Periscope No. 34

Special services | FSB sew dirty business

Employees of the Russian special services (FSB, SVR, FSO and the Special Objects Service under the President of the Russian Federation) will be dressed in blue-black uniforms by presidential decree. Until now, the uniform of the Chekists was of the usual protective (olive) color and differed from the military only in cornflower blue chevrons, gaps in shoulder straps, bands and edges of caps. “The new color was chosen by the logistics specialists of the special services themselves,” the Logistics Service of the Russian Armed Forces explained to Newsweek. “Apparently, they no longer want to be like ordinary soldiers.” However, the secret services themselves could not explain the background. “We have not yet seen either the decree or the new uniform,” the FSB said. And in the FSO they even asked again: “What color, you say, will it be?” Only the Foreign Intelligence Service dared to explain why the choice fell on black: “Well, apparently, blue-black is the most fashionable color this season. Strict, so intelligent…” According to KGB Lieutenant General Nikolai Leonov, a member of the State Duma Security Committee, the black color has never figured in the uniform of domestic special services. “I don’t know what will come of this,” he doubts. “Unless a scarecrow in black…” And he adds: “Special service officers don’t need a uniform at all - that’s why they are special services to work incognito. It’s important for them not to stand out.” The form is needed, according to him, only when photographing on the "crust" and on major holidays, "otherwise it gathers dust in the closet like food for moths." According to unofficial data, the secret services will receive more than 150,000 sets of new clothes worth 5,000-6,000 rubles. “No one will squander state money,” the Foreign Intelligence Service assured. “It’s not Pierre Cardin who will sew the uniform.” ELENA KRAPIVENTSEVA

Geopolitics | Danger Energy

Relations between the United States and Russia are not changing for the better. After U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney delivered his famous anti-Russian speech in the Baltics in May, Richard Lugar, head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, lashed out at Moscow. The 74-year-old authoritative Republican last Tuesday at the international "energy summit" in West Lafayette (Indiana) accused Russia of misusing energy resources for political purposes. Lugar put Russia, Iran and Venezuela literally in the same row as "regimes hostile to the US." The first attack was parried by his Russian colleague Mikhail Margelov: “Lugar simply shifted the American petropolitical complexes to Russia.” According to Margelov, it is America that uses energy as a weapon. He called Lugar a Russophobe, and his speech - a personal opinion. Russian diplomats of the "Russophobe" Lugar considered a friend, so the Foreign Ministry was extremely surprised at his words. “The Lugar demarche is a response to Moscow's proposed energy security concept at the G8 summit,” Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the US and Canada Institute, told Newsweek. - The senator's speech is another evidence of the deterioration of Russian-American relations. The United States has long ceased to consider Russia an ally.” Kremenyuk is confident that Russia is actually using its economic ties for political purposes. “Take Ukraine, where Gazprom has taken a hard line, ignoring the US reaction,” the political scientist says. “That’s why they consider Russia a threat there.” "America is actually afraid of oil-rich regimes," Dana Allin, an expert at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Newsweek. But he considers Lugar to be too tough: “You shouldn't draw new Axes of Evil. Relations with the United States, according to the Americanist Kremenyuk, are already such that any issue can develop into a serious conflict. “The main thing is that our people have the sense not to attach great importance to incidents,” he notes. “Russia is not an angel either.” ELENA CHERNENKO

Harassment | "Monika in Hebrew"

