MAY 2008

Russia signs sanctions law on Iran

…The Kremlin published the decree on its website declaring adherence to the March 3 UN Security Council Resolution 1803, which tightened measures against Iran as part of efforts to persuade Tehran to suspend controversial uranium enrichment.  The decree was signed on Monday this week by Vladimir Putin who stepped down as president on Wednesday and was replaced by Dmitry Medvedev…..(AFP, 8 May 08)

U.S. officials say Russia has ordered two American military attaches at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to leave the country following the expulsion of a pair of Russian diplomats from Washington.  The State Department says it disagrees with the move but will comply. Officials are playing down any linkage between the expulsions of the Americans that were ordered on April 28 and the expulsions of the Russians. One Russian military officer was ordered to leave Washington in November last year. The second was ordered to leave on April 22……(AP, 8 May 08)

FSB Seeks To Clarify What Is Espionage

The Federal Security Service has drafted amendments to the Criminal Code clarifying the definition of espionage.
While the bill's supporters say it would help prevent citizens from facing groundless espionage charges, critics warn that if it becomes law, the bill could make it easier for the FSB to prosecute scientists and researchers, many of whom have already been caught up in spy scandals. The draft bill, which makes a distinction between deliberate espionage and disclosure of state secrets without intent to commit high treason, will be completed by Saturday…..(Moscow Times, 6 May 08)

Official: 2 spy planes downed over breakaway Georgia region

Forces from Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes over the territory on Sunday, an Abkhazian official said. Georgia denied the claim and traded accusations with Russia, which is struggling with the West for influence in the country strategically located on the Caspian Sea. Each says the incident indicates the other is preparing for war over the breakaway region…..(AP, 4 May 08)

Putin's legacy: strong Russia with a Soviet flavor

When Russian President Vladimir Putin steps down next week after eight years in power, he will leave behind him a strong Russia, self-confident at home and assertive abroad. But the smack of the Soviet past can be felt distinctly in the legacy that Putin, a steely-eyed former KGB spy, will hand over to his protege Dmitry Medvedev, who will be sworn in as the new president on May 7. Russia was in ruins when Putin became president in 1999…Eight years on, Russia is very different country and voters give Putin much of the credit -- he bows out with an unprecedented popularity rating of about 70 percent….(Reuters, 2 May 08)

The Litvinenko files: Was he really murdered?

Alexander Litvinenko died on 23 November 2006, after a mysterious and painful illness. The cause was identified, less than two hours before his death, by scientists at the British government's Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. They found that he had been poisoned, with the radioactive isotope polonium-210…Now, maybe the simple and obvious explanation is the correct one. Maybe Putin, a former KGB man – "once a chekist, always a chekist", as the saying goes (Lenin's Cheka was the forerunner of the KGB) – had personally issued the order to punish Litvinenko as the traitor that, in his eyes, he undoubtedly was. If you think it a stretch to believe that Putin himself commissioned the dirty deed, how about a splinter group of resentful erstwhile KGB colleagues?....(Independent, 2 May 08)

April 2008

Russian Prankster’s Sentence Is Suspended

…Actually, Anton Yepikhin, a local college student just wanted to have some fun with the Russian security services and knew just what to do to provoke them. He went off to his local internet café and circulated a prank message…. For pulling the hoax, a court in Barnaul slammed Mr. Yepikhin with a 16-month prison sentence on Friday, convicting him under a relatively new piece of legislation meant to punish false terrorism threats…..(Lede, 28 Apr 08)

Georgia-Russia spy plane row prompts OSCE mission

Europe's human rights and security watchdog said on Friday it will send a special envoy to Georgia next week to try to calm tensions with Russia after the shooting-down of an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance plane.

Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said he had expressed his serious concern about the situation to Russia and called for calm. "The first thing we will do, we will send our special envoy to the region on Tuesday,"….(Reuters, 25 Apr 08)

Report: Iran says Russia responsible for Azerbaijan block of equipment for nuclear plant

Iran is holding Moscow responsible for the halt in Azerbaijan by authorities there of a Russian shipment of nuclear equipment to Iran, according to a report this week by the semiofficial ISNA news agency. The report quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying that the case of the halt of the shipment for Iran's nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr is the responsibility of the Russian contractor in the deal…..(AP, 24 Apr 08)

TNK-BP Field Investigation Extended

…The swirl of activity at TNK-BP, including visa issues for foreign employees that arose last month, masks an internal struggle among shareholders over when and for how much to sell part of the firm to state-owned Gazprom, sources have said…The FSB has made no further statements about the case against TNK-BP employee Ilya Zaslavsky and his brother Alexander, an independent energy consultant who heads the British Council's Alumni Club. The Oxford-educated brothers hold dual U.S. and Russian citizenship. The FSB charged the brothers with industrial espionage in mid-March…..(Moscow Times, 23 Apr 08)

UN Security Council to meet on Georgia-Russia dispute

The U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed-door meeting Wednesday to discuss Georgia's claims of Russian military aggression in the breakaway region of Abkhazia. Tensions between the two countries have escalated over two breakaway regions in Georgia _ Abkhazia and South Ossetia _ which have close ties to Moscow and have been independently run since the early 1990s when fighting with Georgian troops ended. Georgia claimed a Russian fighter jet shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane Sunday as it flew over Abkhazia….(AP, 22 Apr 08)

A Soviet Spy Caper: 25 Years Later

Dr. Paul Kengor: Marc, this is a pleasure. When we typically do our “V&V Q&A,” we interview a well-known expert on some major historical event that everyone remembers. No disrespect intended, but most people who have read this far into this interview are wondering, who is Marc Zimmerman, and what in the world did he do 25 years ago?... Zimmerman: Mikheyev was a Russian who served as a tour guide to my college buddy, Bob McGee, from New York, who had gone on a “Can’t-We-All-Just-Get-Along” excursion to the Soviet Union. Later in the year, Alex Mikheyev came to visit the United States by way of the United Nations and Bob asked me to show Mikheyev around D.C. when he visited…..(FrontPage, 22 Apr 08)

