Ales Bialiatski: CIS restores camp of police states

Notably, special services are to be saddled with the responsibility of controllers, as it was in the Soviet Union.

It has been written by a human rights activist Ales Bialiatski on his Facebook page, as he commented on the information from the session of the Council of the heads of the security agencies and special services of the CIS countries, which is held in Dushanbe on May 25 – 27.

“There is less and less thought of a human and human rights in the framework of the CIS, and more attention is given to how to limit access to information for citizens of the member countries,” he stated. “And notably, special services are to be saddled with the responsibility of controllers again, as it was in the Soviet Union. The CIS is rebuilding the camp of police states.”

We remind that the agreement on cooperation of the CIS countries in the sphere of informational security was ratified by Belarus on June 24, 2014. As the chairman of the KGB Valery Vakulchik said then, practical implementation of the agreement should contribute to “a more effective use of modern informational and communicational technologies in order to step up counteraction to threats to informational security of the CIS countries, so that the fullest realization of the basic rights and freedoms of citizens is guaranteed.”

Representatives of special services gathered in the capital of Tajikistan in order to discuss “joint measures to guarantee informational security in the space of the CIS, the ways for improving interaction in the framework of the Council for Fight against Terrorism and Extremism, the issue of stepping up of extremist and other criminal activities of far right groups on the territory of the CIS countries.”