Putin Preparing to Allow FSB to Keep Even More Things Secret and Thus Act in a More Uncontrolled Way, Pavlov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 10 – One of the most serious consequences when an event or development overwhelms the news is that other things that would normally attract attention are ignored – and worse that some leaders exploit this lack of attention to these things to take actions that the opposition in normal times might block.

            Vladimir Putin is past master at using crises for his own purposes in this way and others. And now he has taken a step which will cast a dark shadow on Russia long after the pandemic fades.  He is preparing to allow his security service, the FSB, keep far more things secret and thus be able to act in an uncontrolled and unconstitutional manner.

            In Novaya gazeta, Moscow lawyer Ivan Pavlov calls attention to a new draft presidential decree that was published online a week ago but has not attracted much attention given the entirely understandable focus of media outlets on the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/04/10/84823-fsb-pod-prikrytiem-epidemii).

            To be sure, the FSB has never corresponded to the criteria of openness that the constitution requires and that the government itself ordered at least for a time (system.infometer.org/ru/monitoring/552/rating/ and pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&prevDoc=102133975&backlink=1&&nd=102080144).

            And in one sense, the new decree simply brings the law into correspondence with what the FSB has been doing. But the sweep of its directives that from now on the FSB does not have to release information on its sites about a wide variety of things that at least in the past it was supposed to and that Russians could turn to the courts to try to force it to be more forthcoming.

            Among the subjects the FSB will not be required to release information in the future if this decree is signed and goes into effect are the structures of the organs, the tasks and functions of territorial units, other data about the leadership of the FSB, information about its backing of media outlets, draft laws and decrees it is preparing, information about its international activities, the travel of its leadership, information about its purchases, and the conduct of its anti-corruption commissions.

            All of these restrictions are troubling, but of particular concern is the ban on dissemination of information about the role of the FSB in preparing laws and decrees, Pavlov says. That means the agency can write the laws in ways that will allow it to operate even more freely than now. 

            “There has never been a tradition of transparency in this administration,” the lawyer continues. “This decree is needed in other that the siloviki will receive the opportunity formally not to observe those demand which are inconvenient for it but are necessary for society as a preventive measure to defend itself against the arbitrariness of the special services.”

            To the extent that this decree makes it far more difficult for Russian citizens and civil society activists to know what the FSB is doing, he concludes, it will give the FSB “the opportunity to act in an uncontrolled fashion, broadening its actions to limit the rights of citizens.”