Grads charged with espionage

Two Oxford graduates are facing jail sentences after being charged with industrial espionage by Russian security services. Alexander Zaslavsky, 33, and IIya Zaslavsky, 29, were charged on March 20 after allegedly attempting to obtain classified information from a Russian employee of a “national hydrocarbon institution.” The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), whose predecessor was the KGB, said the accused “were illegally collecting classified commercial information for a number of foreign oil and gas companies to gain advantages over Russian competitors.” The case is connected to an investigation by the Russian Government into the Russian-British oil firm TNK-BP, whose premises were raided on March 19. FSB said, “The search produced material evidence of industrial espionage . . . and business cards of representatives of foreign defense departments and the Central Intelligence Agency”.....(Cherwell, 22 Apr 08)

Russia swaps Libya debt for deals

Russia has agreed to cancel $4.5bn (£2.3bn) of Libyan debt in exchange for major contracts for Russian firms. The announcement came during a visit to Tripoli on Thursday by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.  The two countries signed deals on energy co-operation, military assistance and construction of a 500km (310-mile) railway line in Libya.  Libya was a big importer of Soviet weaponry during the Cold War, when it accumulated large debts…..(BBC, 18 Apr 08)

Double-agent reveals name of Russian spy in the United Nations
Sergei Tretyakov, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service's (SVR) deputy station chief in New York from April 1995 until he defected on October 11, 2000, has unmasked the Russian spy in the United Nations, who held a pivotal post in the Oil-for-Food program for Iraq, online paper Lenta.ru reports, referring to The Times of London. Alexandre Kramar, who set the price of Iraqi crude as a UN oil overseer from 1996 to 2003, was an undercover agent for the SVR under the name of Comrade Sid, his former handler says. It provides fresh evidence of Russia's complicity in helping Saddam Hussein to circumvent UN sanctions imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The crumbling of the UN embargo, which was designed to prevent Iraq from rebuilding its weapons of mass destruction, was one of the factors behind the US and British decision to go to war in 2003……(Axis Globe, 14 Apr 08)

Comrade Sid: spy who siphoned off $½bn from Iraq Oil-for-Food deal

…Alexandre Kramar, who set the price of Iraqi crude as a UN oil overseer from 1996 to 2003, was an undercover agent for Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, his former handler says. The revelation throws new light on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal, which implicated dozens of politicians, diplomats and businessmen around the world, as well as the UN official overseeing the program, and the son of the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. It provides fresh evidence of Russia's complicity in helping Saddam Hussein to circumvent UN sanctions imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The crumbling of the UN embargo, which was designed to prevent Iraq from rebuilding its weapons of mass destruction, was one of the factors behind the US and British decision to go to war in 2003……(Times Online, 28 Mar 08)

Putin takes 3-billion-dollar arms contracts to Libya

Russia’s outgoing President Vladimir Putin is making an official visit to Libya on April 16-17. Libya plans to purchase Russia’s military hardware in the sum of almost three billion dollars. Respective contracts have been prepared on the threshold of Putin’s visit to Libya. However, it is not ruled out that the contracts will not be signed due to the problem with the Libyan debt. Putin is visiting Libya on the invitation from the leader of the Libyan revolution, Muamar Kaddafi. Russia’s Finance Minister, Aleksei Kudrin and the Director of Russia’s major defense export enterprise Rosoboronexport, Anatoly Isaikin, are traveling to Libya with Putin, the Vedomosti newspaper reports…..Pravda, 15 Apr 08)

The Last Dance

…Much to Moscow's irritation, Russia has hardly been a major preoccupation for the Bush administration, and as a result it's harder for the president to make much bilateral headway now. He and Putin have in fact been able to get along on some fronts over the years, cooperating on nuclear arms and Afghanistan, and even, to some extent, Iran. But the proposed missile defense system, the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, NATO expansion, and Kosovo have driven deep wedges between Washington and Moscow, as have Russia's sales of conventional arms to Iran. Russia's retreat from democracy and its cavalier attitude toward political murder also pose difficulties. Moscow's protracted war against Chechen separatists won it few friends, although American officials generally kept quiet. Iraq, from the Russian point of view, was the biggest obstacle of all. Last year, in Munich, Putin brought up the Third Reich in talking about American foreign policy…..(National Journal, 15 Apr 08)

Kuznetsov Charged in Absentia

Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, who was granted political asylum in the United States earlier this year, has been formally charged in absentia with divulging state secrets, his lawyer said Friday. Kuznetsov, 64, fled the country in July, shortly after authorities began investigating him for purportedly disclosing state secrets by filing a complaint to the Constitutional Court that the Federal Security Service had illegally wiretapped the telephone of his client, former Senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan. The Moscow branch of the Investigative Committee formally charged Kuznetsov on Thursday, said Viktor Parshutkin, one of Kuznetsov's lawyers. It was unclear whether Russia would seek Kuznetsov's extradition, as it has with other high-profile suspects living abroad, such as businessman Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev, both of whom have been granted political asylum in Britain……(Moscow Times, 14 Apr 08)

Lawyer Kuznetsov charged in absentia in case orchestrated by the Federal Security Service

Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, who was granted political asylum in the United States by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in February this year, has been formally charged in absentia with divulging state secrets, The Moscow Times reports, referring to his lawyer. The crime Kuznetsov is accused of is punishable by up to four years in prison. The lawyer says the charges against Kuznetsov are groundless; according to Russian law, any document that testifies that someone's rights were violated cannot be a government secret. Kuznetsov, 64, fled the country in July, shortly after authorities began investigating him for purportedly disclosing state secrets by filing a complaint to the Constitutional Court that the Federal Security Service (FSB) had illegally wiretapped the telephone of his client, former Senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan.……(Axis Globe, 14 Apr 08)

Ex-Russian agent 'was poisoned like Litvinenko'

…Oleg Gordievsky, who spied on Russia for British intelligence at the height of the Cold War, said he collapsed and was "close to death" after the alleged murder attempt. Special Branch officers in Surrey have launched an inquiry into the case, which echoes the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian spy, in 2006. Mr Gordievsky, who fled to Britain in 1985, was appointed Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) by the Queen last October for "services to the security of the United Kingdom"……(Telegraph, 7 Apr 08)

Ex-Russian Spy Claims He Was Poisoned

British police are investigating a claim by a former Soviet spy that he was poisoned with tainted pills in an assassination attempt. Oleg Gordievsky, a double agent who became the most senior Soviet spy to defect to the West during the Cold War, said Monday that he became sick after taking the pills at his home in southern England on Oct. 31. He told The Associated Press that a London-based Russian business associate had supplied him with pills, which he said were the sedative Xanax, after Gordievsky complained of insomnia.

Gordievsky said the suspect pills were bigger than the other tablets, and white instead of gray, but that he had been assured by the associate's wife that they were safe…..(AP, 7 Apr 08)

Police probe claims ex-Russian spy was victim of assassination plot

…Oleg Gordievsky, a former colonel in the KGB, was taken from his Surrey home to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November. He reportedly said he believed he was the target of an assassination attempt and had been poisoned...Gordievsky, who became the highest-ranking Soviet spy ever to defect to the West, escaped to Britain in 1985. The double agent was MI5's greatest asset between 1982 and 1985, when he passed information to British security while serving as KGB resident and bureau chief in London, running Soviet intelligence-gathering and espionage in the UK. Even though he was disenchanted with the Communist system, Gordievsky still had to get information for the Kremlin so that he would not be suspected. In the Seventies and Eighties he was involved in a scheme to recruit left-wing Scottish Labor MPs in the hope they might be useful to the Soviet cause……(Scotsman, 7 Apr 08)

Former KGB defector claims he was poisoned by Russians

Police are investigating an alleged attempt to kill a former KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the cold war. Oleg Gordievsky, 69, one of Britain's most important double agents in the 1980s, says he was poisoned at his home in Surrey in a Russian assassination attempt. He said that after falling unconscious for 34 hours he was taken to a private clinic where he spent two weeks recovering. He still has no feeling in his fingers…Last night sources familiar with the case told the Guardian detectives were taking Gordievsky's claims seriously, although no evidence had come to light to support his allegation that he had been poisoned by Russian agents. They also said there were concerns about the former Soviet colonel's wellbeing……(Guardian, 7 Apr 08)

'Russian spy poisoned me' says former double agent Gordievsky

An alleged attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. Oleg Gordievsky was admitted to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November last year. And yesterday he claimed he had been poisoned with the highly toxic metal thallium in a botched assassination attempt. Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the 1980s, claims he was targeted by a Russian assassin who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. The 69-year-old was unconscious for 34 hours after falling ill last year and spent a two weeks recuperating in a private clinic reportedly paid for by his former bosses in MI6……(Scotsman, 7 Apr 08)

Spy buster, aged 100, keeps her secrets

Russia’s oldest counter-intelligence officer is 100 years young. And although she's long retired, Maria Lyovina is still barred from revealing sensitive details about her work in the past.

She may not look like your archetypal secret agent but Maria Lyovina was catching spies long before the world had ever heard of James Bond… She joined SMERSH, a counter intelligence group dedicated to catching traitors and undercover Germans. Its name literally meant ‘death to spies’……(Russia Today, 7 Apr 08)

Video: Spy buster, aged 100, keeps her secrets

A Record Harvest of Spies

The number of foreign spies and Islamic terrorists being caught by the [security] agencies is growing with terrifying speed. The FSB had just managed to reveal a spy, buried within TNK-BP, when the head of this service, Nikolai Patrushev, announced the suppression of Islamic aggression in the Urals: in the past few years, more than 80 members of radical Islamic organizations “Hizb ut-Takhrir” and the “Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan” have been revealed there. If we add in the foreign spies that [Alexander] Bastrykin, the head of the [Prosecutor General’s] Investigative Committee, recognized in the midst of his own agency, and the Tajik national with the sniper rifle, who wanted to shoot [Vladimir] Putin and [Dmitri] Medvedev during their walk in the Vasilyevsky slope, then the March harvest was fantastic……(The Other Russia, 2 Apr 08)

Trying To Start A Revolution

The increasing use of police raids against government officials is interpreted as an effort to crack down on corruption. But some of these "clean up" operations appear to have more to do with intimidation than clean government. A common tactic is to accuse foreign businessmen with espionage, in order to get a better deal for Russian businesses.……(Strategy Page, 2 Apr 08)

Former spy chief convicted of covering up murder case

South Korea's top court Monday ruled against a former spy chief over his role in a Cold War-era political scam, saying he should pay indemnity to the government for misrepresenting a murder case as a North Korean abduction attempt. The Supreme Court upheld a high court's conviction of Chang Se-dong, former chief of the Agency for National Security Planning, predecessor of the National Intelligence Service, over the scheme that identified a murdered woman as a North Korean spy…..(Hani, 2 Apr 08)

U.S. lawmakers urge Russia to assist Britain in Litvinenko case

The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously endorsed a resolution that urges the Kremlin to aid Britain in the investigation into the death of Russian security service defector Alexander Litvinenko. The resolution on Litvinenko, who died of radioactive polonium poisoning in London in November 2006, was proposed by Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen and calls on President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge Moscow to cooperate in the investigation into his death. The resolution also notes that "97 percent of the world's legal production of polonium-210 occurs at the Avangard nuclear facility in Russia, and Russia is the world's leading exporter of polonium-210 for commercial purposes."…..(RIA Novosti, 2 Apr 08)

House endorses resolution that suggests Russia had hand in ex-spy's death

The House endorsed a resolution Tuesday that suggests the Russian government might have had a hand in the 2006 radiation poisoning death of a Russian dissident. The resolution asks President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press Russian officials to cooperate with British investigators probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who fled to Britain in 2000 and took British citizenship. He died in November 2006 from radioactive polonium-210 he had ingested…….(AP, 1 Apr 08)

March 2008

Russian Reporter's Killer Still Sought

Russian prosecutors seeking to extend the detention of a suspect in the 2006 death of an investigative journalist said Friday that authorities are still hunting down the person who pulled the trigger, according to news reports. Anna Politkovskaya's killer, whom investigators said they identified in October but have not been named, was being sought by police…..(AP, 28 Mar 08)

Mystery over Russian spy at UN

A former Soviet intelligence officer living in the U.S. claims that a high-ranking UN official who worked in the Oil for Food program in Iraq was a Russian spy. According to the London Times newspaper, Sergey Tretyakov made the claims in a book by a former Washington Post reporter. In the book, Tretyakov claims former UN official Aleksandr Kramar diverted more than $US500 million dollars into the pockets of Russian officials. He was in charge of setting the price for Iraqi oil as part of the program. Previous scandals involving corruption linked to the Oil for Food program included the son of former UN General Secretary Kofi Anan, among other high ranking officials….(Russia Today, 28 Mar 08)

Belarus Claims to Uncover US Spy Ring

Belarus state television said in a Sunday report that the country's security agency, the KGB, had uncovered a spy ring of 10 Belarus citizens giving classified information to an agent working for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The report said all those involved in espionage worked in the country's capital Minsk. The KGB confirmed the report on Tuesday. No one has been detained yet, the agency's head, Yury Zhadobin, told reporters. ….(Moscow News, 27 Mar 08)

Belarusian KGB agents search journalists' offices and houses

Belarusian intelligence agents have searched the homes and offices of a dozen independent journalists for materials allegedly libeling the country's authoritarian president, the Belarusian Journalists' Association said Thursday. The group said agents of the KGB, the Belarusian successor of the Soviet secret police, carried out searches of two radio stations in the capital and private apartments throughout the country.

