Lubyanka Criminal Group

Lubyanka Criminal Group

Author	Alexander Litvinenko
Original title	Лубянская преступная группировка
Subject	Russian Security Services
Publisher	GRANI
Publication date	2002
Pages	255 pp.
ISBN	978-0-9723878-0-4
OCLC	51485973

Lubyanka Criminal Group (Russian: Лубянская преступная группировка; also translated as The Gang from Lubyanka) is a book by Alexander Litvinenko about the alleged transformation of the Russian Security Services into a criminal and terrorist organization.^[1][2]

Lubyanka is known as KGB headquarters. In the book, the authors claim that Russian president Vladimir Putin and other FSB officers have been involved in organized crime, including covering up drug traffic from Afghanistan.^[3]

The book was withdrawn from sales in Russia by request from the FSB^[4] according to The Moscow Human Rights News Agency Prima News. In response, the authors allowed the book's publication and distribution by anyone in Russia free of charge. Alexander Goldfarb, the executive director of International Foundation for Civil Liberties which licensed the book's copyright in Russia, stated, "By banning the books for the first time since the Soviet times, FSB threw down a challenge to the society".^[5]

Former Interior Minister of Russia Anatoly Kulikov promised to bring a libel suit against the book but did not follow it through.^[6]