18 September 2000: Add message from Aport.
16 September 2000
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 16:05:36 +0200 To: intelforum@his.com From: Ben de Jong <b.de.jong@hum.uva.nl> Subject: Re: Russian intelligence site There is an article in _The Moscow Times_ at http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2000/09/14/010.html which refers to a new Russian site www.agentura.ru which has a lot of articles and information about Russian intelligence and security. It also contains articles on other intelligence topics. Unfortunately for those of us who do not know the language, it's all in Russian. Ben de Jong University of Amsterdam Intelligence Forum (http://www.intelforum.org) is sponsored by Intelligence and National Security, a Frank Cass journal (http://www.frankcass.com/jnls/ins.htm)
From: "Glenmore Trenear-Harvey" <intelresearch@hotmail.com> To: intelforum@his.com Subject: Russian intelligence site Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 07:08:39 GMT A thank you to Ben de Jong for alerting forum members to the Russian intelligence site www.agentura.ru However he, and other readers should not be put off by his comment <<Unfortunately for those of us who do not know the language, it's all in Russian.>> I'm indebted to Aleksey Scherbakov who alerted me to this wonderful translation site: http://www.aport-ru.com/en/defengtrn.asp If you encounter any Russian language site, you simply take the URL of that site and drop it into APORT's site translator. It does a Russian (cyrillic) to English translation. The result tends to be a tad stilted - but certainly comprehensible. Go on, give it a try! Glenmore Trenear-Harvey IntelResearch London
Cryptome Note: Aport's admirable service will also translate a file on your local machine, which we have used. We are unable to tell if Aport prowls your machine once it has logged on to translate a file. Information on the prowl possibility will be appreciated. Send to jya@pipeline.com. Until privacy is assured we recommend that you only use this local file translation feature with extreme caution -- or best, not at all. This response from Aport: From: "E Pankin" <epankin@agama.com> To: "John Young" <jya@pipeline.com> Subject: Re: Visitors Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 15:47:17 +0400 I've read the mentioned article and would like to thank you for popularizing our site. All in all we have 3 types of translator: Site translator - http://www.aport-ru.com/en/defengtrn.asp Text translator (dictionary) - http://www.aport-ru.com/en/defeng_txt.asp File translator - http://www.aport-ru.com/en/defeng_file.asp All of them offer Russian to English translation. Regarding your concern about the possible prowl - as far as we know this technology, during the file translation your computer is contacted by the browser and no info other than the file itself is sent to the translation server. The server then sends you the translated file. The same happens with site translator. I would also encourage your esteemed visitors to try several dictionaries during translation. With regards, Eugene Pankin International Development Manager epankin@agama.com www.aport-ru.com www.atrus.com www.ranker.ru
From: "Allen Thomson" <thomsona@flash.net> To: <intelforum@his.com> Subject: Re: Russian intelligence site Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 22:09:16 -0500 > which refers to a new Russian site www.agentura.ru > which has a lot of articles and information about Russian intelligence and > security. It also contains articles on other intelligence topics. > Unfortunately for those of us who do not know the language, it's all in > Russian. I do know Russian, and the site shows definite promise. It tells of some recent developments that I hadn't known of, and usefully summarizes a number of things from the Soviet era. Worth keeping an eye on. Thanks for pointing it out. Allen Thomson
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 19:12:18 +0200 To: intelforum@his.com From: Ben de Jong <b.de.jong@hum.uva.nl> Subject: Re: Mitrokhin Archive Two British government publications which I recently received from my bookseller in the UK shed some interesting light on aspects of _The Mitrokhin Archive_ and the way its publication was handled by the British authorities. They relate to the inquiry made by the Intelligence and Security Committee of the House of Commons into the case. _Intelligence and Security Committee. The Mitrokhin Inquiry Report_ Cm 4764 £8.95 June 2000 ISBN 0 10 147642 6 (61 pages) and _Government Response to the Intelligence and Security Committee's Report into the Security and Intelligence Agencies' handling of the information provided by Mr Mitrokhin_ Cm 4765 £2.10 June 2000 ISBN 0 10 147652 3 (8 pages) A large part of the report is about the way the information from the archive was handled by the UK government, e.g. why Melita Norwood (HOLA) was not prosecuted. Christopher Andrew was chosen for the publication because SIS considered him 'a safe pair of hands'. The report makes it abundantly clear, if that would still be necessary, that _The Mitrokhin Archive_ is authentic. Russian officials who deny this, as some unnamed Russian ambassador apparently did some time ago to Alan Simpson, who mentioned it in one of his posts, do not know what they are talking about or are simply lying. Interestingly, the report als says that Mitrokhin, who was interviewed by the Committee, 'is not content with the way the report was published'. The exact nature of his criticism remains unclear, however. If any list member could shed some light on this matter, I would appreciate it. Ben de Jong
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 21:51:04 -0400 Subject: Russia's Information Policy Sender: owner-intelforum@mclean1.his.com Reply-To: intelforum@his.com To: undisclosed-recipients:; From: David Johnson <davidjohnson@erols.com> Johnson's Russia List 14 September 2000 #3 Russian doctrine juggles national security and information rights MOSCOW, Sept 13 (AFP) - Russia published an online version Wednesday of its new doctrine on information security, 24 hours after President Vladimir Putin signed into law the 46-page document "defending national interests". The wide-ranging doctrine drafted by the Security Council was approved by the Russian leader in the wake of an increasingly bitter struggle between the Kremlin and the country's independent media for control of the airwaves. "By security of information, we mean the capacity to defend national interests in the information sector as defined by checks and balances safeguarding the interests of the individual, of society and of the state," the doctrine says in a preamble. The document goes on to endorse the basic right of access to information permitting "the spiritual renewal of Russia, the continuation and enhancement of society's moral values, its traditions of patriotism and humanism, and the country's cultural and scientific potential." Analysts noted Wednesday that such a ringing endorsement of the information age echoed ideas of Russian renewal voiced by Putin in the run-up to last March's presidential election. In recent weeks, however, the Russian leader has been accused of orchestrating a crackdown on independent media which have criticised the authorities for mishandling a sequence of recent catastrophes. Last week, the controversial tycoon Boris Berezovsky declared that he was relinquishing his 49 percent stake in the ORT television channel due to Kremlin threats of imprisonment. In June, rival media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky spent three nights in a Moscow jail after the government accused him of cheating the state out of 10 million dollars (11.3 million euros). The case was later dropped. Along with ORT, which is 51-percent owned by the Russian state, Gusinsky's private NTV channel attacked the Russian president last month for his insensitive response to the Kursk submarine tragedy. However, Putin vowed to safeguard the independence of Russia's mass media, and to prevent NTV being nationalised, at a meeting with State Duma lower house of parliament leaders, news agencies cited one of his key allies saying Wednesday. Russian lawmaker Boris Nemtsov told Interfax he had warned the president at the meeting that "the electronic mass media must not be controlled by the Kremlin." Putin replied that the state "needs an independent mass media, and that includes independent television," according to Nemtsov, who heads the Union of Rightist Forces in the Duma. The full Russian text of the doctrine on information security can be consulted on the Internet at www.scrf.gov.ru.