The journalist group's head, Zhanna Litvina, said the crackdown was in retaliation for the coverage of a rally on Tuesday marking what the opposition has traditionally called "Freedom Day." The banned holiday marks the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belarusian state.

After the protest, at least 20 people, including two reporters, were convicted of participating in an unsanctioned meeting and sentenced to up to 15 days in jail…..(AP, 27 Mar 08)

Belarus police raid independent broadcasters

Security police raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices and detained at least two reporters at their homes on Thursday, journalists in the former Soviet republic said.

The raids were launched two days after police broke up a rally by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of activists were fined or handed short jail terms…..(Reuters, 27 Mar 08)

KGB confirms arrest of US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser two weeks ago

The Belarusian Committee for State Security (KGB) has officially confirmed that Emanuel Zeltser was arrested in Minsk on March 12. The US lawyer’s secretary, Russian citizen Vladlena Funk, who was traveling with him, was also arrested, KGB spokesman Valery Nadtachayew told BelaPAN. The two were charged under Part 2 of the Criminal Code’s Article 318 that penalizes the deliberate use of counterfeit documents by a group of people…..(Naviny, 26 Mar 08)

Russia: Dispute Over BP Workers

BP’s regulatory troubles in Russia deepened this week as authorities idled 148 expatriate engineers and geologists in a dispute over the legality of their work permits. Last week, BP’s joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, was confronted with charges an employee engaged in industrial espionage….(New York Times, 26 Mar 08)

U.S. Embassy: So called spies worked in contact with Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs

Jonathan Moore, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Belarus, refutes the accusations of espionage against staff of the embassy, sounded on the Belarusian TV. A part of U.S. embassy in Belarus staff will leave the territory of the country. So Washington meets the demands of the official Minsk to cut size of American diplomats on parity basis. As Jonathan Moore, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Belarus, said to BelaPAN, he had a meeting in the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the morning of 24 March, where he announced the decision of Washington to reduce U.S. embassy staff……(Charter 97, 25 Mar 08)

Belarus Says Uncovers U.S. Spy Network

The intelligence agency in Belarus, an ex-Soviet state locked in a diplomatic row with Washington, confirmed on Tuesday that a espionage ring working for the United States had been uncovered in the country.

"We hereby confirm that the information about this group being exposed is completely true," said a representative of the service, still known by its Soviet-era initials KGB. "A group conducting espionage for the United States has been uncovered."…..(Reuters, 25 Mar 08)

Belarus says US running spy ring

The Belarus intelligence service - the KGB - says it has uncovered a US spy ring, amid renewed tensions between the US and the ex-Soviet republic. A KGB official confirmed a report on Belarus state TV which said a US diplomat had recruited 10 Belarusians. The US embassy in Minsk denied the allegation, first aired at the weekend. The US announced on Monday that it was cutting its diplomatic staff in Minsk from 35 to 17, in line with a request from Belarus…..(BBC, 25 Mar 08)

Litvinenko widow wants jury to get police evidence

The widow of poisoned Russian emigre Alexander Litvinenko wants an inquest into his death to be held before a jury and examine the evidence gathered by British police, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Marina Litvinenko filed a formal request last Friday to resume a London inquest that opened after her husband's death in November 2006 but adjourned while police conducted a murder investigation, in a case which badly hurt Anglo-Russian ties.Given Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, who British prosecutors suspect of poisoning Litvinenko with radioactive polonium, she believes there will be no trial and wants police to disclose for the first time the evidence uncovered in their investigations……(Reuters, 25 Mar 08)

KGB Chairman: “It was prevention”

The chairman of the KGB (State Security Committee) of Belarus Yury Zhadobin has stated that nobody was detained in the case of a spy network which worked under cover of the US Embassy in Minsk. “Nobody was detained. We are performing our functions. The main function is to prevent, avoid perpetration of a crime,” the head of the Belarusian KGB stated answering a question of Interfax agency in Minsk on Tuesday. “That is why the KGB system has such a method as prevention. Prevention can be general and individual one, and in this case we are engaged in preventive work,”…..(Charter 97, 24 Mar 08)

Belarus: US cuts diplomatic presence amid deepening rifts between Washington, Minsk

The United States will cut staffing at its embassy in Minsk in half, bowing to Belarus' demands amid a marked worsening in relations between the two countries, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. The announcement followed a Belarusian state television report that accused the embassy of setting up a spy ring in the ex-Soviet republic…..(AP, 24 Mar 08)

Belarusian TV against FBI

Belarusian TV (BT) states the US Embassy in Minsk had organised a spy network among Belarusian citizens under cover of antiterrorist protection. ……(Belarus News, 24 Mar 08)

Latvia: Russian secret service in charge of Megafon founder’s disappearance

The circumstances of disappearance of Leonid Rozhetskin, one of the mobile operator Megafon’s founders, make the police think that the Russian secret service might be engaged in the case. In this relation the authorities of Latvia have turned for help to Scotland Yard. Russian experts consider the given version inconsistent……(C-News, 24 Mar 08)

THE REAL KGB UFO FILES: An interview with the former Deputy Commander of the KGB Nikolay Alekseyevich Sham

On October 24th, 1991, documents were provided to former Soviet cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, the then President of the All-Union Ufological Association in Russia. These files contained copies of UFO reports sent to the infamous KGB. An accompanying letter was written by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee for State Security USSR, N.A. Sham. The files consisted of handwritten reports, typed testimonies, notes from KGB informers, crude drawings and eyewitness reports of UFOs. This cooperation between UFO researchers and the KGB was unprecedented and was a landmark in UFO research in the Soviet Union and possibly the world. Sixteen years later we have managed to catch up with the now former Deputy Commander of the KGB, and published here for the first time is an interview with the man himself…..(UFO Digest, 23 Mar 08)

