Bloomberg on the expanding powers of the Russian FSB, prefaced by a kind of sweeping explanatory note by myself, and a wealth of useful details afterwards.

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН И (ИЛИ) РАСПРОСТРАНЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ [ФИО] ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА [ФИО] НОРМА ПРИЗНАНА НЕЗАКОННОЙ РЕШЕНИЕМ ЕСПЧ

"Russia’s main security agency is expanding its sweeping surveillance powers, deepening the state’s reach into economic and social life to suppress any risk of dissent to President Vladimir Putin.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, is getting wide-ranging access to corporate databases, telecommunications networks, financial communications and even information on international contacts by scientists under a spate of legal changes.

“Every political model has its own beneficiary class. And in Russia the beneficiary class is the security apparatus,” Ekaterina Schulmann, a Berlin-based political scientist at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in an interview. “The system is built, essentially, for the convenience of the security enforcers.”

The FSB’s expanding authority underscores how the Kremlin is increasingly tightening the screws over every aspect of Russia’s economic and social life, especially since Putin ordered the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian officials justify the crackdown on national security grounds as a response to emerging foreign threats, as the war that was meant to be won within days has dragged into a fifth year".