Russia Suspects Hidden Agenda Behind U.S. Spying Accusations

Mos News
Mar. 28, 2006

Russia’s foreign minister accused the United States on Monday of having “hidden political motives” for a report that said Moscow turned over information on American military plans to Saddam Hussein during the invasion of Iraq, AP reported.

Sergey Lavrov’s comments were the first formal statement from President Vladimir Putin’s government about the Pentagon report, though a spokesman for Russia’s foreign spy agency over the weekend had denied the report’s allegations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss the matter with Lavrov — either when the foreign ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany meet in Berlin on Thursday or by telephone, the State Department said. In Berlin, the ministers will be discussing what to do about Iran’s suspect nuclear program.

The Pentagon report released Friday said two captured Iraqi documents indicate that Russia obtained information from sources “inside the American Central Command” in Qatar. Russia passed battlefield intelligence to Saddam through the former Russian ambassador in Baghdad, Vladimir Titorenko, according to the Pentagon report.

The unclassified report does not assess the value or accuracy of the information Saddam got or offer details on Russia’s information pipeline. Moscow fiercely opposed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service dismissed the claims over the weekend as “baseless accusations,” and Lavrov reiterated that dismissal Monday.

“The way this was done allows one to speculate that it has hidden political motives and that it is being done in connection with Iraq — however I can hardly be sure of it,” Lavrov said.

“It is difficult to understand why we are learning about such facts from the media.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried had conveyed a U.S. request that the Russian government look at the matter through Moscow’s ambassador in Washington.

“Clearly, as the secretary stated over the weekend, any hint that information provided to the Iraqis may have put our troops in harm’s way would be very concerning,” McCormack said.

Rice said Sunday that the Bush administration will ask Russia about the report.

“Any implication that there were those from a foreign government who may have been passing information to the Iraqis prior to the invasion would be, of course, very worrying,” Rice said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

“I would think the Russians would want to take that very seriously as well.”