Kremlin games behind BP spy arrests: analysts

The arrest this week of two British-educated men on spying charges in Moscow was less a Cold War-style incident than a Kremlin power game around who controls oil giant TNK-BP, analysts say. Russia's secret service said Thursday that two Russian-American brothers had been charged with industrial espionage just a day after raids on the offices of TNK-BP and BP in Moscow. "Business cards of representatives of the CIA and foreign defence departments" were found in the raid, security services said…..(AFP, 23 Mar 08)

KGB refuting Belarusian TV

The Committee on State Security (KGB) of Belarus doesn’t confirm the fact of uncovering an espionage network acting under the cover of U.S. embassy in Minsk. “I have no information concerning the fact,” Valer Nedachaeu, head of the KGB department for public relations and information, said to ITAR-TASS. As the Charter’97 press center has already informed in the material “Belarusian TV against FBI,” a yesterday’s item on Belarusian TV (BT) said the US Embassy in Minsk had organised a spy network of citizens of the country under the cover of antiterrorism protection. According to BT, the diplomatic mission created a group of 10 people, who collected and passed information to the U.S. side. The collected data, that might damage Belarus, were passed to the U.S. embassy to a FBI agent. Most members of the group were uncovered on 13 March in a safe house near the embassy, the TV channel stated……(Belarus News, 22 Mar 08)

Russia Says No Politics in Spy Case

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday tried to dampen speculation that the industrial espionage charges against two brothers with British connections were related to tensions between Moscow and London. The Federal Security Service announced Thursday that one of the brothers was an employee of TNK-BP, a major Russian oil company half owned by British Petroleum. It said the other was an employee of the British Council, although council officials said he was only a member of a club set up by the organization, which is Britain's overseas cultural arm. Ilya and Alexander Zaslavsky, who have dual Russian-U.S. citizenship, were arrested March 12 and released the same day on a pledge not to leave town. But the arrests and charges were not announced until Thursday, a day after police raids on TNK-BP and BP offices. The service, known by its Russian abbreviation FSB, said the brothers had been arrested while attempting to receive confidential information from an employee of a Russian oil or gas company, with the aim of giving foreign companies an advantage over Russian ones. Oil and gas have been crucial to reviving Russia's economy…..(AP, 21 Mar 08)

Raid on BP: A Russian Spy Story

The day before the Duma enacted tough new foreign investment rules, two brothers with ties to Britain and the U.S. are arrested and accused of spying…(Business Week, 21 Mar 08)

Litvinenko Poisoned Himself by Accident, Ex-KGB Suspect Says

Andrei Lugovoi, the ex-KGB bodyguard wanted by the U.K. for the radiation poisoning murder in London of Alexander Litvinenko, said the dissident Russian intelligence agent may have accidentally killed himself….(Bloomberg, 21 Mar 08)

Russian Government Computers Face Anti-Espionage Restrictions

President Vladimir Putin has signed a pair of executive orders designed to protect secrets carried on government computer networks from sabotage by insiders by restricting connections between international and domestic computer networks. The measures, signed Wednesday, restrict the ability of computers with access to "state or official secrets" to connect with networks that travel outside of the country, a move welcomed by computer security analysts…..(Moscow Times, 21 Mar 08)

Dual U.S.-Russia Citizens Face Spy Charges

Two brothers who hold dual U.S.-Russian citizenship have been charged with industrial espionage after they allegedly attempted to obtain classified information for foreign energy companies, the domestic successor of the KGB said Thursday. Ilya Zaslavsky, who worked for a Russian venture of the British oil giant BP, and his brother Alexander were arrested March 12, according to the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB……(Washington Post, 21 Mar 08)

Russia Says No Politics in Spy Case

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday tried to dampen speculation that the industrial espionage charges against two brothers with British connections were related to tensions between Moscow and London.

The Federal Security Service announced Thursday that one of the brothers was an employee of TNK-BP, a major Russian oil company half owned by British Petroleum. It said the other was an employee of the British Council, although council officials said he was only a member of a club set up by the organization, which is Britain's overseas cultural arm. Ilya and Alexander Zaslavsky, who have dual Russian-U.S. citizenship, were arrested March 12 and released the same day on a pledge not to leave town…..(AP, 21 Mar 08)

Russian oil giant denies espionage claims

The biggest foreign-owned oil company in Russia, TNK-BP, has defended itself against accusations it engaged in industrial espionage. Russia's security service, the FSB, raided the company's offices on Wednesday and arrested one of its employees. Ilya Zaslavsky and his brother, Alexander, have both been charged with industrial espionage……(ABC, 21 Mar 08)

Russia's FSB detains 2 US citizens on charges of industrial spying

Russian federal secret services FSB said Thursday it had detained two US citizens, one an employee of oil firm TNK-BP, on accusations of industrial espionage after a search of the company's headquarters, news agency Interfax reported. The FSB said the Zaslavsky brothers, who also hold Russian citizenship, were detained March 12 in "an attempt to secure classified information, which constitute commercial secrets, from a Russian citizen - an employee at a state oil and gas firm." The information could be used to procure a competitive advantage for foreign oil and gas companies to the detriment of Russian competitors in the CIS market, the FSB said in a statement Thursday……(DPA, 20 Mar 08)

Russian agents arrest two for 'spying' after BP raids

Russian security services were today believed to have detained an employee of the petroleum firm BP and a company linked to the British Council on charges of industrial espionage. Pro-Kremlin news agencies quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, as saying that the two men detained were brothers with the family name Zaslavsky, who hold Russian and American passports……(Times of London, 20 Mar 08)

Russia detains TNK-BP employee for spying

Russian security services have detained an employee of BP's Russian joint venture and a second person with links to the British government's cultural arm on charges of industrial espionage, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday. The agencies quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying the two people detained were brothers with the family name Zaslavsky. It said they both held Russian and U.S. passports. "According to FSB information, the people mentioned were illegally collecting classified commercial information for a number of foreign oil and gas companies to gain advantages over Russian competitors," Interfax quoted an FSB statement as saying……(Reuters, 20 Mar 08)

Did the FSB Betray Victor Bout?

