yerevan that Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisyan
continues to reshuffle the higher echelon of Armenia’s security
apparatus; today he dismissed the commander of national interior
troops that played a major role in the suppression of post-election
opposition protests in Yerevan, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty Armenian service.
Security forces officials investigating Armenia’s deadly post-election
unrest acknowledged yesterday that they instructed regional prosecutors
to round up participants of the opposition rallies in Yerevan,
wiretap their phone conversations and collect personal data about them
and their family members. The admission followed the revelation by
opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan of a written directive which
Andranik Mirzoyan, head of the investigative arm of Office of the
Prosecutor General, sent to the chief prosecutor of the southern
Vayots Dzor four days after the March 1 clashes between opposition
protesters and riot troops.
Mirzoyan ordered the regional prosecutor to identify and question
all Vayots Dzor residents who took part in the Ter-Petrosyan-led
opposition’s Yerevan rallies demanding a re-run of the
Street protest, Yerevan February 19 presidential election. The
prosecutor was specifically told to find out with whom the opposition
supporters communicated from February 20 through March 2, whether
they urged their neighbors to join the rallies and "how they are
described by the neighbors."
The letter also ordered local law-enforcement officials to seek court
permissions for obtaining the transcripts of phone conversations of
not only the heads of Ter-Petrosyan’s election campaign offices in
Vayots Dzor but also ordinary supporters of Armenia’s first president.
Speaking to RFE/RL, head of the investigative arm of Office of
the Prosecutor-General Mirzoyan confirmed the authenticity of the
publicized letter. He said his Special Investigative Service (SIS)
sent out similar directives to other regional prosecutors as well as
the heads of police and National Security Service divisions. Vahagn
Harutiunyan, a senior SIS official leading the ongoing criminal
investigation into the post-election violence, alleged that the
document did not pursue any political goals. Harutiunian told
RFE/RL. According to Harutiunyan, the investigators suspect that
that Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign for regime change was also sponsored
by unspecified foreign governments.
Ter-Petrosyan, meanwhile, portrayed the publicized document as
further proof that the government crackdown on the opposition has
been accompanied by grave human rights abuses.
Ter-Petrosyan said Mirzoyan’s letter also demonstrated that the
authorities have no evidence to substantiate their coup accusations.
Azerbaijan opposition leader in Moscow to negotiate release of
arrested businessman son Chairman of the Adalyat opposition party of
Azerbaijan, Ilyas Ismailov, has left Baku for Moscow today with the
aim of release for bail of his son arrested in Russia, news agency
Trend News reports, referring to the vice-president of the Adaluyat
party, Elkhan Shukkurlu. Ilyas
IIyas Ismailov Ismailov is the head of the party since 2001.
Etimad Ismailov, the son of the Azerbaijan parliament member, was
arrested in the night of March 25, on his way back to Moscow from Baku
by the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) agents at a Moscow airport. A
criminal case has been brought against Etimad Ismailov according to
two articles of the Criminal code of Russia on swindle and gathering
of money.
Ismailov’s lawyers stated that the customer of his arrest was the
leadership of Russia’s Chelyabinsk area because of running into debt
of $1 mln before the company run by Ismailov, according to Trend
news agency.
According to Shukkurlu, Ilyas Ismailov will meet with the leadership
of law enforcement bodies of Russia in Moscow and the question of
transfer of the criminal case from Chelyabinsk FSB directorate to
Moscow would be discussed. Besides the question of removal from
Ismailov of measures of punishment in the form of arrest, and his
release for bail would be discussed on the basis of a guarantee letter
of the embassy of Azerbaijan in Russia.
Russian peacemakers accuse intelligence agencies of Georgia of
provocations Intelligence agencies of Georgia have been creating
tension in the zone of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict and were involved in
provocations against military personnel of the Collective Peace-Keeping
Forces (KSMP) of the CIS, the assistant to the KSMP commander,
Alexander Diordiyev, has announced to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
This morning there was an explosion between the State Security
Ministry post of Georgia and a peacemakers’ check point in the zone
of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, according to The Daily Georgian Times.
Diordiyev told the news agency that an unknown car driven by unstated
persons passed the Georgian post in the direction of check point
No301. In the distance of approximately 300 metres from the check
point, the car was re-directed and an item was thrown out of it causing
an explosion then. â~@~^The car allegedly freely passed by the State
Security Ministry post of Georgia post again and its servicemen did
not undertake any measures to detain it. Thus, actions of the Georgian
intelligence agencies have provocative character with an objective
of destabilization of situation in the southern security zone in the
zone of Gerogian-Abkhazian conflict, as well with an aim to provoke
the KSMP personnel".
State Security Service of Abkhazia Chairman: no bomb explosions
in last 24 hours There have been no bomb explosions in the last
24 hours in the territory of Republic Abkhazia, news agency Regnum
reports, referring to the Chairman of the State Security Service of
the unrecognized republic, Yury Ashuba. He reportedly named rumours
as if someone have heard explosions false statements and insinuations.
Alarmists have been connecting usual fireworks with explosions,
according to Ashuba. He noted that situation in Abkhazia was stable and
controllable by the authorities following the explosions in Sukhumi
and Gagry. Checking of passports and protection of public order
in places of mass congestion of people has been strengthened. The
border between Abkhazia and Georgia on the the Inguri river is closed
until further notice. The State Security Service and the Ministry of
Interior have been spending operatively-investigatory works on the
fact of explosions.
Four out of six injured at an explosion in the area of Sukhumi Central
market will be discharged from hospital within the next few days,
Regnum adds
International channels of drugs contraband liquidated in Kazakhstan
The Kazakhstan and Russian special services have liquidated two
international channels of contraband of drugs, news agency Rosbalt
reports, referring to the press service of the Alma-
KNB directorate plaque Aty directorate of the National Security
Committee (KNB) of Kazakhstan.
According to the KNB press service, cocaine and other psychotropic
substances were delivered from Germany, Poland and Lithuania through
the territory of Russia to Kazakhstan. As the result of the operation,
the largest lot of cocaine (more than 500 grams) in Kazakhstan and
150 tablets of the synthetic preparation of Ecstasy was withdrawn
from illegal circulation.
Citizens of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine were the organizers
of the illegal drug smuggling channels. All of them are sentenced by
court to imprisonment for the period of 7-11 years, Rosbalt adds.
One more international channel of delivery of drugs from Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan via territory of Kazakhstan to China was organized by
a citizen of Kazakhstan, news agency marks. He has been detained in
Alma-Aty and 3,178 tablets of Ecstasy have been withdrawn from him. The
criminal was sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment, Rosbalt notes.
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