One of the favorite topics for self-criticism among Israelis is the desire to imitate America in everything. To the long list of such "borrowings" has now been added a sexual scandal at the residence of the Israeli president - in a purely American style. As early as July 8, President Moshe Katsav met with the government's legal adviser, Meni Mazuz, and complained about the blackmail of a certain A., a former employee of his office, who threatened to tell about the president's harassment if he did not pay her a decent amount. In a few days, despite the war in Lebanon, the scandal was fanned by the press and politicians who disliked Katsav since his election in 2000. He quickly turned from a victim of blackmail into a suspect almost of rape. On August 21, police confiscated computers at the presidential residence. Interrogations of the former employee began. For 13 hours, A. laid out to the investigators in detail what was happening in Katsav's office (“He told me that if I did not agree to have sex with him, he would make sure that I did not find another job”). The lie detector showed that A. was not lying, but Katsav continued to deny all the accusations, stating that “visitors and security guards enter the office during the day, his wife’s office is nearby,” as well as his readiness to undergo a polygraph test. When suspicions of illegal pardons were added to suspicions of sexual harassment, the president's mother was hospitalized with a heart attack. Katsav himself and his wife, 58-year-old Gila, publicly demonstrate the family idyll. After another interrogation, they went to rest on the shores of Lake Kinneret - in the presidential suite of the Rimonim Hotel, where they continue to hold hands and smile in public. But according to friends, Gila, who has been supporting her husband in all his endeavors for 40 years, remaining in the shadows, is often caught these days in tears. “Nothing [bad] can happen, it will pass,” she told one of her friends, who expressed her conviction that the investigation would be resolved safely for her husband. The investigation may drag on for months, but for now, various unpleasant proposals are being addressed to the president - from demands for resignation to advice to pretend to be ill for a while. Labor Party Knesset member Yoram Marciano has begun collecting signatures from deputies to begin the resignation process. Other MPs went even further and introduced a proposal to parliament to abolish the presidency, stating that "the contribution of the presidency to Israeli democracy does not justify the existence of this expensive and useless institution." NATASHA BRAIN

Scandal | Richard - the lion's share

America's Playgate, the case of the deliberate leak to the media of CIA agent Valerie Plame in retaliation for her husband, senior diplomat Joseph Wilson's criticism of the US invasion of Iraq (see Newsweek #14), is taking a sharp turn as a new and seems to be the main culprit. The lawyer of the former deputy head of the US State Department, Richard Armitage, confirmed according to the client that he was the first to give out the undercover CIA agent to journalists. This information was published in the book "Hubris" published last week by journalists Michael Isikoff (Newsweek) and David Korn (Nation). “Armitage, although he betrayed Plame, did not know that she was working undercover,” says Melanie Sloan, Plame's defense lawyer. "And it will not affect the lawsuit against other officials [Vice President Dick Cheney, his chief of staff Lewis Libby and presidential aide Karl Rove]." However, the lawyer does not rule out that Armitage will also be included in this lawsuit. Experts doubt that Agent Plame will be able to win this case. “It doesn’t look like she was being avenged for something. Armitage did what they do every minute in Washington [spread gossip], Stephen Haas, an analyst at the Brookings Institution political science center, tells Newsweek. - But the prosecutor is now obliged to reconsider the situation. After all, it is obvious that the investigation went in the wrong direction.” Until now, Libby was considered the main culprit, who suffered the most - he was expelled from the White House in disgrace. IGOR PROKOPIEV

Space | We are ours, we will build a new "World"

Russia will create a new space station after the ISS has served its term. On plans for its construction in 2015–2025. announced the deputy head of Roscosmos Vitaly Davydov. “Our industry has made a giant leap in recent years, so we will be able to master the project alone,” Roscosmos spokesman Igor Panarin is sure. The new Mir, according to Davydov, is also needed due to the fact that it is impossible to observe the entire territory of Russia from the ISS. And officials also want to organize pilot production at the station. True, Roscosmos does not yet know what exactly to produce. “This is a philosophical question,” says Panarin. “We have outlined the strategy, and we still have 20 years left for the specifics of the program.” Experts believe that the most likely "new industry" is the cultivation of ultra-pure crystals in zero gravity. This was dreamed of back in the USSR, and now the Japanese are doing it. Since 2005, they have been growing crystals with unusual properties on the ISS, on the basis of which they want to obtain drugs for diabetes and hypertension. “In weightlessness, a crystal grows ideally, without defects,” explains Alisa Konstantinova, executive secretary of the academic journal “Crystallography”. “It is impossible to achieve this on Earth.” But, according to Konstantinova, this can be done by automatic machines, without a person - so why exactly the new “Mir” is needed for this is not clear. ANTON ZLOBIN

All faded

The American magazine Forbes gave the title of the most influential lady in the world to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who displaced the recognized queen of world politics, Condoleezza Rice. In 3rd place in the ranking is Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi. The next nine are occupied by business ladies from Western corporations, which other ladies politicians still do not reach.