……..“Officially, Bout fell into a trap arranged by American special services. But in fact he had been “pointed for a shot” in Thailand by the FSB [the Russian Security Service]. At the same time, FSB agents were hurriedly liquidating his base in Bulgaria…” [From another source, AIA: “The old ties have come into the limelight this week for another reason: Russian arms trader Victor Bout, who supposedly had excellent contacts to the Soviet and later to the Russian secret service, had delivered a load of weapons worth several hundred million dollars to Bulgaria just before he was arrested on March 6.”….(CFP, 20 Mar 08)

Russia to launch another German spy satellite on March 25

The launch of a Russian carrier rocket with a German SAR-Lupe satellite from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia has been scheduled for March 25, the Khrunichev Center said on Thursday. The German satellite is designed to provide high-resolution radar images to NATO military commanders in Europe. It offers spatial resolution of under 1 meter, and allows imaging at night and through clouds……(RIA Novosti, 20 Mar 08)

Vaclav Havel: Russia is ruled by KGB spies and mobsters

Russia in the era of outgoing President Vladimir Putin is a new-style dictatorship ruled by KGB spies and mobsters, former Czech president Vaclav Havel said in a Wednesday interview with Lidove Noviny daily. "The era of president Putin brought a new type of dictatorship, dangerous in its inconspicuous fashion," said the Soviet-era dissident playwright turned Czech Republic's long-time post-communist president. The Putin rule has been a combination of "the worse from both communism and capitalism," Havel said. "A grouping, simply said, of KGBs and mafiosi has ascended to power."…..(DPA, 19 Mar 08)

Russian Super Spy Agency in the Works

The government is close to creating a centralized body along the lines of the FBI in the United States, as part of a major restructuring of the investigative departments of multiple state security and law enforcement agencies, a report said Tuesday. The new Federal Investigative Service, or FSR, will absorb the investigative arms of the so-called power agencies -- a plan with a long history -- to streamline the chaotic and often counterproductive process of conducting multiple criminal investigations…..(Moscow Times, 19 Mar 08)

The Russia-Al-Qaeda Axis

There are two factions of the Chechen Resistance: one of them more or less democratic and the other Islamist. Recently, Chechnya had a constitutional crisis: the Islamists persuaded the then acting President, Dokka Umarov, to announce that the Chechens were joining the global jihad against all the infidels, not only Russia. Umarov also proclaimed himself to be the Amir of the 'Caucasus Amirate', of which Chechnya would be only a part……(FrontPage, 19 Mar 08)

The Specter That Haunts the Death of Litvinenko

On December 1, 2006, one of the eeriest autopsies in the annals of crime was conducted at the Royal London Hospital. Three British pathologists, covered from head to toe in white protective suits, stood around a radioactive corpse that had been sealed in plastic for nearly a week. The victim was Alexander Litvinenko, a 44-year-old ex-KGB officer who had defected from Russia to England in November 2000 and had drawn on his experience to denounce the government of the newly installed President Putin. What the pathologists found is still a state secret……(New York Sun, 19 Mar 08)

Russian Arms Dealer Jail Stay Lengthened

A Thai court extended the detention Wednesday of a Russian man dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for his alleged reputation as one of the world's biggest black market arms dealers. Bangkok Criminal Court approved a police request to extend by 12 days the detention of Viktor Bout, 41, who was arrested on March 6 at the request of U.S. authorities, said police Col. Petcharat Sengchai said. Bout faces U.S. charges of "conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization" for allegedly arranging to sell and transport weapons, including portable surface-to-air missiles, to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC…….(AP, 19 Mar 08)

300,000 Ruble Hospital Bill Tips Off Police to Beria Hoax

Had he gotten away with it, Igor Bely would have been remembered as the head of the Soviet Union's most covert security agency, whose feats included saving the world from nuclear obliteration and killing feared state police chief Lavrenty Beria. In the end, however, a 300,000 ruble hospital bill that he tried to pass on to the taxpayer gave him away. Igor Bely was a pseudonym used by Georgy Zherebchikov as part of an elaborate hoax to achieve fame and prosperity by passing himself off as the head of the long-disbanded Special Military-Political Counterintelligence Agency……(Moscow Times, 19 Mar 08)

Lawyer Zeltser Detained In Minsk

Emanuel Zeltser, a Russian-born U.S. citizen who sued the Bank of New York during the height of its Russian money-laundering scandal in the 1990s, was detained last week in Minsk, his brother told Forbes……(Forbes, 18 Mar 08)

Russia Restoring Air Link With Georgia 17 Months After Spy Incident

Moscow agreed Tuesday to restore air travel between Russia and Georgia, more than 17 months after imposing a sweeping transport blockade amid tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors……Russia suspended the air link with Georgia in October 2006, severed postal connections, and launched a massive crackdown on Georgian migrants after Georgia briefly detained four Russian military officers it accused of spying……(AP, 18 Mar 08)

Victor Bout’s connections to Romanian and Polish military intelligence

I received an interesting documentation from Bucharest in Romania and an article from the current issue of a Polish conservative magazine Gazeta Polska. Both provide very interesting disclosures about the illegal weapons trade and Mr. Bout’s connections to the Romanian and Polish military intelligence. Here is the first of my follow up reports…….(CFP, 18 Mar 08)

KGB archive documents on Ukraine

Significant formations of OUN [the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization] were created in the Donetsk Oblast: in Mariupol, OUN numbered up to 300 people…” “In the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, in the second quarter of 1944, 711 nationalist were arrested, in the third quarter – 744…” SBU keeps on declassifying KGB archives about the nationalist movements in Ukraine…..(Unian, 18 Mar 08)

Brits skeptical of Putin plot; Russia 'leaks' report of failed assassination attempt

British intelligence analysts are increasingly skeptical about the truth of a carefully leaked plan of a failed plot to assassinate outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin and president-elect Dmitry Medvedev in their post election euphoria……(WorldNet Daily, 17 Mar 08)

Sniper plot to assassinate Putin foiled

A bid to assassinate President Vladimir Putin was foiled by Russian secret services, it was revealed yesterday. In echoes of film Day of the Jackal, a man with a sniper rifle was held in a flat overlooking Red Square four hours before the Kremlin leader made a speech there. The gunman, named as Shakhvelad Osmanov, had rented an apartment with a view across Moscow River to the platform which ex-KGB spy Putin and president-elect Dmitry Medvedev spoke at following the Russian elections on March 2……(Sunday Mirror, 16 Mar 08)

