Russian police are targeting environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists in a security crackdown that gained momentum after a terrorist scare last month. Police have interrogated at least seven enviros in the past two months and searched some of their homes, and at least one of them is still in jail, activists say. The enviros, who are being questioned about their funding sources and their ties to Western groups, believe the interrogations stem from Russia’s increasing anti-Western hostility and paranoia about espionage. The Federal Security Service (FSB), the domestic branch of the former KGB, has publicly said that many enviros are Western spies. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in July, when he was FSB director, that enviro groups are infiltrated by foreign agents.
