Posted on 08/05/2011 4:37:46 PM PDT by RummyChick
In the past four years, Russia’s intelligence services have stepped up a campaign of intimidation and dirty tricks against U.S. officials and diplomats in Russia and the countries that used to form the Soviet Union.
U.S. diplomats and officials have found their homes broken into and vandalized, or altered in ways as trivial as bathroom use; faced anonymous or veiled threats; and in some cases found themselves set up in compromising photos or videos that are later leaked to the local press and presented as a sex scandal.
“The point was to show that ‘we can get to you where you sleep,’ ” one U.S. intelligence officer told The Washington Times. “It’s a psychological kind of attack.”
Despite a stated policy from President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of warm U.S.-Russian ties, the campaign of intelligence intimidation - or what the CIA calls “direct action” - has persisted throughout what both sides have called a “reset” in the relations.
They have become worse in just the past year, some U.S. officials said. Also, their targets are broadening to include human rights workers and nongovernmental organizations as well as embassy staff.
The most brazen example of this kind of intimidation was the Sept. 22 bombing attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. A National Intelligence Council assessment sent to Congress last week confirmed that the bombing was ordered by Maj. Yevgeny Borisov of Russian military intelligence, said four U.S. officials who have read the report.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Russia hasn't changed, They simply changed the titles of their power brokers from comrade to CEO, so called privatized some state own entities that are now still in the hands of former party heads and competition or threats are eliminated in one way or the other. Journalists that all suddenly have mysterious deaths, kangaroo courts sentencing true private oil tycoons to prison while the state gobbles up their amassed empire, assassination of dissidents or former officers that don't toe the line (of course in a way that sends a signal to anyone with a clue - the famous Riacin or Plutonium poisonings so everyone knows it was them)...
Russia: free, ruled by laws, fair, trustworthy... Ha- ROFLMAO. It's still a what it always was: corrupt, secular, violent, centralized/communist...
“Why did you bite me after I befriended you?”
“Don’t be so naive - You knew I was a snake when you invited me in.”
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