30 September 1998
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 00:22:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Reformed KGB Still Threat To: jya@jya.com From: nobody@shinobi.alias.net (Anonymous) Russia Today, Friday, 25 September 1998, 09:17 EDT British Study Says Reformed KGB Still Poses Threat LONDON -- (Agence France Presse) Russian spy agencies have much recovered from the shock of the break-up of the Soviet KGB and could pose a threat to the country's democracy and to foreign countries, a new study said Thursday. The report, by Mark Galeotti in the respected defense journal Jane's Intelligence Review, said attempts by President Boris Yeltsin to reform the feared the KGB had been partially reversed in recent years. The domestic intelligence agencies have reacquired huge powers potentially dangerous to democratic rule, while the foreign intelligence branch, formerly headed by new Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, is reasserting some of its Soviet-era muscle, especially in reaction to NATO expansion. "All the security services are now again headed by veterans of the KGB and all have successfully resisted genuine democratic accountability. Instead, all report directly to the president," the report said. "Acting increasingly together, they represent a powerful and dangerously autonomous lobby." Although strong intelligence agencies are vital to the protection of a country, "the real question" in Russia is whether they will "come to dominate or serve a future democratic order," the report said. One of the main domestic intelligence agencies is the Federal Security Service (FSB), with more than 76,500 employees, including its own elite Alfa special forces, and remit over everything from anti-terrorism to economic security. It reports to the president. The FSB has managed to stem the post-Soviet flow of highly qualified personnel into the private security sector through perks and bonuses, the Jane's report said. In addition, the FSB has been attempting since 1995 to reconstruct the KGB-era network of informers, which was first meant to be dismantled, then just reduced. "What is disturbing and depressing is that none of the changes ... seem to have done much to affect the essential complexion of this service. If anything, initial reforms have been reversed." Another key domestic agency is the Federal Government Communications and Information Agency (FAPSI), with staff of about 54,000.Officially, it has responsibility for electronic communications security and surveillance, but Jane's stressed that it also has control over some of the country's most crucial computer and communication networks. These include government lines to banks, a majority share in Relkom, Russia's largest Internet service provider, and the automated voting system. Secret activities may include, the report says, commercial intelligence gathering on behalf of Russian companies. The agency is also "actively investigating the possibilities for using the Internet and other forms of data transfer both for espionage and more malign activities, such as the spreading of disinformation or destructive computer viruses." However the report said that contrary to speculation, it was "probably unlikely" that FAPSI was preparing to manipulate the electoral computer to rig the presidential elections of 2000. The end of the Soviet Union meant that the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), with about 12,000 personnel, had to retreat from many of its areas of activity, the report said. Africa and Latin America were seen as the most expendable. "Since then, the SVR has managed to regain some of its influence and role, not least thanks to NATO's eastwards expansion," it said. "At the same time, they have also been shifting away from conventional political and military targets (although these remain important) and towards economic intelligence. "The SVR has begun to regain its old aggression and purpose, even if it still lacks the global resourcing of the old KGB." Jane's said that the military intelligence agency, GRU, had also suffered resourcing problems, but that the expansion of NATO into eastern Europe had given it an important role in analyzing "and, where possible, penetrating NATO decision-making." "Reportedly, Spetsnaz intelligence commandos continue to operate" in central and eastern Europe, the report said. ----- Copyright 1998 Agence France Presse Copyright 1998 European Internet Network Inc. SOURCE: http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/98092518.html