Intelligence

DATE=04/10/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-288525

TITLE=RUSSIA-US-SPIES

BYLINE=SONJA PACE

DATELINE=MOSCOW

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: The Russian intelligence agency, F-S-B, says it has foiled an attempt by American C-I-A agents to steal Russian military secrets. VOA's Sonja Pace reports from Moscow.

TEXT: An F-S-B spokesman is quoted as saying the agency has what he termed, "irrefutable evidence of C-I-A spying activities" in Russia. The F-S-B says American agents posing as diplomats in Moscow and one other, unnamed, former Soviet republic, tried to obtain confidential information on weapons technology and on Russia's military cooperation with Commonweath of Independent States countries. The C-I-S is a grouping made up of most of the former Soviet republics.

According to Russian news reports, the F-S-B named a junior diplomat in the consular section of the U-S Embassy in Moscow as having headed the operation and noted the diplomat had already left the country.

The American embassy has not commented on the accusations nor has it confirmed the identity of the diplomat in question.

The F-S-B said it was able to foil the C-I-A plot and thus prevent any serious security damage.

Russia and the United States have traded spying accusations in the not too distant past. Just over a year ago, the United States expelled 50 Russian diplomats on suspicion of spying and Russia responded with a tit-for-tat expulsion of American diplomats.

These latest accusations from the F-S-B come just over a month before U-S President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to hold a summit here in Moscow and in St. Petersburg.

NEB/SP/FC