Return of the KGB? Author(s): Edwin Bacon and Bettina Renz Reviewed work(s): Source: The World Today, Vol. 59, No. 5 (May, 2003), pp. 26-27 Published by: Royal Institute of International Affairs Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40476986 . Accessed: 27/05/2012 21:03

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http://www.jstor.org has severalmajor objectives. These include: RESTRUCTURINGSECURITY IN making the case for Russia as a more reliable supplier of American energy EdwinBacon and Bettina Renz requirementsthan an unstable Middle East; obtaining promises that Russian companieswill be able to competefor oil contractsin post-SaddamIraq; persuading Washingtonto assistwith Russian entry to the WorldTrade Organization;protecting Return national interests in Caspian pipeline of routes;highlighting Russia's attractiveness to American investors;and steppingup pressure for the abolition of the 1974 j Jackson-Vanikamendment, which links the KGB? Russia's statusto Jewish trading emigration,j With world attention on days before war, Russia's On thebroader political level, Putin and Iraq, just Bushwill draw a lineunder recent tensions. President announced the most dramatic AlthoughWashington has been irritatedby reorganisation of Russian security forces since the KGB Russia's vocal opposition over Iraq, it ' understandsthat it needs to focus on ; was broken up into separate agencies by his predecessor concretepriorities, such as puttingan end to j in the early 1990s. Putin explained his move Russian nuclear assistance to Iran, j as and updating responses to security Putin's concerns about streamlining Conversely, and American assertiveness, and his threats. Critics questioned the legality of the changes disappointmentat the small returnsfrom expressed fears that still more forces were coming under his 11 for are post-September support Bush, the wing of the KGB's main successor. outweighedby the knowledgethat a well- disposed US is criticalto the achievement - ofkey foreign policy objectives. FEDERAL SECURITY critics thatthe decrees amount to a The meeting will not be without its Service(FSB) is themain returnof Soviet-era human rights abuses disagreements.However, despite the highly descendantof the Soviet and authoritarianism. asymmetricnature of their relationship, KGB,and itsstrengthening The decreesannounced the abolition of - Moscowand Washingtonhave an interestin bypresidential decree threeRussian forces theFederal Tax minimisingdifferences and emphasising immediatelyled to claimsof the Police,the Federal Agency for Government positives- an endeavourthat the personal resurrectionof the much-criticised Information(FAPSI) andthe Federal Border warmthbetween Bush and Putin will do intelligenceagency, sponsored by Guard.The taxpolice will now fall under muchto assist The summitwill show that agent-now-presidentPutin. thecontrol of the Russian interior ministry, the recent tensions over Iraq, far from Structurallyspeaking, there can be no and FAPSI'swork was dividedbetween the heraldinga 'cold peace', have been little doubtthat the new forces are morelike the Ministryof Defence and theFSB. morethan a pause in the normalisationof KGB thanthose in existencebefore. The FSB also tookover the Border Russia-USrelations. WT However,it is too farto jump fromthis to Guard,thus tripling its troop numbers to theassumption - voicedby a numberof aroundthree hundred thousand. In Soviet timesboth FAPSI and theBorder Guards wereKGB directorates.Two newbodies werecreated: an independentstate committeefor the control of drug trade and a statedefence procurement committee underthe Ministry of Defence. Whydid Putinenlarge the authority and capabilityof the FSB? Officialreasons citethe need to adaptthe country's forces to changingdomestic and international threatsassociated with the growing perils ofterrorism and drugcrime. Announcing thedecrees on March11, he declared: An analysisof the situation in the countryshows that along with crimes againstthe person, the most important tasksfor the state are the fight against the illegaldrug trade in narcoticsand psychotropicsubstances, and thefight againstterrorism. And we cannotsay or ojo thatthe authorities i. consider responsible forthese matters are operatingwith Iz sufficienteffectiveness and coordination.'

