Nazdarovya, comrade spy...
2001-12-21 09:54
Moscow - When Russian lawmakers gathered in the lower house Thursday for a regular session, their speaker opened the session with kind words for Russia's secret agents, who marked their professional holiday with a stream of reports on the foreign spies they had caught.
"Let's congratulate the workers of special services and wish
them success in their difficult work," State Duma Speaker Gennady
Seleznyov told lawmakers. "Especially as many of them are sitting
among us here."
The Soviet-era holiday commemorates the December 20, 1917
establishment of the dreaded Communist secret police, the Cheka.
The Cheka, and its successor agencies, including the KGB, executed or imprisoned millions of people.
Chekist's Day, as it was known during Soviet times, was
officially renamed the Day of Security Organisations' Workers after the Soviet collapse, but most people, including Seleznyov and a state television news anchor, referred to the holiday by its old name.
Security officials marked the holiday by boasting of their success in catching spies.
Nikolai Patrushev, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the largest KGB's successor, said earlier this week his agency was closely tracking 130 foreign agents and had caught 50 of them.
Unlike his past statements, Patrushev made no mention of US
spy activities - a significant omission, apparently reflecting the
improved relationship with Washington. Spy scandals marred
US-Russian relations as recently as last spring.
In contrast with the past, Patrushev also mentioned some of the countries Russia has been courting - such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea - on his list of nations spying on Russia.
Local FSB leaders followed Patrushev's example by reporting to the media on spies they had caught, usually avoiding naming their nations.
Vladimir Subbotin, FSB chief in the Irkutsk region in eastern
Siberia, mentioned one particular case of a Chinese citizen, who
was convicted of espionage last May and sentenced to 10 years in
prison by a local court.
The Chinese man, whose name Subbotin didn't mention, was
collecting information on the deployment of Russian strategic
Topol-M and air defence S-400 missiles, said the ITAR-Tass news agency
on Thursday.
Russia has courted China as its "strategic" ally and provided it with large batches of some of its most-sophisticated weapons during the last decade.
Most Russian media have maintained a neutral tone while
reporting on the holiday, while the daily Novye Izvestia, which is sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin's government, ran a story headlined "Spies Are Everywhere" which accused the FSB of making up spy cases against independent researchers and critical journalists. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA