[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 15, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E601]]
              A NEW REPRESSIVE POLICE APPARATUS IN RUSSIA?

                                 ______


                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 15, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, since the demise of the Soviet 
Union, and the dissolution of its repressive police state, Russian 
society now faces the challenge of balancing law and order with 
protection of individual liberties. We are all aware that Russia is 
experiencing a dramatic rise in crime and a high rate of violence. 
Unfortunately, the cure envisioned by the Russian Government for this 
dilemma may be worse than the disease.
  According to recent reports, the lower house of the Russian 
Parliament--the Duma--has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill 
proposed by President Yeltsin that would dramatically expand the powers 
of the domestic intelligence agency of the Russian Federation, known as 
the Federal Counterintelligence Service, or FSK. FSK agents would be 
able to enter homes, government offices and businesses without a search 
warrant from a court or the prosecutors office, as had been the case 
previously. The FSK would manage its own jails, and could employ 
undercover personnel working in other government agencies.
  Bear in mind where the FSK stands philosophically these days. I would 
call attention to a FSK report published on January 10 of this year in 
the Moscow newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In this report, the FSK 
accuses various foreign policy research centers, nongovernmental 
organizations, and foundations such as the Soros Foundation and Ford 
Foundation, of being used by United States secret services to conduct 
intelligence-gathering and subversive activities on the Russian 
territory. For instance, the FSK alleges that American specialists have 
set up a ``network of contacts for information on legal sources'' in 
Russia that would become a foundation for clandestine sources should 
United States-Russian relations worsen. Of course, this analysis came 
from the folks who reportedly did the planning for the Chechnya 
operation.
  The Russian population is plagued by crime and corruption and, 
therefore, I can understand how this bill could be widely popular. The 
bill was approved in the Duma through the democratic process. But, Mr. 
Speaker, we all know that even democratically passed laws, especially 
those passed in the heat of the moment, can be seriously flawed. The 
key principle is protection of the civil liberties of minorities while 
carrying out the will of the majority. A Russian journalist quoted in 
the February 28, 1995, Washington Post said, ``In this country, people 
don't understand [about civil liberties] until the moment the FSK 
people come to their flats and knock on their door.''
  Mr. Speaker, as I noted, crime and corruption are an overwhelming 
problem in Russia today, and our colleagues in the Russian parliament 
are faced with the serious task of developing the proper legislation to 
combat it. But, as chairman of the Commission on Security and 
Cooperation in Europe, an organization vitally concerned with the 
principle of rule of law in the OSCE signatory states, I would urge the 
Federal Assembly and President Yeltsin to deliberate very carefully 
before giving the domestic security service such expansive powers. In 
legal terms, these proposed powers may even violate the Russian 
Constitution. In operational terms, there may soon be little to 
distinguish the FSK from the KGB of the cold-war era.


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