26 THE WORLD TODAY | M iv on i ManyRussian analysts broadly agreed. resourcesof the abolished tax police will go - - Thechanges were seen within the tothe new andforty thousand-strong Dr Bacon is a senior lecturerat the Centrefor frameworkofthe situation post-September committee for the control of drug Russian and East European Studies,University of 112001. Russia has been painfully trafficking.Whilst FAPSI and the Border Birmingham,and Directorof Researchat Bishop remindedof a growingterrorist threat with Guardare no more, their assets and GrossetesteCollege, Lincoln. His book 'Brezhnev thebombing of apartment blocks in personnelhave been transferred wholesale Reconsidered'was publishedby Palgravelast year. at Moscowand Volgodonsk inSeptember tothe Ministry of Defence and the FSB. BettinaRenz is a researchfellow Bishop Grosseteste on the ESRC-funded 2000,the theatre hostage crisis College working project'Securitisation in ContemporaryRussia'. lastOctober, and a suicideattack on the ELECTORALPOWER governmentbuilding of the Chechen Widespreadapproval was overshadowed be amendedby parliament. The speaker of republiclate last year. Commentators byconcerns about the recreation ofa body parliamentwas informed about the pointedto parallel developments structurallyand functionally reminiscent changesonly on the morning of the elsewhere,drawing comparisons between ofthe Soviet KGB. Such anxieties focused announcement.Even the state-funded theconsolidation ofthe Russian forces and particularlyon Putin'salleged hidden nationalinformation service, thecreation of the Department of motivesand on the decision-making www.strana.rii,published an opinion HomelandSecurity in the United States. processbehind the decrees. pieceheadlined: The liquidationof the Analystswere also positive about the Putinsfirst major personnel reshuffle in taxpolice - it'sa legalriddle.' intentionto increasethe forces' efficiency, March2001 saw Sergei Ivanov and Boris Thereis some justification for concern avoidingunnecessary duplication by Gryzlov- key figures in the president's aboutthe decision-making style of today s mergingsome agencies and streamlining innercircle of FSB andSt Petersburg leadership.In official Russian discussions, theoverall command structure. Decreasing friends- moved to head the defence and lipservice is regularlypaid to the thenumber of forces has long been a interiorministries respectively. The latest importanceofincreasing the involvement priorityfor Russian and western experts. changesconsiderably increased these ofcivil society in key decisions. The reality Priorto these changes there were ministries'strength and remit, as wellas ofpolitical life reveals quite the opposite. thirteenforces - federalministries or thoseof the FSB andits director Nikolai Thedrafting oflaws, and in this case of agenciesin command of armed units and Patrushev,also regarded as oneof Putin's structuralchanges to the state apparatus, divisions.This relatively large number was mostreliable allies. Consistent with his appearsto be increasinglythe almost theresult of frequent and extensive leadershipstyle, Putin did not actually sack exclusivedomain of the presidential reorganisationinthe early post-Soviet anykey personnel, but moved them to administration.Inthis, the expertise of years,when Yeltsin sought to decrease the otherspecially created posts. civilianprofessionals onforce structure potentialfor political influence of the three Suspicionsexist that the real aim was to reform,including members of the 'monsters'ofthe Soviet power bloc - the strengthenthe president's personal power parliamentarycommittee for security, was MinistryofDefence, the interior ministry aheadof the upcoming election season. apparentlybypassed. It is alsoworrisome andparticularly the KGB. Parliamentary,orDuma, elections are thatthe issue of civilian control over the Thepractical consequences of this expectedin December and a presidential forceshas again been sidestepped entirely. fragmentationproved disastrous, ballotnext March. Onlytime will reveal the full especiallyduring military operations in Oneaspect of the reorganisation consequencesof Putin's changes. The Chechnya.Parallel armies with often particularlyrelates to the elections. Some impendingtechnical and logistical moves incompatibleweaponry and reportssay that FAPSI had responsibility involvethe repositioning and retraining of communicationchannels led to military forthe communications network behind tensof thousands of staff in hundreds of setbacksand the loss of servicemen's lives. GAS-Vybory,Russia's controversial centraland regional branches and are Theabolition of the tax police also met automatedsystem for collating votes in expectedto take months, ifnot years. This withbroad approval. It had responsibility federalelections. If this was the case, then is notso mucha reformas a rebalancingof forfighting tax evasion by individuals and thesystem is nowin the hands of the FSB. powersand functions within these 'power companies,and was notorious among FAPSIofficials, however, deny any link. ministries',inan apparentattempt to align businessesfor staging paramilitary-style themmore closely with the priorities ofthe raidson offices, involving masked and ABSOLUTESECRECY Putinregime and the threats of the early armedtroops from the militarised units Concernsabout the decision-making twenty-firstcentury. thataccounted for up to a quarterof its processbehind the decrees have arisen Itis noteworthythat the sorts of fortythousand staff. Businesses hoped that partlybecause of the lack of prior debate - reformistmoves widely talked about in the itsdemise would ease this undue pressure, therewas absolute secrecy until the 1990s- a decreasein the numerical anobstacle to development. announcement- and partly because of a strengthofthe forces and the Criticsfrequently complained itwas too lackof clarity over their legality. establishmentofan effectivesystem of largean organisationconsidering its Reportedly,employees of the tax police, civiliancontrol - appear to have been limitedfunctions. The need for a includingits senior leadership, learned usurpedby more pragmatic concerns. militarisedtax police, which was created to aboutthe abolition of their organisation Perhapsto some extent Putin's decisions dealwith specific tax collection difficulties frommedia reports. weredriven by nostalgia for the Soviet inthe initial years of Russia's transitional Boththe legal and procedural KGB.More importantly, therecent decrees period,was no longer apparent. correctnessofthis secrecy is questionable. areillustrative ofthe current Russian Despitethese seemingly Itis notin doubt that the Russian leadership'spolitical style, which in striving straightforwardexplanations, several presidenthas far-reaching powers to tostrengthen the state increasingly appears factorsmake claims of increasing cost- appointand dismiss members of his tosacrifice democratic decision-making in effectivenessandefficiency questionable. executive.But it is far less clear that he has thename of security. The global situation Theoverall numerical strength ofthe theright to abolish state structures makessuch an orderof priorities easier to powerbloc is unlikely to be reduced.The foundedon Russianlaws, which can only justifyin Russia as elsewhere. WT

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