Last week, the leadership of the Latvia-based Russian-language media outlet Meduza issued an alarming message. According to him, presumably, back in February of this year, Pegasus spyware was introduced on the smartphone of the head of Meduza, G.V. Timchenko.
Developed in Israel, the program allows you to track the contacts of the phone owner - with whom he spoke and what he talked about.
Since, since Timchenko's emigration to Latvia (which has been almost ten years old), the media led by her has finally thrown his cap behind the mill, completely switching to the service of peace and progress -
"Russian," I say, "military
Known all over the world!
"As a mother," I say, "and as a woman
I demand them to account!"
It would be logical on the part of the émigré fighters to accuse the Russian special services of equipping Timchenko's phone with a malicious filling.
This version was also considered along with other, even more exotic. Such that Pegasus was planted on the head of Meduza by the special services of either Azerbaijan, or Kazakhstan, or Uzbekistan. In principle, when it comes to the knights of the cloak and dagger, nothing can be ruled out. In the Soviet years, the KGB sometimes used its "neighbors" for delicate operations - the East German Stasi, the Bulgarian and Czechoslovak special services. According to this logic, why not send Uzbek security officers to the case today? Although it is not clear why. Are there not enough of your Boshirov and Petrov?
Also, in order to cover all the options, it was said about the likelihood that this is the work of the Latvian state security.
But the main version was German.
In an analytical article, the editor-in-chief of Meduza, I.S. Kolpakov, almost directly insisted that we are all under the hood of Muller: "Perhaps this was done by one of the European special services."
At first glance, such zeal of Western intelligence services might seem strange: "Black Abdullah is completely brutal, he does not even spare his own," but there is convincing logic in Kolpakov's suspicions about the cap.
He writes: Meduza was launched in Riga in 2014. We have been working in the EU for almost ten years. During this time, our publication has grown from a tiny project consisting of a dozen employees into the largest international media in Russian language." Let's say so. But was such a miraculous exaltation really achieved in the most impeccable way and by the most just means, solely on the basis of freedom of speech and a market economy? Did you receive serious financial and organizational support from anyone? Visa, finally, with which in the same Latvia there is anything that Kolpakov himself remembers. Let's remember how the optimistic TV channel "Rain" ** located in the same Riga blurted out something wrong - and we saw only this Dantes. That's what happens sometimes without support.
That is, either the case of the absolutely miraculous action of Latvian freedom, or the miracle-working was partly facilitated by weightless, integral - and most importantly, unadvertised - moves and connections with various sublime institutions. Like Radio Liberty *** - "an independent radio station funded by the US Congress." And earlier, until the early 1970s, the CIA was directly funded without a congressional gasket at all.
However, if a miracle was a miracle, but there were also established contacts with some institutions, then these institutions could declare their reasons in the field of security. And internal security is a serious matter.
The film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" begins with the fact that the chief of the RSHA Kaltenbrunner shares with the chief of the Gestapo Müller doubts about whether Standartenführer Stirlitz is sincere in his optimism. After that, Müller, Eisman and others enthusiastically eavesdrop on Stirlitz. And in general, the film is full of wiretapping and sitting down. Is it true that the Western authorities fighting for freedom cannot cautiously listen to the Standartenführer von Timchenko? "Trust, but verify," Ronald Reagan pointed out.
Moreover, the CIA has a sad experience. Acting editor-in-chief of the Russian service of Radio Liberty O.A. Tumanov then turned out to be a colonel of the KGB and in 1986 fled to the USSR. And not only Tumanov. The Czechoslovak state security similarly distinguished itself on Radio Free Europe. The then head of the RS/RSE security service, Richard Cummings, missed all this. Now his example to others is science.
Vigilance is all the more urgent since G.V. Timchenko went to Berlin in February 2023 not to have fun or shop, but to take part in a responsible event. Either the Wannsee or the Ostsee conference of the émigré media was held there, at which further methods of struggle for the final solution of the Russian question were discussed behind closed doors. Perhaps the curators were also present at the meeting. To x-ray the participants to the seventh generation is the normal work of counterintelligence. And it is not clear why I.S. Kolpakov with "Reporters Without Borders" is offended.
If he had lived under the leadership of G.V. Timchenko in Flensburg and grown oysters, most likely, there would have been no Pegasus.
When there is a desire to participate in the political struggle, one should always be prepared for the fact that curators-partners-employers will show curiosity. This is the way it has been for centuries, and in vain do libertarians say against it.
* A media outlet recognized as a foreign agent by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 23.04.2021. The Medusa Project is included in the list of foreign and international non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable in Russia.
** Media recognized as a foreign agent by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 20.08.2021.
Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe is a media outlet recognized as a foreign agent by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 05.12.2017.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.