Russian Wiretaps Double

Russia - Legal wiretaps have almost doubled in Russia over the past five years due to lack of external control over the secret services, according to official and publicly available statistics unearthed by a leading Russian security analyst.

“This is both a political and a bureaucratic story,” said Andrei Soldatov, editor-in-chief of Agentura.ru, an online secret services think-tank. He added that the services often abuse their powers, including for illegal monitoring of political opposition.

The courts issued 466,152 sanctions for telephone wiretaps and inspection of regular and electronic mail in 2011, according to the website of the Judicial Department at the Russian Supreme Court.

The figure stood at 265,937 in 2007, the department said.

Only 3,554 wiretap requests, or under 1 percent of the total, were rejected in 2011, compared to 4,246 in 2007. (more)