Security Service Accuses Four Diplomats
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
MOSCOW, Jan. 23 -- Russia's domestic security service on Monday accused four British diplomats of committing espionage using electronic equipment placed inside a fake rock in a Moscow park.
The service also accused one of the diplomats of channeling money to Russian human rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations, which have been under attack by the Kremlin as agents of foreign influence.
State-run television said a Russian working for the British transmitted data to the fake rock using a hand-held device. The show aired video of people coming and going from the rock; it also displayed documents alleging transfer of funds to the nongovernmental groups by one of the diplomats.
"It is most important that we caught them having contact with agents and funding a number of nonprofit organizations," Col. Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the FSB, the domestic successor of the KGB, told the Russian news agency Interfax on Monday. "We are investigating the goals of this funding."
The nongovernmental organizations named in the probe said the broadcast was a smear designed to bolster the case for using a new law to crack down on grass-roots organizations, particularly those that challenge the Kremlin's record on human rights and democracy.
In London, the British Foreign Office said in a statement that "we reject any allegation of improper conduct in our dealing with Russian NGOs. It is well known that the UK government has financially supported projects implemented by Russian NGOs in the field of human rights and civil society. All our assistance is given openly and aims to support the development of a healthy civil society in Russia."
Prime Minister Tony Blair declined to comment on the spying allegations. Asked about them at his regular monthly news conference, he said: "I'm afraid you are going to get the old stock-in-trade 'We never comment on security matters' . . . except when we want to, obviously.
"I think the less said about that, the better.''
The program identified the man handling the funds as Marc Doe, a second secretary in the political affairs section of the British Embassy. Russian activists said he is known as a point man in the embassy for legal British funding of nongovernmental groups.
Among the groups receiving money through him, the FSB said Monday, were the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights organization that dates to Soviet times; the Committee against Torture; the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights; and Penal Reform International.
Most of the organizations have been underwritten by foreign governments and foundations for years, and the grants are legal and a matter of public record. Leaders of nongovernmental groups here say they would not survive without such funding because Russians, particularly in recent years, are reluctant to sponsor anything that might be seen as opposed to Kremlin policies.
A new law on such groups, signed by President Vladimir Putin this month, is designed to prevent foreign money from corrupting the Russian political system, according to its authors. Critics of the law, calling it a tool to pressure or shut down groups that the authorities oppose, see it as part of a broad attack on democratic institutions in Russia under Putin.
"Whether these organizations want it or not, they become an instrument in the hands of foreign states that use them to achieve their own political objectives," Putin said late last year.
Earlier, FSB head Nikolai Patrushev said the groups provided "fertile ground for conducting intelligence operations under the guise of charity and other activities." He accused the Peace Corps and the British medical charity Merlin of espionage, allegations that both denied.
Neither the TV show nor an FSB official who briefed the Russian media gave any details about the content of the alleged espionage. But the TV report said that "the most important thing lies elsewhere. One of the British diplomats, spies to be more exact, turned out to be connected with some Russian public NGOs."
No evidence was presented that any of the groups had done anything illegal or that the money was provided illegally, only that the groups had contact with Doe.
"This outrageous program was designed to prepare public opinion for this new law so that respected human rights organizations can be closed down," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group. "First, bad things must be said and human rights organizations must be disgraced. Then they can be closed."
FSB agents on the show displayed papers, allegedly signed by Doe, authorizing disbursement of $40,000 to the Moscow Helsinki Group. Alexeyeva said that the group received a grant from the British two years ago but that Doe had not signed the contracts. She said she had seen Doe at embassy receptions.
The TV program also said Doe had signed off on a $10,000 grant to the Eurasia Foundation. The Eurasia Foundation, based in Washington, is handing over its operations in Russia to the New Eurasia Foundation, a Russian organization that has U.S., European and Russian sponsors.
Andrei Kortunov, head of the New Eurasia Foundation, said Doe had not signed any agreements with his group. The document on the show linking his group to Doe appeared to be an internal embassy document, he said. He said he had never met Doe.
Kortunov said his foundation had received approximately $230,000 from the British Foreign Office for a two-year program to improve management at regional newspapers in Russia to make them more sustainable. "This is a very pure example of technical assistance," Kortunov said. "I'm not James Bond."
Documents featured on the program appeared to show that the British planned to fund a school to train public inspectors in remote areas. "We can only guess at who these inspectors were and what they were going to see in northern Siberia and the Far East," said an unnamed FSB officer quoted in the program.
Ignatchenko said any decision on whether the diplomats would be expelled would be made by the government. The FSB colonel said his agency decided to publicize the alleged espionage when British intelligence representatives denied they were involved in any spying.
"We have a kind of gentlemen's understanding that official intelligence representatives won't engage in espionage," said Ignatchenko, referring to the head of the British intelligence service MI6 in Moscow, one of whose aides allegedly was filmed at the park. "The agreement seems to have been breached. In fact, we have been deceived."
The TV program, "Special Correspondent," said the fake rock was placed in the park last fall. An unidentified Russian, allegedly recruited by the British, used a hand-held computer to transfer data wirelessly to the equipment, as well as receive instructions, the program said. The British, including Doe, then allegedly retrieved the data using the same kind of hand-held devices.
Hidden camera footage supplied to the show by the FSB showed people said to be British diplomats walking to and from the rock, one of them fiddling in his pockets and casting his eyes about as he neared the site.
"At first we thought this was a normal, typical secret drop-off point camouflaged under a stone," an FSB officer told state-run Rossiya television. "However, later when our specialists carried out their investigation, it became clear that the stone contained an electronic device. This was absolutely new spy technology."
The Russians said the transmissions took one to two seconds at a distance of about 20 yards from the fake rock. The Russian said to be involved has been arrested and has reportedly admitted to espionage.
Correspondents Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan in London contributed to this report.
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