the Relevant amendments to the Law “About Federal security service”, publishes today “the Russian newspaper”. To professional secrecy, according to the law, the information not containing information constituting state and other secret protected by law, disclosure or dissemination of which may endanger their own safety of FSB and (or) damage their reputation.
In fact, these amendments relate largely independent of the relationship of former intelligence officers with journalists. Now even after the service, they will not be able to talk about their unclassified activities without permission and examination by the FSB. Current employees now have the right to communicate with the media without permission and without approval of the public relations Center of the FSB. Independence in this issue threatens employees with serious sanctions including dismissal. As it is, for example, occurred with employees who were my telephone for the time of shooting with the “Lubyanka shot” in front of the secret service in December 2019. As noted in the accompanying documents to the law prepared for the open publication of informational materials concerning activities of security bodies, will be subject to expert assessment in those bodies, to determine the presence or absence in it of possible damage to the reputation of the security services. The only exception will be official news reports of the intelligence agencies. Apparently, the prohibition applies not only to traditional media but also the publication of trade secrets in the Internet-blogs, social networks and Telegram channels. By the way, if to speak about the Telegram, in this messenger is being popular a number of operational channels about the activities of intelligence agencies, anonymous authors position themselves former or current employees. And that Telegram was circulated footage of the shootout at the Lubyanka, captured from the Windows of the offices of the FSB.
According to the law, the list requires examination of the information and the procedure for conducting expert evaluation of information materials on the activities of the security agencies will be determined directly by the leadership of the Federal security service.
