Subspecies of a spy

That phone call came at night time: “This is a journalist from Danish Broadcasting Corporation. We’ve got a man here who came and said he was implanted by FSB into United Civil Front organization”.

Alexander Novikov, 36, appeared in Denmark at the end of January this year. First he came to Finland and applied to the Red Cross, and a few days later he got to the refugee camp near Copenhagen.

A week later he came to the office of Danish Broadcast Company and stated himself to be a FSB agent and claimed he wanted to stop his activities and get political asylum. I met with him the other day in the office of the Danish journalists.

Recruiting and penetration

Alexander Novikov, a tall large man with grey hair, chain smoked and I had constantly to go out with him outside, as it is prohibited smoking in the office of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

He tells that he was born and grew up in Transdniestria. There he graduated from medical school and continued his training in Tomsk medical institute. He moved to Moscow in 2002, changed several clinics working as a doctor, and had been working as a representative of the German pharmaceutical company Werwag Farma – as he affirms – by the time of his first contact with FSB. That gave him not very big salary and made run from clinic to clinic so that to convince the employees there to buy the products by the mentioned above firm.

The story of his recruiting looks quite mysterious. As he told, at the beginning of 2006 he was walking down Bolshoi Kiselny Lane in the center of Moscow and decided to drop in an FSB building situated there just to make an enquiry about his acquaintance from Transdniestria whom he had been looking for rather long.

An officer of the age of about 30 years old talked to him. He introduced himself as Alexei Vladimirovich. He wrote down Novikov’s address and gave him a ring later suggesting them meet in order to “discuss an interesting offer”.

The officer brought three sheets of paper to the meeting saying it was a contract about cooperation. The contract was to be concluded for the term of one year with an opportunity of its prolongation. The Novikov’s fee was to be flat – that’s 8,000 rubles per month. His task was penetrating the newly appeared United Civil Front, or UCF, and collecting information about it. Alexander Novikov accepted the offer and got an operative name Mikhail. A legend was created for him to facilitate his penetration: he said to the UCF staff he was going to take part in making independent Trade Union for medical workers.

It must be stressed that all this is written here according to Mr. Novikov’s words. Naturally, there is no possibility to check how exactly he was recruited, if he was at all.

However, Mr. Novikov is really an active member of Moscow branch of UCF. He has taken part repeatedly in demonstrations and pickets and was detained by the police. Last time it was in November 2007 and he was detained for making a single picket near the MVD headquarter on Petrovka Street, 38. That picket was made in support of Kasparov. Actually, it’s not very difficult to get enrolled in UCF: the website of the front informs that it takes just an application written to the council of the regional branch of UCF.

Mr. Novikov affirms that his curators changed during the period of his collaboration with FSB. In May 2007 Alexei Vladimirovich, who had gone on service trip to Chechnya, was replaced with Alexei Lvovich, a young man of about 28 years old. There was one more man working within the scheme, as Alexander Novikov understood he was the supervisor of those two. He introduced himself as Andrei Ivanovich. He met Novikov only once and asked him about his activities in the Moscow branch of UCF.

The meetings with curators were held regularly, mainly on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard and in situated near-by cafes. Almost always Novikov was asked to give a written account and passing money to him they always required a notice of receipt. Alexander always wrote it by hand and signed as “Mikhail”.

The curators were interested in any information about UCF: the dates of planned protest actions, relations inside the movement, and people close to the leader. Novikov was told to open an electronic mail account where he was to receive the mailing from UCF and then re-send it to Alexei Lvovich’s e-mail address: infdr@mail.ru The curator also gave the agent a cellular phone number for contact: 8 910 494**** (editorial board has the full number).

As Novikov tells, the leader of the UCF, Garry Kasparov, failed to get registered as a presidential contender, thanks to the information received by FSB from him. 10 December 2007 the initiative group (in the quantity of minimum 500 people) was refused the rent of the hall “Mir” without any explanation given. The Kasparov’s supporters tried to find another place for the gathering but due to unknown reason all the proprietors of the premises where they applied to gave them refusal, while the Central Elective Commission forbade dividing the group into parts. Novikov affirms that it was him to report to his curator about the addresses of the premises where the meeting was supposed to take place.

As it may be judged from what Novikov tells, his curators were mostly interested in his career promotion in UCF: they always gave him instructions about whom to communicate with and how to behave so that to get promoted within the organization. In January Novikov reported about good news: Lolita Tsaria, the head of the Moscow branch, promised Alexander the post of the leader of the Moscow north-west department. And two days after Novikov left Russia.

Political investigations are banned in Russia

It’s not quite clear why Alexander Novikov decided to “quit the life of the agent and expose everything”. He himself affirms he is tired of living a double life and crossing up his comrades. Though, it might be possible that this way Novikov just wants to secure a good life for himself in Europe. In July 2007 he also came to Denmark and lived in a refugee camp, but in August he returned to Moscow. Though, this is not the main thing about the whole story. The main thing is if the information given in the Novikov’s statement is true.

So far it hasn’t been possible, in spite of all the claims by opposition, to find the evidence proving that Russian special services are really engaged in the political investigation in a direct form of implanting agents. That would mean unlawful activity. It shall be reminded that political investigation is banned in Russia, including the Act “On Operative-Investigative Activity” passed in 1995 where Article 5 Item 2 says directly:

“The bodies (officials) carrying out operative-investigative activity are forbidden: …take secret part…in the activity of properly registered and non-banned political parties, public and religious movements, with the purpose of influencing the character of their activities.”

This is why Alexander Novikov’s statement about infiltration into UCF, that was officially registered by Department of Justice, is worth examining it in thorough way.

Of course, some details told by Alexander seem strange, like the contract that he signed instead of usual signed statement of collaboration. But maybe that is the outcome of the new economic relations? Other details look more verisimilar. This is, for example, about the meetings. In opinion by the former FSB officers, interrogated by Novaya Gazeta, the officers who used to be engaged in recruiting, the described model of behaviour is typical of the employees of the Moscow department of FSB. They prefer to hold meetings near their headquarters and they require written accounts and receipts so that to be able to check if the agent just pockets the money given.

Besides, judging on the description of the building where the first meeting took place, this is about the address Bolshoi Kiselny Lane, 13/15. The public doesn’t know much about the place except that the building belongs to Moscow Department of FSB. And very few know that it’s exactly there that the Service for Protection of the Constitutional Foundations and Struggle Against Political Extremism has been situated since 2002. It’s exactly there that Kasparov was examined after the March of the Dissenting on 20 April 2007.

Phone conversation with curator

However, all the told above is just indirect evidence of possible contact by Novikov with FSB. This is why the Denmark journalists asked Alexander to make a call to the only known to him phone number to his curator Alexei Lvovich, in my presence. Below is that conversation recording (the audio version is available).