Academy for Security, Defense and Legal Affairs

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The Academy for Security, Defense and Legal Affairs ( Russian Академия проблем безопасности, обороны и правопорядка , abbreviated АБОП (ABOP)) is an internationally operating Russian organization headed by active and former Russian generals.

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The formally non-state institution is based in Moscow . However, critics accuse the organization of being indirectly financed by the Russian government. The President of the Academy is the former KGB General Viktor Shevchenko (in the former Soviet Union head of counter-espionage for the strategic missile forces and later in the Russian Federation in an influential position with the domestic intelligence service FSB ). His deputy is the current director of the Russian foreign intelligence service SWR , Mikhail Fradkov . It was founded in 1999 on the initiative of Vladimir Putin , then director of the FSB. Many former and active secret service cadres work in the organization. Members of the Academy are many members and employees of the government, the army, the FSB and the majority of the Russian governors.

The academy is divided into several departments that cover various socio-political areas. Among other things, she conducts training at her own training facility (Moscow Psychological University). The Academy also awards awards to personalities who, in their opinion, have rendered outstanding services to the Russian state, in a total of six categories for orders and seven for medals. Various Russian and international personalities are responsible, for example the controversial presidents of Belarus ( Aljaksandr Lukashenka ), Kazakhstan ( Nursultan Nazarbayev ) and North Korea ( Kim Jong-il ).

Activities in Germany

In June / July 2008 it became known to broader circles through press reports that around 100 Germans (including high-ranking politicians, scientists, officers and high-ranking police officers) carry the " Peter the Great " Order of Merit awarded by the Academy . Among the German recipients of the medal are the Bavarian Prime Minister Günther Beckstein (awarded on July 25, 2006 in the first class stage with sash) and the Brandenburg Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck (awarded by the Russian Ambassador Wladimir Kotenjow on June 22, 2005 in the first class stage with sash). The medal was also awarded to the former GDR spy chief Markus Wolf († 2006). In Bavaria alone, the academy has already awarded 75 medals, including to journalists, police officers and civil servants.

The academy has had its own Germany representative since 2005, an entrepreneur in Germany who was deputy director of VEB Nachrichtenelektronik Greifswald during the GDR era and who, according to the Birthler authority, worked with the MfS . He has been the representative for all of Western Europe since 2007.

Since the activities of the Academy are viewed by critics as a covert reactivation of Russian espionage, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Intelligence Service are currently reviewing their structure and activities.

Activities in Austria

The Austrian representative of the academy is Gerhard Gritzner, board member and Russia boss of the construction company Strabag Austria. On July 2, 2008, he was awarded the Alexander Nevski Order of the First Class by the Academy .

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