Russia Calls U.S. Spy Charges 'Baseless,' Regrets Timing

Russia Calls U.S. Spy Charges 'Baseless,' Regrets Timing

Last updated (GMT/UTC): 29.06.2010 13:45
By RFE/RL

Russia's Foreign Ministry says the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies in the United States is a throwback to the Cold War.

In a statement, the ministry said the U.S. allegations are unfounded and pursued "unseemly" goals, noting that similar incidents "took place a number of times in the past when our relations were improving" with Washington.

"Such actions are baseless and improper...We deeply regret that all of this has happened in the background of the relations' reset declared by the U.S. administration," the statement said.

In sarcastic comments during a visit to Israel today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had asked the United States for a swift clarification of the charges.

"They haven't explained to us what this is about. I hope they will," Lavrov said. "The only thing I can say today is that the moment for doing that has been chosen with special finesse."

U.S. authorities on June 28 announced they had broken a highly sophisticated spy ring that carried out "deep-cover" assignments in the United States to recruit political sources and gather information for the Russian government.

After more than 10 years of surveillance, investigators from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decided to make the arrests on June 27, just days after an upbeat visit to the United States by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, during which he was described by his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, as a "solid and reliable partner."

Like A Spy Novel

The arrests took place in several northeastern U.S. cities, including Yonkers, New York; Montclair, New Jersey, and Arlington, Virginia.

A total of 11 people, including the 10 arrested on June 27 and an 11th man detained today in Cyprus, have been charged with conspiring to act as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation within the United States. If convicted, they face a minimum of up to five years in prison.

Nine of the defendants were also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

(Cypriot police today said a man wanted in connection with the alleged spy ring was arrested in Cyprus. The man was arrested at Larnaca airport as he prepared to board a flight to Budapest and was released on bail pending U.S. extradition proceedings.)

The U.S. criminal complaints read like a spy novel. The 11 so-called "illegals" allegedly used forged documents and fake identities to pose as ordinary citizens and used encrypted messages, invisible ink, and "brush" encounters during which agents swapped identical bags.

Court documents say the goal of the agents, most of whom are believed to originally be from Russia, was to "become sufficiently 'Americanized'" to infiltrate what one coded message called U.S. "policy-making circles."

The case has drawn much criticism in Russia, where many call regrettable the decision to carry out the arrests after Washington's call for a "reset" in ties between the Cold War foes -- and just days after the cozy Obama-Medvedev meeting.

Some Russians view the U.S. revelations as a carefully planned operation to undermine the current warming in Russian-U.S. ties.

"It's obvious that the FBI had been keeping this group ready for a good occasion. They had had them under surveillance since at least 2003," say Aleksandr Golts, a Moscow-based defense expert. "There are circles in the United States that want to remind President Obama that one needs to be wary of Russians. That's the meaning of this whole story."

'Serious Blow' To Obama

Deputies at Russia's State Duma, too, have been largely critical of the U.S. crackdown.

Vladimir Kolesnikov, a former prosecutor-general who now serves as deputy chairman of the Duma's security committee, said he had no doubt Russia's reaction would be "adequate." He said retaliatory measures could include the prosecution of U.S. spies operating in Russia.

Deputy Nikolai Kovalyov, who once headed Russia's FSB security services, dismissed the case as baseless and "laughable." He said the timing of the arrests dealt a "serious blow to President Obama's stance" on Russia.

But other insiders say the FBI's decision to conduct the arrest after Medvedev's visit had nothing to do with politics.

"[The FBI] had wanted to make this information public for a long time. They had been following them for some years," says Oleg Gordiyevsky, a British-based former senior agent with the FSB's predecessor agency, the KGB. "The FBI's work could have been ruined if some of them left the country, so they convinced Obama to allow the publication of this information. It has nothing to do with improved ties with Russia, because relations with Russia remain chilly."

Gordiyevsky estimates Russia has some 460 spies currently working in the United States -- roughly 60 so-called "illegal" deep-cover agents and 400 operating from embassies and other Russian governmental institutions.

The blockbuster series of arrests, one of the largest ever in the United States, has been compared to the 1957 capture of famous Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in New York. Abel, also a deep-cover agent, was eventually swapped to the Soviet Union for downed U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1962.

written by Claire Bigg, with contributions from RFE/RL's Russian Service

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Russia_Mulls_Response_To_US_Spy_Arrests/2085798.html

NEWSLETTER

Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list

Intelligence

Russia Calls U.S. Spy Charges 'Baseless,' Regrets Timing