On the eve of State Security Officer Day FSB head Nikolay Patrushev summed up his agency’s efforts in 2007 in a meeting with Russian media. He tempered his report in moderately optimistic tones, just as any high-ranking official who has been in his post for quite a long time would do
According to tradition, Patrushev reminded his audience what role secret services had played in securing the country’s statehood. The official demonstrated his erudition and referred to the blessed memory of Princess Sophia Paleologue who, according to Patrushev, being a niece of the last Byzantine emperor, and the wife of Ivan III, was seriously engaged in the country’s security and unification efforts.
Having made this historical digression, the FSB head returned to reality and spoke of his agency’s main task: combating foreign intelligence. “The activities of 22 career officers and 71 agents of foreign intelligence services have been nipped in the bud. Eleven officers and agents have been caught in the act of conducting illegal activities. Four foreign citizens involved in such activity have been expelled from Russia,” Patrushev said.
It should be noted here that in last year’s report Patrushev announced that the activities of about 40 foreign secret services had been uncovered and the efforts of 27 foreign intelligence officers and 89 of their agents had been blocked.
Contrary to previous years’ practice, Patrushev did not restrict himself by pure statistics this time. He revealed a few details. He informed his audience that three Russian citizens had been convicted for high treason in 2007. The FSB director also said that a court in the Kaliningrad Region was considering a criminal case against colonel Khitryuk, who is accused of high treason in the form of spying for a Baltic country. Two Russian citizens have been tried and indicted for collecting and handing secret information over to the military intelligence service of an Asian- Pacific country. Patrushev also said that a criminal case had been brought “on evidence of espionage” in connection with attempts by the UK secret service to recruit a Russian citizen “for gathering miscellaneous information with the purpose of using it against Russia’s external security”.
Patrushev dedicated the second part of his report to the economic efficiency of the secret service. According to Patrushev, the FSB has prevented over thirteen billion rubles ($0.5 billion) of damage to the state. Over three billion rubles have been additionally secured for the federal and regional budgets. “Strategic raw materials and other important products that are subject to special procedures when crossing the country’s border, amounting to 300,000 rubles, have been confiscated, along with other valuables worth over 550 million rubles,” Patrushev noted. Over two thousand criminal cases dealing with economic crimes and smuggling have been initiated by the FSB.
Last year’s report stated that FSB had prevented damage to the state totaling 45 billion rubles (about $1.7 billion). The agency had returned material values, monetary and other securities to the tune of 1.3 billion rubles to the budget. “Additional financial proceeds into the federal and regional budgets and foreign investment of about 12 billion rubles have been secured,” Patrushev reported a year ago. Patrushev also noted then that over 300 people had been tried and convicted for economic crimes and contraband.
Then there was a confusion, of which Patrushev was by no means to blame. When he brought up the subject of corrupt practices and said that several officers of Russia’s Audit Chamber had been arrested for illegal activities, news agencies immediately disseminated it as a sensation because Audit Chamber Chairman Sergey Stepashin used to head the FSB in the mid 90s and Patrushev’s statement, particularly against the background of rumors about a covert war among the siloviki, looked extremely symptomatic. As it turned out, however, the media had been too hasty because Patrushev did not limit himself to the Audit Chamber but also mentioned the Technical Inspectorate, the Economic Development Ministry, the Federal Tax Service, the Defense Ministry, the Duma and even the FSB itself among those bodies whose officials had been accused of bribery and similar crimes. Nevertheless, to avoid confusion, Patrushev issued a special statement which stated that the Audit Chamber leadership had always rendered and was rendering all possible assistance to law enforcement agencies in revealing corrupt practices both inside their own office and elsewhere. “Audit Chamber executive officials and primarily Sergei Stepashin take an active part in combating corruption inside their agency,” the FSB head noted and added that “Sergei Vadimovich [Stepashin] like no other leader of any law enforcement or defense agency is fighting for the purity of the ranks of his employees and when necessary assists investigation of economic crimes in every possible way”.
Last year Patrushev limited himself to statistics alone. “70 criminal cases are being investigated against corrupt bureaucrats, 35 local executive officials have been brought to trial as well as executives of 17 regional bodies of state power”.
Patrushev devoted the subsequent part of his report to combating terrorism. “The number of acts of terrorism has fallen by more than 2.5 times: in 2005 there were 257 of them, 112 in 2006 and 41 in 2007,” Patrushev said, and added that there had been 44% less terror-related crimes registered in comparison with last year. According to Patrushev 35 people were convicted for acts of terror, 54 for knowingly false reports of terrorist threats, 5 for attempts on the lives of the government or public figures and 59 for organizing illegal armed formations or partaking in them.
Last year Patrushev reported preventing over 300 acts of terrorism in 2006, including defusing over 60 explosive devices. He noted that two hiding places containing over 60 kilos of explosives and lots of firearms had been revealed in Moscow. Patrushev pointed out the hiding places were organized at the notorious Basayev’s direct order.
“The criminal activity of over 500 gangster zones has been cut short in cooperation with federal bodies of executive power in the Northern Caucasus,” Patrushev said.
Talking about cases connected with state secrets, the FSB chief said there had been over 7000 inspections by state security organs. 30 criminal and over 600 administrative cases have been initiated on accusations of violating secrecy procedures, loss of secret documents and so on. 10 people have been convicted on the accusations, Patrushev said. Apart from that, over 450 licenses permitting work that makes use of state secrets have been suspended or withdrawn, he added.
Two years ago Patrushev said his agency had conducted 4000 such inspections and revealed 40 criminal cases and 300 administrative ones.
The FSB director gave a detailed account of his agency’s cooperation with its counterparts in friendly states, as well as of strengthening FSB manpower.
According to the same tradition Patrushev said his agency’s difficult work is enjoying extreme support and popularity among the people.
Patrushev said similar things last year as well.
Ali Aliyev
Nikolay Patrushev - Photo: ITAR-TASS
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