-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Why Russia Spies 23 February 2001 Summary In Washington, the Federal Bureau of Investigation claimed to capture a Russian spy from within its own ranks. The case is part of a larger pattern of persistent post-Cold War espionage. Instead of focusing on Washington’s military secrets, as the Soviet Union did, Moscow today is searching for signs that the United States will try to destabilize Russia. The Putin government is also searching for desperately needed clues about advanced technology and a suspected fifth column of Western sympathizers. Analysis A 27-year veteran agent of the FBI, Robert Hanssen faced charges Feb. 20 that he has spied for the former Soviet Union and the government of Russia since 1985, allegedly passing documents to Moscow and identifying double agents. The case is part of a larger pattern of persistent post-Cold War spying. With the end of the Cold War a decade ago, it would seem to make sense that espionage between Russia and the United States would ebb. But espionage is on the rise, particularly with the arrests of alleged spies on both sides in the last year. Washington continues to conduct operations against Russia to determine if Moscow can ever again pose a strategic threat. The Russian government continues to conduct operations against the United States, in turn, out of fear the United States and its allies could move to weaken and destabilize Russia. This fear is resident at three levels: at the highest levels of the Putin government, which includes a variety of former KGB officers; within the ranks of the Russian military; and, of course, within the newly reconfigured Russian intelligence community. These fears are driven by real life examples. The United States led the bombing campaigns against Yugoslavia, effectively helping to cleave Bosnia and Kosovo from Belgrade. NATO, driven by Washington, continues to expand eastward toward Russia’s frontier. Washington, under the Clinton administration, expanded military-to-military contacts throughout the former Soviet Union. And the recent bombing of Iraq underscores Washington’s apparent willingness to shake the foundations of nations, at least to those in Moscow. Russia conducts its political, military and scientific-technological intelligence through various organizations. The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) works on American national security and political plans regarding Russia. Military intelligence is conducted by the Main Intelligence Directorate of General Staff (GRU), which aims at learning U.S. strategic nuclear capabilities, contingency plans, force deployments and planned military actions abroad. Through electronic and technical means, including satellites, the SVR, GRU and the Federal Agency on Government Communications and Information (FAPSI) are engaged in industrial espionage. The SVR and GRU both handle manned intelligence on U.S. territory, with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) doing counterintelligence in America. Also, both the SVR and GRU have internal counterintelligence units created for finding foreign intelligence moles. The SVR recruited Hanssen. It may seem bizarre to Americans, but within Russian security circles there is a profound belief that the United States is working to re-direct the threat of militant Islam away from the West – and toward Russia. In the years between the 1994 and 1999 wars in Chechnya, a British company with U.S. employees – who consisted of former government intelligence personnel – organized a de-mining program in the Caucasus, particularly in both Chechnya and Russia. The Russian intelligence community concluded the de-mining effort was, in fact, a cover and that this company was working to train Chechen rebels. The company, according to Russian intelligence officials, was working to train the rebels on how to divert Russian mechanized columns into ambushes. Russian officials also believed this company taught the rebels how to smuggle independent mine components and increase the efficiency of their use against high-value targets. The company withdrew in 1999, just before the onslaught of spring fighting. The Russian military does not believe Chechen rebels on their own could have improved their capabilities. The intelligence community also believes Western intelligence operatives have visited the rebels from 1994 until the present day, just as they did in Afghanistan during the Soviet war there in the 1980s. Western journalists are also suspected of providing Western intelligence with information from the front in Chechnya. Concrete evidence surfaced during both Chechen wars. Prisoners of war captured during the first conflict actually reported to their captors that they were Ukrainian nationals. A rebel assault in the Argun Gorge included frantic radio transmissions in Russian, reportedly spoken with a Ukrainian accent, calling for assistance: “Help, Bear is wounded,” according to the independent Moscow Obschaya Gazeta. The paper’s correspondent also reported seeing casualties from former Soviet states who acted as the main strike force for the rebels. Russia's dire economic situation has only increased fears that the nation is lagging further and further behind in electronics, information technology and avionics for aircraft. These are the chief areas of endeavor for both the SVR and the GRU. Avionics is a particularly weak spot for Russian combat aircraft; Russian firms have routinely lost business to American defense contractors because of it. Early this year, India agreed to purchase advanced Su-30 fighters only after the Russian delegation agreed to install French and Israeli avionics. In Moscow, Russia’s most elite – insiders in the Putin government and the military – believe American agents of influence have penetrated the highest echelons of the government. In April 2000, the Duma, prodded by the Yeltsin administration, approved the START II treaty, which eliminated certain Russian strategic strengths, such as missiles with multiple warheads. Suspicion has fallen on top figures such as Anatoly Chubais, a favorite of Western investors. Chubais' current drive to privatize the country’s electrical utilities has sparked fears that the country would plunge into the dark in the event of a national emergency; His company has already cut off power to certain Russian strategic missile bases in the unfolding dispute. Politicians in other areas, such as the Yabloko bloc, have also fallen under suspicion. The media conglomerate MOST Media is also believed to broadcast a Western agenda. The Putin government has pummeled NTV, a unit of MOST, for its highly critical coverage of the Chechen conflict, which has included in 1999 airing tape of the rebels executing Russian prisoners of war. Surrounded by a crumbling security situation, a chronically ill economy and vituperative politics in Moscow, Russia’s elite is convinced: Cultivating and running spies against the United States is more important than ever. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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