January 22, 2008 By Robert Amsterdam

Glorious Russian Officialese

council012208.jpgBy now, readers have no doubt heard about how the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has been inviting Russian employees of the beleaguered British Council to come down to the station for a little talk late at night. Naturally, the evil Western press organs – stooges of Anglo-American imperialism – have been spinning these innocent chats as illegal interrogations and crude efforts at intimidation of innocent Russian citizens. Nothing could be further from the truth! In a press release dated 16 January 2008 (but, strangely, not yet available on the FSB’s own Russian-only website, which appears not to have been updated since 15 January), the Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia explains it all, in glorious Russian officialese: