The systemic destabilization of the world connected to the dramatic increase of uncertainty is one of the main recent changes in our lives. As a result, the risks are on the rise and not only for the key players but for all those involved in political (or non-political) matters.
Who would have thought that the attempted assassination of the former colonel of the Russian military intelligence who was caught spying in favor of the UK and then let go in exchange for the Russian deep-cover agents arrested on the US soil would end up being a large-scale confrontation between Russia and the two dozen of states? Not too long ago, the same kind of incident with another Russian agent poisoned in the UK ended rather peacefully, with the mutual deportation of several diplomats and the public reprehension of Moscow.
However, the systemic destabilization connected to the dramatic increase of uncertainty is happening not only between Russia and the collective West but also inside the West, and everywhere in the West for that matter. (Not just in Spain where Catalonia had openly demanded the sovereignty and independence from Madrid). For instance, there was the recent scandal in Austria during which the local media suddenly mentioned the name of famous Austrian lower Gabriel Lansky well known to the Kazakhstan audience for his activities against Rakhat Aliyev, former Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law.
It turns out that the Austrian secret service that, acting on the prosecutorial request, arrested the server belonging to Lansky’s firm did not destroy the data copied from it. It is obvious why they acted in this way. Not one single secret service agency in the world would destroy the information it received regardless whether it was obtained lawfully or unlawfully. So, as a result, we have a unique situation when Akorda may become the victim of the confrontation between the Austrian political forces.
For that to happen, it would be enough if the information from Lansky’s server ended up in the hands of the journalists and the bloggers anxious to do damage to the Socialists (Lansky is a Socialist activist). Accusing the Austrian Socialist government of acting in favor of the Kazakhstan authoritarian regime and allowing for Rakhat Aliyev’s murder to be committed (or assisting in committing it) is just as effective as saying that Vladimir Putin ensured Donald Trump’s victory with the help of the hackers and is now blackmailing him using the compromising materials gathered by the Russian secret service agencies.
One Reason Is Enough
The story started in the summer of 2018, when the North Korean government placed an order in an Austrian printing office to print a couple of hundreds national DPRK passports for traveling abroad. It was the official order. Any contemporary reader may be surprised by the number of copies printed but it seems to correspond perfectly to the number of the citizens able to go outside of this incredible country.
The Austrian secret service, having learned about the order, decided to use it to their advantage and asked to print three additional forms – regular, diplomatic, and business passports. This is the official version of the events. In reality, it is likely that the North Korean authorities were trailing the order from the very beginning and asked the Austrian colleagues for support. One way or another, the passports ended up in North Korea. The DPRK authorities soon learned about it and sent a protestation note to Austria. The Austrian “designated persons” responded that they did not break any laws and acted within the scope of their authorities. Moreover, they said that, due to the then upcoming Olympic games, the customs of the hosting country should have the samples of the passports of all the countries. All in all, it was a classic Viennese scandal of the Cold War times.
But what we have now is not a simple “cold war” – a geopolitical conflict in which the “West” stands against “the East”. There is also the general political crisis of democracy going on akin to the one that affected Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Therefore, what could have been a regular spy thriller had turned out to be a political saga a la “The House of Cards”.
The Austrian prosecutor’s office decided to conduct an investigation of the Austrian secret service’s actions. To someone, it might have looked like treason on the part of the Austrian authorities who suddenly decided to support the North Korean diplomats against the national interests of Austria. But not to the Austrian insiders who are aware of how the administrative machine works. The investigation was just for show and stopped as early as October 2017. Then, it became evident that the investigation was conducted for the purpose of “insuring” and “legalizing” the government’s actions.
Lansky’s Trail
The investigation, however, elicited some other law violations. They had to do with Austrian lawyer Gabriel Lansky who is well-known in Kazakhstan. The matter is that, in March 2013, a criminal case was open against Lansky. He was suspected of acting for the benefit of Kazakhstan during the investigation of Rakhat Aliyev’s case. So, the Viennese prosecutors arrested Lansky’s server that he kept in Luxembourg.
The lawyer was able to retrieve the server and the accusations were dropped due to “insufficient evidence” that he handed information to the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan. However, despite the fact that the case was closed, the court’s demand to destroy the Luxembourg server data was not met – the Austrian BVT secret service kept it. Regarding this, a complaint was filed.
The Ultras at Power
Perhaps both cases would have been forgotten had it not been for the domestic political situation. The matter is that, in November 2017, the right-wing forces obtained a relative victory at the Austrian parliamentary elections. Although they received 35% of the votes, they were forced to form a coalition with the ultra-rights that received 24% of the votes. The Socialists withdrew into a deep opposition.
