Translated material
Forbidden Honors
Security academics were suspected of discrediting the authorities
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (SC) yesterday, at the request of the Prosecutor General, decided to liquidate the all-Russian public organization “Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement Problems” (ABOP). This structure had nothing to do with the Russian Academy of Sciences, but it established 73 types of orders, medals and award badges identical to state awards. Also, the ABOP positioned itself as a state structure, established its own academic degrees, introduced uniforms and military ranks, almost indistinguishable from state ones (even the rank of marshal of the ABOP was established), and the samples of diplomas and certificates issued by the academy were similar to state-issued diplomas and certificates.“Such activities created conditions for corruption and discredited state power,” the Prosecutor General’s Office noted in a statement. “Facts of committing crimes using these IDs, as well as lobbying the interests of various structures, were also established.” According to the prosecutor’s office, “other violations” were identified in the activities of the ABOP, the details of which were not reported. Which, however, is not surprising.
At one time, representatives of the ABOP openly told the media that the academy was created in 2000 by the apparatus of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and acted in close contact with the special services and even the administration of the President of the Russian Federation. It was headed, by the way, by former KGB-FSB officer Viktor Shevchenko (colleagues introduced him as a colonel general). The government departments themselves never officially confirmed this, but they also did not refute it and, moreover, cooperated with her up to a certain point.
Thus, ABOP allegedly helped the SVR in publishing books by intelligence veterans, the FSB in organizing ceremonial events, etc. The Foreign Ministry also took her into account - at one time, Mr. Shevchenko in London, in the building of the Russian embassy, presented former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with the Order of Catherine the Great (almost indistinguishable from the pre-revolutionary Order of St. Catherine). The same award, by the way, was later awarded to Ramzan Kadyrov’s mother Aimani, actresses Alisa Freundlich and Inna Churikova and other famous women.
But in the end, the activities of the academy came down to attracting VIPs into its ranks indiscriminately - from artists to heads of state, and handing out awards. Among the members of the ABOP, of which there are currently about 20 thousand, according to media reports, you can find a variety of people - Vladimir Putin (he was allegedly awarded the Order of Peter the Great, but whether he himself knows about it is unknown), Mikhail Fradkov, Yuri Luzhkov, Boris Gryzlov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Joseph Kobzon, Viktor Gerashchenko, Zurab Tsereteli, almost the entire leadership of law enforcement agencies, many governors, deputies, etc. Such an odious figure as Grigory Grabovoi (a pseudo-healer recently convicted of fraud) was also a member of the ABOP. ABOP actively presented its awards not only in Russia, but also in the CIS; among those awarded were allegedly Yulia Tymoshenko, Viktor Yanukovych, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Saparmurat Niyazov, Alexander Lukashenko. Also, Mr. Shevchenko did not forget representatives of foreign countries - orders and medals of the ABOP were allegedly received by Gerard Depardieu, Fidel Castro and even Radovan Karadzic, who is now being tried by the Hague Tribunal.
There were no official accusations of trafficking in orders against the ABOP. But almost any person or organization who allocated a certain amount (depending on the chosen order) for “charitable purposes” could receive a beautiful award, for example, for “a great personal contribution to the development and strengthening of the Russian state.”
ABOP's troubles began in September 2008, when the Prosecutor General's Office became interested in its activities. First, its subsidiary, the National Committee for Public Awards, suffered. Administrative proceedings were initiated, and in October the magistrate of the Khamovnichesky district of Moscow decided to confiscate all awards of the ABOP, and Mr. Shevchenko was fined 500 rubles for “institution or production of signs having a similar name or external resemblance to state awards.” Now it’s the turn of ABOP itself.
Representatives of the academy yesterday flatly refused to comment. The official website of the organization is currently functioning nominally - there you can only find contact information, as well as a small message saying that on October 30, the academy elected 33 members of the presidium and a new president, who became Alexander Stefanov. It is noteworthy that in a small text of several paragraphs there are five grammatical errors.