2003 interview with Russian arms dealer Victor Bout

In a rare interview granted in Moscow to American journalist, filmmaker and writer, Peter Landesman, in 2003, Victor Anatolyevich Bout (then 36) said about himself: ‘’I woke up after Sept. 11 and found I was second only to Osama.” And referring to his bad reputation of “the biggest arms dealer in the world’’ he joked: ‘’Maybe I should start an arms-trafficking university and teach a course on U.N. sanctions busting.’ Four years later, caught in Bangkok on Thursday, March 6, 2008 in an almost model DEA sting operation, Bout got his first chance to “lecture” to his captors on how he had built an almost perfect, very sophisticated and dangerous global arms trade system. But he kept his mouth shut.  Victor Bout is facing a trial in Thailand and, perhaps, an extradition to the United States where he could get up to 15 years in jail……(CFP, 14 Mar 08)

KGB does not deny Internet filtering

The Committee of State Security (KGB) confirms that works on filtering access to internet pages is taking place in Belarus. As stated by a deputy head of the KGB anti-terrorist center Vyachaslau Linenka at a press-conference in Minsk, “unnecessary information available on the web should be closed and should be available only for those categories of citizens who can understand them correctly”. As said by the officer, work on filtering access of the population to the internet web which could contain information on terrorist attacks or provoke for doing them…….(Charter 97, 14 Mar 08)

Color-Coded Terror Threat System to Guard Russia

Russia is to introduce a "color-coded" system of terrorist threat levels, the Federal Security Service director told a National Counter-Terrorism Committee (NCC) session on Wednesday. The system will be similar to the one introduced in the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Nikolai Patrushev also said a special crisis center would be set up within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to protect Russian nationals and organizations abroad. Russia's government also approved a counter-terrorism program for 2009-2012 at the session…..(Moscow News, 13 Mar 08)

Russia to Extradite Israeli Mercenary to Colombia

Russia will extradite a former Israeli army officer to Colom­bia where he has been convicted of training paramilitaries, a Moscow city court spokeswoman said on Wednesday.  Russian police detained Yair Gal Klein at a Moscow airport in August last year, following a tipoff from Interpol. Colombia sentenced Klein in absentia in 2001 to 10 years in jail for training paramilitaries in "terrorist techniques," such as assassinations. He was also accused of working for the Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s, a charge he denied……(Reuters, 13 Mar 08)

Russia wishes to confirm its status of 'friend to Islam' – Margelov

…….The foreign minister represents Russia at the 11th Summit of the Organization of Islamic States (OIC), and this shows the significance of the Islamic factor in the Russian policy, he said. "Russia wishes to confirm its status of a reliable friend to Islam, as this meets the national interests of the country populated by over 14 million Muslims," he said. "Experts notice the Russian interest in the smooth integration of Islamic migrants from CIS member countries and support to moderate Islam," Margelov said. "Russia has sufficient experience for helping Muslims worldwide to settle conflicts and fight extremists and Western Islamophobia," he said…..(Interfax, 13 Mar 08)

Thais Deny Bail for Russian Arms Dealer

A Thai court on Tuesday denied bail to arms dealer Viktor Bout, worried the man known as the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly trafficking weapons around the world would skip the country. Bout was arrested last week in an elaborate sting operation by Thai police and U.S. agents, and held on charges of conspiring to provide arms to Colombian rebels. He is incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Bangkok…….(AFP, 13 Mar 08)

Russia Moves to Limit Foreign Investment in Media, Internet

……One new directive on “executing investigative work,” expands the powers of Russia’s security agencies, and covers 16 types of telecommunications services. According to the order, telephone companies and internet providers must install special equipment which is to be remotely controlled by Russia’s security services. The equipment allows a user, presumably an FSB agent, to see who is initiating and receiving emails, phone-calls and SMS text messages, and to pull the text and audio of the communications if necessary. It also lets agents determine the locations of users……(The Other Russia, 6 Mar 08)

Thai police arrest former KGB officer/arms dealer

A Russian man believed to be one of the world's leading illegal arms dealers was arrested in Thailand today on suspicion of supplying weapons to a Colombian rebel group. Viktor Bout, accused by both the UN and Amnesty International of flouting arms embargos, was arrested at his Bangkok hotel…..Thai police said they had been pursuing the former Russian KGB officer for months. Bout, believed to be 41, allegedly sold armaments to anyone with the cash to pay, including forces in the Taliban and various warring sides in more than a dozen African countries…..(Guardian, 6 Mar 08)

Russian top arms dealer, former KGB Major arrested

A Russian man suspected of being one of the world’s biggest illegal arms dealers has been arrested in Thailand…..Viktor Bout, 41, is said to have graduated from Moscow’s military institute in the early 1990s and was a major in the Soviet KGB. According to a 2007 book about him - entitled Merchant of Death - Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible - he set up a network of companies using redundant Soviet military planes. A 2005 report by the human rights group, Amnesty International, said Mr Bout was "the most prominent foreign businessman" breaking UN embargoes on arms sales to countries such as Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. He has also been accused of supplying weapons to supporters of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Taleban in Afghanistan and even al-Qaeda during the 1990s……(APA, 6 Mar 08)

Russia may request extradition of arms dealer/former KGB officer from Thailand

Moscow may request the extradition of Russian businessman Viktor Bout, arrested in Thailand at the request of U.S. authorities on charges of illegal arms trading, a Russian law enforcement source said on Thursday. Viktor Bout, 41, is a Russian former KGB major and an alleged arms dealer nicknamed "the Merchant of Death". "At this time, Russia is awaiting investigation materials from Thailand...After that, a decision to request extradition may be taken," the source said…..(RIA Novosti, 6 Mar 08)

Latvian ex-dissident wants KGB building restored as memorial to those who suffered under Soviets

Pitch-black corridors, the stink of damp and peeling walls give the impression of a medieval dungeon: the Russian writing on heavy metal doors hints at the building's true purpose. This was the basement of the "House on the Corner" – headquarters of the KGB secret police in Latvia. The building, a satellite of Moscow's notorious Lubyanka prison, is soon to be vacated by Latvian state police and there's a campaign for it to become a place of remembrance for those who suffered during 50 years of Soviet occupation……(Toronto Star, 6 Mar 08)

The Trouble with Russia

In the Cold War years we learned a great deal about KGB Commissars, and it turns out they all share the same two qualities: They are thugs -- and they are incapable of learning from experience. Vladimir Putin has the heart and soul of a KGB Commissar -- which, of course, he once was.  He's a thug, and he's learned nothing from his country's history.  So he's driving Russia into the same ditch the communists drove it into back in the twentieth century.  He's creating a one-party dictatorship in which the country's wealth will be owned or controlled by the State.  Like all dictators, he's trying to gin up a foreign enemy -- that would be us -- to justify his domestic policies.  And he's embarking on a course to achieve his communist predecessors' dream of imposing a sort of Pax Sovietica on the world……(Herbert Meyer/American Thinker, 6 Mar 08)

