Russian Security Agency Gets Broad Pre-emptive Powers

(July 29) -- Russia's internal security agency today gained new powers that some critics see as echoing those of its notorious Soviet-era predecessor, the KGB.

President Dmitry Medvedev signed a much-debated law that empowers the FSB to issue official "warnings" to private citizens, officials and organizations, even in the absence of grounds to accuse them of a crime. The agency can issue such warnings for "actions that create conditions in which crimes could be committed" and makes the "implementation" of such warnings compulsory.

Tamara Morshchakova, a former justice of the Russian Constitutional Court, told an official government newspaper that "the bill unquestionably violates the constitution" and that "the goal of the initiators of this bill is not merely to restrict the individual rights of citizens; we are talking about making possible mass oppression."

Medvedev, who courts a more liberal image than that of his predecessor and mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has publicly declared that the law was his own brainchild. It has been controversial since the bill was first presented last month to the Russian parliament, where members of the opposition Yabloko Party hoisted signs saying "Chekists like it!," a reference to the brutal traditions of the first Soviet security agency, the Cheka. Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper house, has been quoted as saying that the new law might even be invoked to discourage the activities of labor unions.

The original bill went further than the version signed today. Under the initial proposal, the FSB would have the right, as the KGB once did, to summon citizens to its chambers to give an accounting of themselves and their intentions. As passed, the warnings will be delivered in person or by mail. Unlike the original bill, the law allows "warnings" to be appealed in court.

The press office of the FSB declined to comment or answer any questions about the law and how it will be applied.

The measure was driven in large part by growing Russian uneasiness regarding extremism, especially Islamic extremism. "The situation often arises in Russia where members of the relevant government agencies know something, have information they could act upon, but wait until an event occurs and only then can they begin a criminal investigation," Nikolai Gonchar, a member of parliament from the ruling Russia United party, told the radio station Moscow Echo. "We need to prevent the violations of the law."

While rising concerns about terrorism have led to expanded internal surveillance in the West, in Russia the specter of political extremism and terrorism are invoked to justify the prohibition or "prophylactic" pre-emption of politically undesirable conduct.

Opponents of the law see the very notion of prophylactic prohibitions by an internal security agency as an ominous sign for the direction of Russian society, however mild the penalty. The prominent human rights organization Memorial compared it to a 1972 Sovie law that gave similar powers to the KGB to help it suppress the dissident movement. Many have pointed out that there are no explicit provisions limiting the law's application to extremist activism, but that warnings can be issued to anyone at all at the discretion of FSB officers.

The 18th-century poet Petr Viazemsky considered it a Russian tradition that "the severity of the laws is ameliorated by the fact that they aren't enforced." Human rights activists worry that in Russia's current environment, that may no longer hold.