Thus, the Ultras got a historic chance to set the score with their enemies from the secret service who had been known for tracking them down. By tracking down the Ultras, the BVT agents tried to compensate for the “deficiencies” of the post-war judicial system that allowed Austria to escape from the “denazification” and, moreover, obtain the status of the “Nazi victim”. Note that the number of the Nazi party members in Austria exceeded that figure in Germany.
How this happened is another topic. The Austrian “propensity” for fascism wrecked much havoc on the Prussian (“Eastern”) theory of the origin of this ideology that, according to the advocates of the post-war world construction, grew from the Prussian militarism. It was confirmed by the special judicial verdict that even prohibited the use of the name “Prussia”. Moreover, this territory ended up being a part of the Soviet occupation zone.
BTV’s task was to free Austria from fascism. In general, the task was implemented via the operative methods. The Ultras were primarily interested in the results of these operations and other compromising materials, all the more so since Speaker for the Freedom Party of Austria Herbert Kickl assumed the post of the country’s Interior Minister.
It was Kickl who decided to launch the blow by using the “passport case” and “Lansky’s server data case”. He ordered a search at the BVT offices. It is worth mentioning that the search was conducted by the Highway Patrol that usually has nothing to do with such matters. But since a Freedom Party member was of in charge.
The Highway Patrol enforcers searched the BVT office and the flats of five agents. “Just in case”, together with the materials on the passports, they confiscated all the hard drives containing the information. It looks like the policemen did too much and on purpose – they also conducted a search at the Anti-Terror Department (it was this department that dealt with the Ultras) and confiscated all the hard drives with the information on them.
Thus, the precious Lansky information was not destroyed but confiscated for a second time. We do not know how detrimental it is to Lansky, Kazakhstan, or the world. The lawyer keeps his cool and says that “the subject is of no concern to him”. Which, by the way, is highly uncharacteristic of the person that habitually uses any existing cause to express his worries. Lansky’s calmness looks even stranger against the backdrop of the high-profile scandal that stroke the Austrian Parliament and settled in the local press that, surprisingly, took the side of the “injured” BVT.
The Socialist oppositionists (unlike activist Lansky) stand firm and have already announced the creation of the Parliament committee to discuss the issue hoping to bury their political opponents that stepped up their game investigating the “corrupt deals” of the Socialist ex-government.
The German secret service BfT also took a piece of this action. They officially announced their intent to review their cooperation with the Austrian colleagues since the latter cannot guarantee the “preservation and safely of the handed data”.
Of course, it is not the secret service per se but the Austrian society as a whole that was the addressee of this announcement. The Austrian society has become the victim of the narrative on how Austria is left alone and defenseless in this critical moment when there are so many refugees, terrorists, and simply dangerous subjects in the country and the world.
The Green Party has also used the moment to draw attention to itself. They sent a petition to the Parliament asking to fire Kickl from the position of Interior Minister due to the abuse of his authorities.
It looks like the country is waiting for a new development of the “scandalous part” of the story which means it can appear at any time.
The Big Data Dirt
Note that, during the searches, they confiscated more than 40 gigs of the data that the Anti-Terror Department had gathered. Now we can safely say they have been compromised and do not have any operative value. In essence, it means that the whole operation was sabotaged.
The reasons for the sabotage are quite obvious considering that the Ultras (the main object of the secret service’s attention) are in power. Nonetheless, the leak of the gigabytes may hit them more than anyone. The matter is that the loss of the operative value status means that the informational possibilities for using these data have been widened now. At the first stage, it can be the good old blackmail of the people in power. Or, it can be the simple yet effective method of publishing the data online and unwinding the scandal called “Vienna-leaks” or “Austria-leaks”.
For the present, the nationalists are trying to block any public investigation of the subject. The Socialists’ request to create the Parliament committee was denied by the nationalists and conservatives. The Socialists will have to file a complaint to the Constitutional Court which will not just prolong the matter but will allow to keep it under the “shadowy regime” – the agents of all the political and other organizations will solve the problems trying to not simply neutralize the risks but to somehow use the situation for their benefit. All this falls under the definition of the competition policy but is still too far from the main principles of democracy built on the foundation of the public decision-making.
In essence, we are observing a new phase of the development of the so called “shadowy policy” ruled not by a small group of influential people but by the big data that can be obtained for a reasonable amount of money. And, unlike the standards of the “backstage policy”, this practice does not include thinking of the destructive consequences of the scandal.
