Irina Borogan

In 2010 I would definitely react differently to this book. But at this time after everything that happened ..... I dont think authors message resonates as strongly.

First, style of writing. I do not know if this is due to translation or something else but style is weird to say the least. Better editor is needed here because some sentences just do not make sense. Also switch from first person to third person to third party commentator is truly narrative breaking.

Second, authors attempts at nature of the new security service, FSB. It is becoming too much of a cliche to portrait the Russian security service as totally inapt. I mean, in country of millions I agree that majority are just bureaucrats and officials aiming for retirement but to say they are all like that..... gimme a break. Also in a country ruled ruthlessly by secret service it seems weird that so many people just manage to get away from them and continue living in Russia, in Moscow. Courts release them, in entire book authors mentioned maybe handful of cases where FSB targets got long sentences. In all other cases they were released by the courts. It does not sound like your standard police state, right? And while authors did get picked up by FSB for questioning on some of the subjects and some of their articles got suppressed I dont see anything so much different from what is done in the West. As far as I can see suppression of anything that goes against main-stream is something that is common for every country - be it in the West or East. As a matter of fact character assassination in West became very prominent during the pandemic years and I can see no difference.

Then we have two outstanding cases that these authors mention and then dismiss instead of going more into details.

First is the case of scientist who was contacting company in UK (London if I am not wrong). So FSB arrests him for selling secrets. Authors investigate this case and hmm, first owner of the building where meetings took place in UK says he has no clue what is going on and that he is not aware of that mysterious company Russian scientist worked with. Then within a month building is sold and owner and mysterious company are untraceable. Authors interpretation - nothing suspicious (!?!). I mean, are you for real?

Second is case of tourist guide and political activist that led tourist into the underground tunnels of Moscow. Apparently there is underground city below Moscow with passages and tunnels connecting amongst other things administration buildings and ministries with subways. Entire infrastructure is very hush hush and protected by dedicated security service. So after a while this activist stands up and says security service is right and access to these tunnels and underground infrastructure is something to keep secret. Author's interpretation - activist sold himself to the government. I guess instead of publishing everything on Internet. Please name me one government that would be ready to disclose all of this information ever. Just try finding above-ground government installations on public maps in any country - they do not exist, and it is for a reason.

Then we get to the subject of surveillance. Again this shows how some views here are a bit dated. Saying that FSB is unique for tracking and collecting data on Russian citizens is ridiculous. It is invasion of privacy and a serious one but just look at what Snowden brought up just 3 years after this book was published. Or level of coverage and data extraction through CCTV in western countries and way that data was used in suppression and character assassination in last few years. Do I have to mention China and their social credit system so adored by the West lately? Or Israeli tracking software that raised so much dust because of the role in shady assassinations in Middle East? If anything FSBs data collection on their citizenry proves that security trends are same in any country. And these are very worrying and disturbing trends but nothing that makes FSB special or more creepy from their counterparts worldwide.

I wont even go into physical oppression when enforcing rule of government (I will abstain from calling this enforcement of the law). Again last few years showed how use of force, even unmarked police forces (Canada and Australia come to mind here) in force against civilians who dared asking questions is not something unique for East, like Hong Kong or Russia or any of the 'Stans. neither is the identification and asset freezing of the "rebellious" elements. Again this just shows trends in the security policies that just get more and more away from standard view of democracy as it existed in 20th century.

Establishment of extradition alliance in the East (China, Russia, various 'Stans) is just mirror image of US extraordinary rendition setup they have with their allies and secret bases established for the very purpose of moving prisoners and losing their track in the official records. So again, nothing weird and not a new concept - various black sites in Asia (South Korea) were used by US secret services for prisoner movement and testing of new approaches in extracting information (same as Russian had their own sites in Eastern Europe or in their Far East).

And when it comes to targeted assassinations this is again something that is done by everyone through decades, from Algiers war of independence, Irish troubles (from period of Black and Tans to 1990's), civil wars in Africa and especially Middle East, and lets mention role played by Bulgarian and Romanian services during Cold War. Everybody does it and everybody lies they don't do it. And these assassinations never solved anything for anyone (Chechnya being one example and Iraq and Afghanistan in 2000's being the other - I wont even mention Israel's war against Hezbollah).

So, besides the description of use of hacker activist groups, authors provide overview of pretty standard security force. Only thing that makes it special in eyes of the readers is that this security force was created in country where OKHRANA, CHEKA, NKVD and KGB (internal security) ruled in shadows and caused so much misery for the Russian people. I had to laugh with authors constant reminders that KGB (when compared to FSB) had limitations and not that much power. I mean, really? Only to move to period of Andropov's rule over KGB which was [hmmm] period when KGB ruled everywhere [how about making your mind on the topic].

Are there issues with the FSB and concerns on its effect on civil society? Definitely. Are these issues specific for Russia only? Definitely not, although Russia has history of secret police apparatus that always acted more on the outside of standard government than other countries. But as recent developments show this gap is getting smaller and smaller and security services everywhere have chosen to meddle more and more in the lives of ordinary citizens to achieve complete control.

Again I do not know if it is because of poor translation of because of the hear-say and not so argumented approach to the subject but book has a very much amateurish and sensationalist feel to it, with more information on who lives where and how did they get rich instead on focusing on the service itself. Corruption in security services always exist (just consider drug enforcement services) but subject here is service itself not people that led it at some point and then left (we are not even given their full biographies). Which is sad considering the very interesting subject. One of the highlights are pretty detailed mismanaged hostage rescue actions during the Chechen conflict. Unfortunately rest of the book is not on pair with these chapters.

Considering there are not that many books on the subject in English language this book provides some of the information. But to call it ground breaking is overstatement. Book suffers from Russian cliches and stereotypes and concentrate more on people from FSB management that are never presented in more detail but in passing way like all readers regularly read Russian news and magazines.

Interesting but hopefully we will get more informative books on the subject in the future.… (more)

Отдельные этапы введения цензуры и слежки в Рунете в основном пользователям известны и с той или иной степенью вялости опротестованы в Facebook или ЖЖ. Однако в этой книге, опубликованной на Западе еще в прошлом году, звенья цепи выстраиваются кольцами боа констриктора. Становится видно, как за всеми резонансными, но, казалось бы, разрозненными событиями последних лет — «арабской весной», прилетом Сноудена в Россию, Майданом, Олимпиадой в Сочи — следовала стремительная реакция, итогом которой стали неслыханные возможности для цензуры и вторжения силовиков в частную жизнь. Поводы для оптимизма авторы все-таки находят: США и Европа не допустили лоббируемого Россией распила интернета на «суверенные национальные сегменты», а контролировать всех интернет-пользователей невозможно: именно солдаты своими селфи во «ВКонтакте» сделали куда больше для разоблачения кремлевской лжи о войне, чем журналисты и активисты.… (more)

Russia -- our ugly, upside down, topsy turvy mirror. Take warning. This feels so timely, even though this edition had to be updated after the election. My tax return was held up by the government because my identity had potentially been hacked after the City of Atlanta was held hostage by ransomware. That wanted 50,000$ in Bitcoin. Still not sure if they paid or not, but just a forever reminder that I live behind weak walls and my nations enemies are slower to get there, but faster and crueler in their reaction. I'm not a psychic but I feel stirrings of the future. Do you know how to speak Russian? Can you build radios? I might learn.… (more)