US considers reinstating Committee for Surveillance of Russian Intelligence
The FBI will monitor the movement of Russian diplomats in the U.S.A.
The U.S. Congress is considering reviving the committee that worked during the ‘Cold War’ to monitor the actions of Russian spies, as reported by BuzzFeed.
The main task of the group will be identifying Russian spies and possible crimes related to them as well as the investigation of financial institutions working for Russian interests. Moreover, it is assumed that the FBI will monitor the movement of Russian diplomats in the U.S.A. They will not be able to go further than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from their declared place of residence if there has been a violation of the rules of movement during the previous three months.
The Committee will include representatives of the State Department and the U.S. intelligence community. The group will meet every month.
The Senate Intelligence Committee approved the bill in May of this year and now it must be passed by the Senate. The voting date has not yet been determined, however, the Senate website indicates that it will take place after the Senate recess, in autumn 2016.
It was noted that a similar interagency committee called the "Active Measures Working Group" existed during the cold war, however, during the last decades has not functioned. The organization was established in 1981 under President Ronald Reagan.
As was reported earlier, the Ukrainian SBU caught 35 Russian spies this year.