MP links dairy buyers to KGB

A row has erupted in Parliament over plans to sell a South Canterbury milk processor to foreigners, with New Zealand First alleging the Russians seeking to buy it are probably former KGB spies……(New Zealand Press, 6 Mar 08)

FSB steps up control over telecommunications

From now on you will be watched and bugged on the phone and the Internet. This week the Federal Security Service (FSB) got the Russian government’s official blessing for unrestricted control over people’s telephone lines and Internet use. According to newspaper Kommersant, the Russian Ministry of Information and Communication has officially informed all telecommunication companies and Internet providers that they will have to give the FSB unrestricted access to bugging of telephones and control of the Internet. However, the official new powers of the FSB might not make any big difference. The telecommunications companies admit that the secret services already have the access they want to electronic information. Until now, however, the collection of information has been going on through half-secret channels……(Barents Observer, 5 Mar 08)

BlackBerry Gets The Go-Ahead

Mobile TeleSystems and VimpelCom, Russia’s biggest mobile-phone companies, got permission to import BlackBerry e-mail devices after overcoming opposition from the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB. The FSB refused to allow the unlimited use of the BlackBerry handsets until it gained the ability to read messages sent to and from the devices…..(St. Petersburg Times, 4 Mar 08)

Former Clinton Official Named as Russian Dupe

In what could be the biggest State Department scandal since State Department official and United Nations founder Alger Hiss was exposed as a Soviet spy, a top Clinton State Department official and former Time magazine journalist has been identified as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service. The sensational charge against Strobe Talbott is made in a new book based on interviews with a Russian defector. The book, Comrade J, by veteran author and reporter Pete Earley, identifies Talbott as having been manipulated by a Russian official working for Russian intelligence in order to get information about U.S. foreign policy. The same book describes the United Nations as a major base of espionage operations for Russia in the U.S……(CFP, 5 Mar 08)

Russian secret service art prize

Russia's main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, the FSB, has launched a competition to find the best artistic portrayal of its work. It will show the more public side of a highly secretive agency, which wields huge influence in modern Russia. The FSB wants to change the perception that artists and secret policemen are not always comfortable companions. The FSB's website lists categories for the nominations, including film, TV, acting, music and literature……(BBC, 5 Mar 08)

Russia's Medvedev vows to uphold Putin legacy

Russia's next president Dmitry Medvedev pledged to uphold Vladimir Putin's policies on Monday after a big election win that critics said was stage-managed to let the outgoing Kremlin leader keep his grip on power. Displaying the double act that will be at the helm in Russia, Medvedev's first public appearance after results were released was to stand side by side with his mentor Putin on stage at a victory concert in Red Square……(Reuters, 3 Mar 08)

February 2008

Litvinenko friend seeks U.S. data on polonium

A friend of poisoned Russian emigre Alexander Litvinenko has asked the U.S. Energy Department to reveal what he says it knows about the origin of the radioactive polonium that killed the former security officer.   Alex Goldfarb said he had filed the freedom of information request in a bid to prove the polonium was produced in Russia and support the allegation that Russian authorities were behind Litvinenko's death, something Moscow emphatically denies…..(Reuters, 28 Feb 08)

US House panel endorses suggestion that Russia had hand in ex-spy's death

…The resolution asks President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials to cooperate with British investigators probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian-born former KGB agent who fled to Britain in 2000 and took British citizenship. He died in November 2006 in a British hospital from the effects of radioactive polonium-210 he had ingested…..(AP, 27 Feb 08)

More information on the Litvinenko Case

U.S. inciting Kosovo instability: Russia's Medvedev

The United States is inciting instability in Europe by backing Kosovo's independence, Russia's likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev…"You have these decisions which ... if we are frank about it, are being incited from across the ocean," Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister and presidential candidate, said on a visit to the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod…..(Reuters, 27 Feb 08)

North Korea releases seized Russian ship: Report

A Russian cargo ship seized in the Sea of Japan over the weekend has been released and is on its way to Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok…"We have constant communications with the ship, all 25 crew members are alive and well, and the ship will return to its home port late today," Vladivostok rescue centre duty officer Captain Vladimir Yeroshkin was quoted as saying by a Russian news agency……(Times of India, 27 Feb 08)

Former Russian senator to face terrorism, murder charges

A jailed former Russian senator accused of heading up a mafia group will face charges of terrorism, murder, arson and bribery, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Igor Izmestyev was a member of Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, between 2001 and 2006, representing the oil-rich southern Russian province of Bashkortostan….(AFP, 27 Feb 08)

Russia pledges support to Serbia

The man tipped to become the next Russian president has vowed his country will "stick to" its support for Serbia in opposing Kosovo's independence. Deputy PM Dmitry Medvedev was in Belgrade for talks with Serb President Boris Tadic and PM Vojislav Kostunica. Although its focus is mainly economic, the visit is seen as a sign of support for Serbia's view on Kosovo, the BBC's Bethany Bell in Belgrade says……(BBC, 25 Feb 08)

Russia warns Georgia against joining NATO

…"As far as NATO expansion is concerned, Putin told (Mikhail) Saakashvili that we see no real reasons for that and warned of consequences of such a step to Russia-Georgia relations," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Relations between Russia and Georgia have dipped to near an all-time low since a spy row in October 2006. Georgia arrested a handful of Russian spies in Tbilisi and the Kremlin responded by cutting transport and trade links…..(Reuters, 21 Feb 08)

Russia Agrees on Terms to Lift Georgian Air Blockade

Russia agreed to lift its blockade on air traffic with the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which was cut off in 2006, the Transportation Ministry said…Russia cut road, rail, air and sea links with Georgia, as well as halting postal services and blocking money transfers, in October 2006. The dispute erupted when Georgia arrested four Russian servicemen a month earlier and accused them of espionage….(Bloomberg, 21 Feb 08)

Russia warns US over Kosovo move

Russia has warned the US that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia endangers international stability. Moscow said the comments were made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a telephone conversation with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice……(BBC, 19 Feb 08)

Map: Distribution of Ethnic Albanians and Serbs