Russian Spies, They've Got Mail

"But then again, who knows what will happen next year, or next month? The biggest problem is no one to control them. If there is a line, and equipment that allows them access, then no one can track them."

Until a Supreme Court ruling in late 2000, the FSB was not even required to tell providers that its agents were tapping the system. The complaint in that case was filed by a 26-year-old St. Petersburg journalist, who said he got tired of waiting for civil rights groups or providers to protest.

Murzakhanov, now 36 and the director of Bayard-Slavia Communications in Volgograd, 575 miles south of Moscow, is the only provider to publicly raise a fuss. Murzakhanov said that in 1998, a year after the company opened, FSB agents presented the firm with a plan to hook up the local FSB offices.

Besides $100,000 worth of hardware, software and computer lines, Murzakhanov said, the FSB wanted all the tools that he had, as the administrator of the system. "They could very easily have read all the clients' passwords. And once they learned the passwords, they could have controlled online all the e-mail traffic," he said. "They could have read or rewritten an e-mail even before the receiver got it, and the user would never know."

His refusal to sign the FSB's plan brought untold headaches. He said his business was audited or inspected at least 15 times for compliance with fire, epidemiological, sanitation, labor protection and tax codes.

The FSB also switched off his main data transmission line, he said, forcing him to rely on low-quality, dial-up channels. His business license was suspended for six months. Only after Communications Ministry officials failed to show up for four court hearings did he recover it.

Murzakhanov said the ministry deliberately punted. "They didn't want to expose the entire system of pressuring providers. They decided it was better to lose and to keep the cover on the system."

So far, no other provider is eager to follow the Volgograd example, said Anatoly Levenchuk, an Internet expert in Moscow who first revealed the SORM requirements.

"They all say his case shows all the trouble you can have if you try to oppose the authorities," he said.