Welcome to the new KGB

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  • sgreger1
    Member
    • Mar 2009
    • 9451

    Welcome to the new KGB

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/wo.../28russia.html

    MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers are considering extending new powers to the F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., allowing its officers to summon citizens and issue verbal or written warnings that their activities are “unacceptable” and leading toward a crime, even if no violation has occurred.

    ...would also impose fines or 15-day jail terms on citizens who did not comply with demands made by the F.S.B., or Federal Security Service.

    Issued at a moment of high anxiety about terrorism, the proposals could strengthen the agency’s ability to control information or activities considered “extremist,” a term that has been applied to religious and political groups as well as to journalists.


    The note contends that print and electronic media “openly facilitate the formation of negative processes in the spiritual sphere, propagate the cult of individualism, violence and mistrust in the government’s ability to protect its citizens, in effect drawing youth to extremist acts.”

    The proposal recalls a practice of “official warning” that the K.G.B. frequently employed against dissidents.

    “In the Soviet times, there really were warnings issued for anti-Soviet activity. But even then, the warnings were delivered only by prosecutors. Now, they spit on all that. Any citizen can be called an extremist for taking a public position, for political activity. A warning can be given to anyone who criticizes the powers that be. If you print this interview, they will announce that Ilyukhin is an extremist.”




    Propagating the cult of individualism, in MY Russia???
  • Jwalker
    Member
    • May 2010
    • 1067

    #2
    What else is new? What's up with the paranoia anyway they're afraid of dissidents anyway when the government is popular

    Comment

    • PipenSnus
      Member
      • Apr 2010
      • 1038

      #3
      Putin was a high-ranking KGB officer for many years. He ran their Berlin office, as I recall. And they do say, "Once KGB, always KGB".

      Comment

      • sgreger1
        Member
        • Mar 2009
        • 9451

        #4
        Originally posted by PipenSnus View Post
        Putin was a high-ranking KGB officer for many years. He ran their Berlin office, as I recall. And they do say, "Once KGB, always KGB".
        Yah, that's why the FSB got more powers under him. He's pulled lots of dirty tricks in his day, does anyone remember that reporter who was critical of him who died after being exposed to high amounts of radiation in her car or something?

        Comment

        • AllanH
          Member
          • Mar 2010
          • 213

          #5
          Quite normal procedure there. Usually laws in Europe are much stricter where terrorism is concerned. Those whining Russian liberal idiots should have been here in Ireland or UK during the Troubles.

          Comment

          • PipenSnus
            Member
            • Apr 2010
            • 1038

            #6
            Originally posted by sgreger1 View Post
            ...does anyone remember that reporter who was critical of him who died after being exposed to high amounts of radiation in her car or something?
            You may be thinking of Anna Politkovskaya, but she's far from the only one, just the most famous. She had several death threats made against her, and there was at least one attempted poisoning. But she was shot to death, gunned down in the lobby of her apartment building. FSB officials were implicated in her death, but were acquitted. The Russian Supreme Court has demanded a new trial, but as far as I know, it's still pending.

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