Paranoia

I ran across this picture in my library, it was taken in Moscow. The picure itself isn't that interesting but the story behind it is a bit. The yellow building behind the monument is the headquarters of Russia's FSB (Federal Security Services of the Russian Federation) basically the successor to the KGB, NKVD and the soviet-era Cheka.

Although the I found the building via a guide book, which means it's basically a tourist destination, there was just something very unnerving about lugging my camera gear to the front of the building and snapping away at it. I half expected an unmarked van to pull up beside me with burly men in pulling me inside and presto, no more sleepingonthebus (maybe kidnappedinavan might be born). In any case, I decided to cross the street and take a picture of the memorial to the victims of the different agencies. At least they recognize the wrong doings of the previous institutions, but it still doesn't lessen the paranoia.