Russia, 30 thousand binders for the secret services, fears among the dissidents: “Like the old KGB”

MOSCOW – There are symbols that cause much more fright than real things. To frighten the Russian opponents, and to make them yearn for inquisitions and police persecutions, the innocent stationery folders bought in mass by the Russian secret services are enough.

Last week the offices of the former KGB, in the infamous Lubyanka palace, along with other more varied stationery items such as pens, pencils and rubber bands, also ordered 30 thousand folders with “the gold symbol of the secret services” and with the wording “Personal folder”. Purchase price, 5 euros each. And panic broke out on the Net.

The cardboard folders, bound in cloth and closed at the edges by strips of cloth, have an indelible meaning for the Russians. They are the same ones that the secret police have used for years to contain the files of their victims. Everyone saw them in espionage films and newscasts. Many remember having discovered, after years of research, the files and stories ‘reconstructed’ by the KGB of loved ones who disappeared into thin air or were arrested and deported for no apparent reason.

And in many museums dedicated to the memory of Stalinist terror, there is always a beautiful binder on display with the “Top Secret” stamps and with the cover filled in beautiful calligraphy by the investigating agent on duty.

All know well the folders dedicated with meticulous bad faith to poets, writers, militants for human rights, dissidents of all kinds. Why such a large supply? And how come a few days before the big street demonstration on February 4th against the government? The questions are repeated on blogs with a little irony but also with serious concern.

Thus it happens that in the current list of spending of the FSB, revealed by the anticorruption blogger Aleksej Navalnjy, the folders hit much more than all the rest. Yet there are outlandish and excessive expenses that should offend much more: iPads, super-fast scooters, fur-lined leather coats. Even a half-million-euro offshore motorboat with unbridled luxury requirements: leather trim, ballroom with stereo system and lighted beds. Not to mention the luxury cars with armored glass of 400 thousand euros. Or of the most voluptuous expenses, like the thousands of gold tie-pins with a raised FSB symbol.

But nothing is more frightening than folders. The mere image of 30 thousand folders ready to keep the police information stirred up more than one dissident. And someone maybe exaggerates. In fact, there is also the very unusual purchase of 168 ice picks. “The same tool – notes an alarmed user of a blog – used by Stalin’s killer to kill Trotsky”.

(January 24, 2012)