Putin’s underground bunker security service will have the right to shoot to kill

Soldatov noted that it is not entirely clear why the bill endure right now.

“If there was any threat to the safety of these bunkers, it was in the 90s and early 2000s, when there were many independent groups of diggers in Russia who descended into these underground communications and often they did not penetrate into the usual metro , but also in Metro-2 and reached very secret objects, says Soldatov. “A very long time ago, I’ve been saying for 15 years already, most of these diggers in one form or another were placed under state control, they were clearly made to understand that they couldn’t do this, they couldn’t penetrate anywhere.”

He recalled that criminal cases were opened against diggers who tried to throw them into such objects. In 2021 blogger Andrey Pyzh was convicted to 5 years in prison in the case of illegally obtaining information constituting a state secret. He collected information and prepared to shoot a video about Metro-2.

“We made such a public gesture that showed those who even think to climb somewhere that this is fraught with long prison terms,” says Soldatov. – I think that there is no threat for them, but apparently the bureaucratic logic just works – “If you have a structure close to the administration, then you should use any opportunity to expand your powers.”

According to the journalist, several very influential FSB officers “left” the GUSP.

“They have a mutual exchange of personnel there,” says Soldatov. – For example, the current head of counterintelligence of the FSB “Vladislav” Menshchikov headed the GUSP for several years. There are rumors that they have some other divisions there that are engaged in analytics, and they have the right to inform the country’s leadership, but this is all surrounded by rumors and gossip.