Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Russian military officers at the Kremlin in Moscow, June 7, 2013. REUTERS/Alexei Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
The harassment of Russian opposition figures in Lithuania has put the spotlight on the increasingly confrontational tactics Moscow is adopting against its enemies and critics abroad. These have ranged from intimidation to, allegedly, assassination.
Russian anti-government figures attending a conference last week in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, reported that they were followed, filmed and intimidated by Russian security officers under journalistic cover. This follows a pattern: Lithuania’s State Security Department has identified Russia’s intelligence agencies as being the most active and aggressive in the country.
The Russian security apparatus has become steadily more assertive under Vladimir Putin—himself an ex-KGB officer—such that British and U.S. authorities say that Moscow’s espionage activities are now back up to Cold War levels. However, a relatively recent development has been a surge in activity on the part of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main internal security agency. In 2010, Putin formally gave it permission to operate abroad and since then it has become increasingly visible in its pursuits of the Kremlin’s enemies.
In May, for example, the FSB was reportedly involved in the controversial extradition of Russian businessman Alexei Torubarov from the Czech Republic. Moscow had charged Torubarov with fraud; he himself claimed to have been blackmailed by the FSB. Whatever the truth of the case, he had applied for asylum, but before that process had been resolved, Justice Minister Pavel Blažek ordered him deported to Moscow. On May 2, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, backed by several of his colleagues, tried to prevent this, even after Torubarov had been handed over to Russian officials and was sitting in an Aeroflot jet at Prague’s Havel Airport. In the ensuing confrontation, ground staff were ordered to block the runway with fuel tanker trucks and there was even the prospect that Czech and Russian security forces might exchange fire. Ultimately, however, the aircraft was allowed to depart.
Perhaps most controversial have been the murders of Chechen expatriate supporters of the North Caucasus insurgents in places like Turkey and Austria. It is possible that the attacks were carried out by representatives of the local pro-Moscow regime in Chechnya or the GRU, Russian military intelligence. But even if that were the case, the FSB would have played some role in targeting and approving any “wet work”—which is to say, assassination.
The opposition figures in Vilnius said that they ended up feeling as if they were in “a suburb of Moscow,” harassed with seeming impunity. The concern is growing that the Kremlin, already cracking down on its enemies at home, now feels that all of Europe should be considered its backyard.
