On Friday, the State Duma, just before it closed down for the summer recess, quickly passed a bill in a third reading allowing the Federal Security Service to issue warnings to people whose actions “create the conditions for a crime.” The bill allows for 15-day sentences or fines of 500 rubles ($16) to 1,000 rubles ($33) for citizens who “obstruct the work” of an FSB agent.
Although the bill is vague on what measures FSB agents could used to enforce the warnings, a brief look at some of the more recent examples of blatant FSB lawlessness will give you a good idea of what may be in store for Russia.
On May 10 in a Moscow metro train car, a passenger was unhappy with an FSB agent, who was singing and shouting while visibly drunk. The agent pulled his gun and started firing. Before firing, the agent probably said, “Hey, you dirty bastard, go to hell!” Needless to say, the passenger did not do as instructed. According to official FSB training, disobedient citizens should be held fully accountable.
On Aug. 24 in the Moscow region, an FSB agent used an automatic weapon to shoot? a policeman? who had taken his parking space. According to the new legislation, the victim should be held responsible.
On May 15, the senior FSB officer for the entire Moscow region got into a taxi driven by a Nigerian man, Mbamar Etelbert. The agent put a knife to the driver’s throat and demanded to be taken to Zhulebino in southern Moscow. Later, the agent justified his behavior by explaining that he had been drunk at the time. Under the new legislation, Etelbert should be held responsible because the FSB officer never made it to Zhulebino.
On May 1, a drunken FSB agent broke the nose of a traffic police officer who had stopped him for driving under the influence. The new legislation would require the cop to spend a minimum of 15 days in jail for refusing what must have been? the FSB agent’s command of “Shove it where the sun don’t shine!”
Unlike police officer Denis Yevsyukov, who went on a shooting spree in a Moscow supermarket in April 2009, the names of FSB agents who shoot people at random generally remain unknown. One of the few exceptions occurred on Aug. 14. A group of drunken individuals used air pistols to shoot at passers-by. After more than 30 shots were fired, six people were injured, including two young women. One of the victims was hit by eight bullets. The authorities categorically refused to open a case against the assailants. One of the attackers dropped his I.D. card during the melee — which had FSB agent Sergei Prozorov written on it.
According to sacred tradition, no charges were filed against FSB officials. According to the new legislation, all six of the wounded should be detained because they were so insolent as to refuse the direct order of an FSB officer.
There are many historical precedents for this kind of lawlessness — from Mongol princes, who held the right to commit a crime that carried the death sentence when committed by a common person, to Japanese samurai warriors, who had the right to kill ordinary people simply to check the sharpness of their swords.
But in modern states, there are no legal precedents empowering a particular class of people to do whatever they want to mere mortals.
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.