And these practices have become so common, a group of
researchers say, that only those who are able to attract the
support of independent media outlets or to mobilize the scholarly
achievement have any chance of escaping the FSB's ministrations
whatever the law and the courts say (www.novayagazeta.ru/data/
At last week's meeting on "The FSB in Contemporary Russia: A Special Service or a Punitive Organ?" two victims of this kind of persecution shared their experiences, and members of the Public Committee for the Defense of Scholars presented a report on these practices and the compelling need to counter them.
In many "so-called 'spy cases,'" the report says, the FSB is using "a well-worked out mechanism." First, scholars are charged with the illegal release of state secrets or treason in connection with the export of "dual-use" technologies, and when that is not enough, with crimes like deviance or theft.
Then, the scholars are brought to trial where, if they are lucky and have the support of their colleagues and the media, they receive suspended sentences given the weaknesses of the FSB charges. But finally, they are pursued by the FSB after that and thus prevented from doing their work.
Oskar Kaybyshev, a scholar from Ufa, described his experiences in this regard. After the judgment against him was removed, the FSB continued to persecute him, effectively declaring him "an enemy of the people" an action that he said "harms not only [him]; it harms the state," given that he can longer effectively contribute to the development of his field.
In Soviet times, scholars had to secure "the permission of the party and the government, Kaybyshev continued, but "now it turns out to be the case that it is necessary to receive the permission from the main special service," the FSB which is the increasingly powerful successor of the old KGB.
Anatoly Babkin, a specialist on rocket engines who used to work at Moscow's Bauman Technical University, told "a similar story," the newspaper "Novaya gazeta" reported. He received a suspended sentence for supposedly illegally sharing classified information with his American counterparts.
"In June 2006," he noted, the courts had ruled that he had finished his sentence, but for the FSB, that judicial decision in no way ended his "case." The rector at the university told him to come back:"there are no problems," the educator said. But things haven't worked out and Babkin reported that "now I do not work."
Often, those who have been victimized by the FSB in this area told the group, the sentences handed down to scholars the FSB are far more severe than those given to people convicted of murder. But even then, the FSB works to increase them, not only inserting its own people as jurors but then hounding both those convicted and those subsequently released.
Such "uncontrolled actions" by the FSB, Academician Yury Ryzhov said, are not only crimes against the individuals involved but against the entire academic community and indeed all of Russian society. And tragically for everyone concerned, the number of such crimes by the FSB is increasing.
Other participants in the conference seconded his conclusions, with rights activists Lyudmila Alekseyeva and Aleksey Simonov saying they were "far from optimism," especially because "the defense of scholars from the arbitrary action of the FSB remains in Russia is something involving only a few activists, internationally known scholars, and some in the media.
But Alekseyeva, the irreplaceable dean of the Moscow human rights activists said, she and her colleagues have no choice but to continue to speak out, however bleak the situation appears. "If we do not speak the truth," she insisted, "then nothing will ever move from square one."