THEY WILL ADVISE PUTIN ON QUESTIONS OF SPORT
Izvestia, August 16, 2002, p. 2 EV
Yesterday President Putin appeared to decide that he really needs some competent authorities in sport. That is why he established the Presidential Sports Committee, headed by himself. Vyacheslav Fyatisov was appointed Presidential Deputy for this committee. Over the next two weeks Fyatisov is to set up the new advisory body. This means finding some qualified advisors for the president. The Sports Committee is the fifth presidential advisory body of this kind. It looks like being the last.
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE ACCUSES THE FBI OF HACKING
Izvestia, August 16, 2002, p. 3 EV
According to Interfax, the special services of Russia have accused Michel Shuler, US FBI official, of accessing Russian computer networks illegally.
This case is connected with the one that has been underway for two years in US. The conflict involves Vasiliy Gorshkov and Aleksey Ivanov, programmers from Chelyabinsk. They are charged in the hack of US banks’ systems. FBI engaged Russians in US with the help of the firm of straw. In the office of this firm they were offered to prove their ability to hack. After that they were arrested and accused for computer crimes. Obtaining evidences FBI used espionage methods to get the access to servers of Russia. Digital signal processing of Federal Security Service stated that to solve this problem is a question of principle. “In case Russian hackers are convicted under these evidences, that will mean that US special services have the right to use illegal methods of information gathering in the future.”
RUSSIAN EMBASSY REQUESTS HANDOVER OF RUSSIAN CITIZENS FROM GEORGIA
Izvestia, August 16, 2002, p. 3 EV
According to ITAR-TASS, yesterday, the Embassy of Russia in Georgia demanded the handover of three Russian citizens detained in the Pankisi Gorge on July 31. The Embassy of Russia considers it to be inappropriate for Mikhail Tychkov, Yuri Ugryumov and Vladimir Blynov, officials of the Stavropol Interior Ministry, to be charged with illegally crossing the Georgian border. According to the Embassy of Russia, actions of the detainees should be described as breaking Georgia’s law “on temporary entry, sojourn and departure from Georgia”; this would require them to be expelled from Georgia.
On August 9, the circuit court of Tbilisi confirmed the decision made by a lower court – three months preliminary detention. The court cast doubt on the credibility of Tychkov. He claimed that he had made his way to the Pankisi Gorge in order to take back his car, which had broken down a year earlier in Duici. The Georgian Ministry of National Security is seeking to find out the “real aims of the three Russians’ illegal entry into Georgia”. As a sign of protest the three detainees have started a hunger-strike.
