State Security Service (Uzbekistan)
The State Security Service is the national civilian intelligence and security agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan. It was formerly known as the National Security Service.
The SNB is described by Amnesty International and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting as a secret police force.
The primary responsibilities are within the country and include analysis and development of intelligence collection and counterintelligence systems to create national security, border security, civilian intelligence cybersecurity, clandestine and covert operations, counterintelligence, counter-revolutionary, counterterrorism, creation a civilian security network intelligence, executive protection, intelligence gathering and assessment, internal security, investigation and interrogation some other types of serious crimes, maintain confidentiality of civilian intelligence information and documents, national's central intelligence affair for coordinating intelligence activities, psychological and information warfare, political warfare, support irregular warfare, surveillance and suppression of political activists, and threat assessment to national security.
History
The SSS was created on 26 September 1991 as a successor to the Committee for State Security and its republican affiliate in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has retained the same responsibilities and a similar range of functional units, including paramilitary polices and spetsnazs. The SNB was a rival of the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 2005, when it was brought under its control. It was renamed from the National Security Service on 14 March 2018.In recent years, the SNB has been sidelined in favor of the Uzbekistan National Guard, which was largely seen as being loyal to former President Islam Karimov.
Leadership
The following officials have led the SNB since its establishment:Rustam Inoyatov was the head of the SNB for over 20 years beginning in 1995. The deputy director of the SNB was in 2005 appointed Minister of the Interior. A reorganisation of the security and counterterrorism agencies in the aftermath of the Andijan massacre significantly increased the power and resources of the SNB. In February 2019, the SNB head Ikhtiyor Abdullayev was fired after he was accused to have conducted surveillance on President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's personal phone.
Some analysts maintain that the SNB is under the control of the Tashkent clan, a powerful faction within the Uzbek elite.
The following people served as chairmen of the Uzbek KGB:
- Alexei Byzov
- Georgy Naymushin
- Sergey Kiselev
- Alexey Beschastnovr
- Eduard Nordman
- Levon Melkumov
- Vladimir Golovin
- Anatoly Morgasov
- Gulam Aliyev
Activities
The SNB has been closely associated with the authoritarian administration of President Islam Karimov, and has been accused of involvement in human rights abuses and in sponsoring acts of terrorism to provide a pretext for repressive policing. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reported claims that the 1999 Tashkent bombings were carried out by the SNB, then led by Rustam Inoyatov of the Tashkent clan, and that the SNB may also have been responsible for a series of bombings in 2004 in Tashkent and Bukhara.Fear of the SNB is so widespread in Uzbekistan that it is considered dangerous to say its name in public. However, this situation is gradually changing at least on the surface.