Monday, June 25, 2018

How Putin Corralled Russia's Secret Services

"Improving labor discipline"...

Vladimir Putin.

In April, a series of protests hit the Moscow region, Andrei Soldatov reports on foreignaffairs.com.

They were neither overtly political  --  citizens were protesting toxic landfills in their neighborhoods -- nor very numerous, comprising, at most, a few thousand people in a region of over seven million, Soldatov wrote.

At their peak, people took to the streets in nine towns surrounding the city, he added.

One week after the protests started, an official from the Serpukhov district, Alexander Shestun, was invited to the Kremlin.  There he met with Ivan Tkachev, a general from the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's powerful intelligence agency and the successor to the Soviet-era secret police, the KGB.

Apprehensive about the meeting, Shestun decided to secretly record the conversation, which he later posted on YouTube, Soldatov wrote.

In the recording, Tkachev threatens Shestun. "You will be steamrolled if you don't resign," he says.  "You will be in prison.  Like many before you, you don't understand, it's a big (purge), Soldatov added.

For more on a fascinating new report on how Putin has consolidated his power over Russia's secret services: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2018-05-31/putins-secret-services?cid=int-fls&pgtype=hpg

Photo: Pinterest.
Next time on The Allen Report:
Boeing: New Plane Cuts New York-London Run to Two Hours.

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