December 28, 2022

The Threat from Abroad


The Threat from Abroad
The Lubyanka building, Moscow. Alexander Savin, Wikimedia Commons.

In Russia there is growing concern about the threat from spies and saboteurs.

On December 20, in a congratulatory speech to celebrate Security Agency Workers Day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the security services should intensify their work against new risks and threats. In particular, he called on counterintelligence services to hunt for spies and saboteurs, and constantly control places for mass gatherings of citizens, strategic facilities, transport, and energy infrastructure. 

“Maximum concentration of forces is required now from counterintelligence services. It is necessary to suppress the actions of foreign special services, and to promptly identify traitors, spies, and saboteurs,” Putin said.

The notion of catching spies and saboteurs is becoming more acute. A few days ago in Irkutsk, billboards appeared with a unique method for uncovering Ukrainian “spies” among one's friends

The billboards propose using the words “Syktyvkar" (the capital of Komi Republic) and "Bashkortostan" (the republic located between Volga and the Ural mountains) to ferret out spies. Allegedly, the words are shibboleths: so difficult to say that only a true Russian could pronounce them correctly.

Sabotage is also being actively discussed in the Duma, where, on December 21, a package of “anti-sabotage” amendments were made to the Criminal Code. Three new articles will appear: 281.1 (“Aiding sabotage”), 281.2 (“Training for the purposes of sabotage”), and 281.3 (“Organizing or taking part in a sabotage organization”).

Recruiting and persuading a person to take part in sabotage will be punishable by eight to 15 years in prison. Aiding sabotage will lead to ten to 20 years. And organizing or sponsoring it will have a sentence of 15–20 years. In all cases, a sentence can be increased to life in prison.

These developments demonstrate a ratcheting up of the already extensive paranoia common since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

You Might Also Like

Hold Your Tongue
  • December 19, 2022

Hold Your Tongue

The State Duma began reviewing a new law that would restrict the use of foreign loan words in official Russian communications.
Dangerous Dreams
  • December 23, 2022

Dangerous Dreams

Russians are being fined for their dreams, "likes," and "silent support."
Azov, a New Terror?
  • August 12, 2022

Azov, a New Terror?

While resisting Russian forces in the invasion of Ukraine, the Azov Regiment has been declared a terrorist organization by the Russian Supreme Court. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955