Non-Subscriber Extract
FSB planning major crackdown
- Article Tools
FSB planning major crackdown
Investigations of alleged British espionage activities in Russia are continuing. The FSB has been tracking the past movements of the four diplomats it has accused of spying. Visits made last year by one named diplomat to the cities of Kirov and Saratov have sparked an FSB probe of any organisations the individual concerned may have met, as well as anyone connected with the trip. So far, the most exciting 'revelation' seems to have been that some aid money was officially handed over to the local police academy in Kirov.
While no new scandals have yet been uncovered, JID's sources in Moscow warn that in addition to the publicised arrests of two individuals alleged to have worked for British intelligence, the FSB is questioning many other Russians known to have links to either the British embassy in Moscow or to the 12 non-governmental organisations accused of having received funds from the British diplomats. Sources based in Russia point to the "chilling" effect this probe is having in the capital.
One British resident in Moscow told JID: "People are genuinely fearful that any association with a foreigner - whether a diplomat or not - might expose them to the risk of being branded a spy or a traitor. Within a few weeks, the atmosphere in Moscow has changed perceptibly and the concern is that this slide back towards Soviet-era fear of associating with foreigners can only get worse in the future."
239 of 956 words