The Guards’ Secret Income Several federal agencies still have not made public information about the property and income of their top officials: it turns out this is a state secret. The Federal Protective Service (FSO) and the Federal Security Service (FSB) do not intend to publish information on employees’ property and income for 2009, according to the agencies’ replies to inquiries from Vedomosti. Read in full The Federal Protective Service (FSO) and the Federal Security Service (FSB) do not intend to publish information on employees’ property and income for 2009, according to the agencies’ replies to inquiries from Vedomosti. “Information on whether specific individuals belong to the personnel of FSB bodies is classified as a state secret under the law,” says a document signed by Nikolai Zakharov, acting head of the FSB Public Relations Center. An FSB representative declined to explain why there is no information about FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov and his six deputies, whose names are publicly known. And in the FSO reply, signed by adviser to the director Sergei Devyatov, no reasons for the refusal were given. The agency also declined to explain them orally. FSO Director Yevgeny Murov spent the 2009 New Year holidays in Courchevel with Vladimir Kozhin, head of the Presidential Property Management Department, Kommersant reported. The FSO chief’s son, Andrei Murov, is CEO of Pulkovo Airport. What never stops amazing me about our crooks in uniform is the sheer audacity — and I’d even say elegance — with which they pull out their favorite secrecy card whenever they need it. State secret, and that’s that. Here is that famous article by Mila Kuzina in* Kommersant* On the eve of the Christmas holidays, rumors spread that an unofficial directive had come from the White House (the Russian government building) advising officials not to show up at elite Alpine resorts. But neither bans nor the financial crisis could scare Russia’s high-ranking tourists away from Courchevel. The main Christmas sensation was a trio: Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev, Presidential Property Management Department head Vladimir Kozhin, and FSO Director Army General Yevgeny Murov.** Vacationers who recognized them could not hide their surprise. They joked that the officials were not on vacation but on a business trip — studying foreign experience. Mr. Kozhin and General Murov appeared in public in the company of fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin and ARTES cultural foundation president Alexander Dostman. Another surprising sight was the husband of one of Courchevel’s female landowners, RIGroup president Zhanna Bullock — f**ormer Moscow Region finance minister Alexei Kuznetsov. He is currently wanted by the authorities. **But his wife, they say, bought yet another Courchevel hotel this year despite everything — the Prolong. Mr. Kuznetsov, wearing a fur coat down to his heels, was spotted in the Hermès store selecting purchases. S*o when Army General Murov is hanging out in Courchevel with Yudashkin and next door to a former official on the federal wanted list (accused of stealing billions from the budget), that’s apparently perfectly normal. The army general feels no embarrassment at all.
And here, by the way, is a photo of this mighty Neo. Next to it is a picture of his dear son — Andrei Murov, CEO of Pulkovo Airport. But when it comes time to file an income declaration, our valiant army general suddenly becomes top secret. We’ll never find out what money he was living it up on in the French Alps. It all strongly resembles a children’s game: someone is chasing you, and you suddenly stop, fold your arms across your chest, and say, “Timeout, I’m safe in my house.” And so these big, fat, thieving men in their ridiculous peaked caps play the same game with us. - Where’d you get the cash? - Not telling. It’s a state secret.
Well, well. I just want to remind everyone that at hearings at the U.S. Department of Justice, Daimler officially stated that it had paid bribes to employees of the FSO’s Special Purpose Garage for the right to supply vehicles. So bribery and corruption in the FSO are a medical fact. And we also know that the state-owned company Transneft, through its highly secretive but extremely large-scale charitable giving, transfers hundreds of millions to outfits set up by former FSO employees, such as the Kremlin-9 Foundation. So yes, a state secret is a state secret — but we can still form a fairly clear picture of the real sources of income of General Murov of the ski troops.