Posted on 06/07/2006 2:26:21 PM PDT by Bald Eagle777
The Federal Security Service will soon have the power to fight terrorists in foreign countries.
A State Duma bill, set to be passed in a second reading this month, gives the security service, known as the FSB, the authority to go beyond information-sharing with its foreign counterparts and dispatch commandos to strike terrorist groups and bases.
"The amendments provide for special-operations units of the FSB to be used at the discretion of the president against terrorists and bases that are located outside the Russian Federation for the purpose of interdicting threats to the Russian Federation," Mikhail Grishankov, deputy chairman of the Duma's Security Committee, was quoted on United Russia's web site as saying.
Grishankov, who formerly served in the FSB, said the recent kidnappings of Russian diplomats in Iraq highlighted the need for the legislation. Grishankov is a member of United Russia.
The bill, which is backed by the party, contains amendments to 14 different laws. It is widely expected to sail through the Duma.
Gennady Gudkov, also of United Russia and a member of the Duma's Security Committee, said the FSB measure would simply formalize on paper what had already been taking place.
Gudkov, a former counterintelligence officer, said he saw no contradiction in a domestic security service operating internationally. Intelligence operations outside Russia are supposed to fall under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, or GRU.
By law, the SVR can use force abroad only to protect embassy personnel and visiting officials. The FSB's operations abroad are limited mostly to the prevention of recruitment of diplomats by foreign intelligence services. The FSB's border guard service conducts intelligence operations within a 200-kilometer margin of the Russian border, according to Agentura.ru Studies and Research Center, a security-service watchdog.
Turf battles could erupt between the FSB and GRU after the bill passes. Tensions between the FSB and SVR are also possible.
Viktor Ilyukhin said the amendments, if passed, must include detailed rules of engagement. He added that the legislation must be accompanied by bilateral agreements with foreign countries. Otherwise, he said, deploying special forces abroad "could lead to an enormous scandal."
Andrei Soldatov, head of Agentura.ru, agreed.
While the FSB's predecessor, the KGB, routinely employed commando units abroad, the FSB might not be able to strike terrorists in foreign countries without causing an international uproar, he said.
Some of Russia's neighbors have already agreed, or are likely to agree, to take part in joint operations with the Russians. But Middle Eastern countries are unlikely to do so, Soldatov added.
Russian security agencies have long contended that radical Muslim organizations in the Arab world are providing financial and logistical support to rebels in the North Caucasus. They have also accused Turkey and Azerbaijan of failing to prevent the recruitment and the transit of rebels into the North Caucasus, respectively.
Russia has also threatened to bomb Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, which Chechen rebels used as a base in the 1990s.
FSB director Nikolai Patrushev briefed Duma members Wednesday on the dynamics of Russia's international counterterrorism efforts. He made no mention of the proposed amendments.
Patrushev said his agency cooperated with security services in 67 countries. He also complained that the agency lacked cutting-edge technology, calling on scientists to increase research and development.
The bill has already passed a first reading. It is needed to help streamline an earlier counterterrorism law. That law gave the FSB the lead role in fighting terrorism.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
FSB HAS been running operations in other countries-including the US.(One such operation involved the gathering of intelligence on US plans in 2003,and the forwarding of these plans to the Iraqi government.)
FSB is the successor to KGB, and a LONG way from being Russia's FBI !
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