REVIEW TOPICS:
London could decide to expel Russian diplomats as Moscow refuses to extradite chief murder suspect
Britain risks a Cold War clash to get justice for poisoned spy – newspaper
US National Intelligence Council official says intrigue over the Kremlin successor deepens
The Great Game: newspaper on KGB policy against Pakistan in 1980’s
Former Czech military intelligence head to work for Social Democrats
Bulgaria’s Finance Intelligence Agency receives hundreds of reports on dubious operations
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry agents interrogate more newspaper’s correspondents
London could decide to expel Russian diplomats as Moscow refuses to extradite chief murder suspect
Britain is considering expelling Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect of murder in London of the former security officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko last year, The Daily Telegraph writes today. A spokesman for the British embassy in Moscow said the options were being discussed in London.
The paper cites a former diplomat familiar with Russia who said it was "entirely likely" that Britain could decide to expel a "handful" of middle- to low-ranking diplomats because other options are limited. There have been no tit-for-tat ejections since 1996, when Russia expelled four diplomats accused of being part of a spy ring, prompting Britain to retaliate in kind, the paper notes. Many commentators say that whatever Britain's response, Russia is likely to react furiously.
There are signs that Russia is preparing to take expel British diplomats unilaterally, The Daily Telegraph marks. Two investigations have opened recently into allegations of British spying after Lugovoy claimed Litvinenko, his former business partner, and the self-exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, his former employer, worked for MI6. Lugovoy said yesterday he could not expect a fair trial in Britain. "I have no reasons to trust a British court. Public opinion has already been prejudiced by the British media," the paper is quoting Lugovoy as saying. While diplomatic expulsions could raise temperatures further, some commentators suggest they represent the best way for Britain and Russia to draw a line under the Litvinenko affair, The Daily Telegraph adds.
Britain risks a Cold War clash to get justice for poisoned spy – newspaper
Britain and Russia are heading for the most serious breakdown in relations since the end of the Cold War over the man wanted for the murder of the former spy Alexander Litvinenko, The Times online edition says today. The Crown Prosecution Service named Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard, in May as the man wanted for the murder of Litvinenko. British officials are adamant that Russian President could find a way to extradite Lugovoy if he wished to, according to The Times. The paper underlines they regard recent allegations of British spying operations in Russia as a Kremlin effort to muddy the waters surrounding the case.
Britain is determined to demonstrate to Russia that it will not simply ignore the murder of a British citizen in London with radioactive polonium210, an incident that endangered the lives of hundreds of other people; Russia seems equally determined to face Britain down, the paper marks.
The British Council is already coming under pressure from Russian authorities; Russia’s main state television channel focused on its activities in a documentary on July 8 about alleged British espionage, The Times adds.
The influential daily notes at the stand-off as the first big test for the new Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, ‘who must balance a tough stance with the Kremlin against potential damage to British business interests in Russia’s booming economy”. The Foreign Secretary said that he would treat the refusal to extradite Lugovoy “with the seriousness which it deserves”, the paper writes.
US National Intelligence Council official says intrigue over the Kremlin successor deepens
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A senior US intelligence analyst said political maneuvering in Russia is intensifying as the country approaches presidential elections in March 2008, news agency RIA Novosti reports.
Speaking before US lawmakers, Thomas Fingar, National Intelligence Council Deputy Director for analysis, gave an analytical assessment of the current situation in Russia as part of a report about global security threats facing the United States.
"As Russia moves toward a presidential election in March 2008, succession maneuvering has intensified and increasingly dominates Russian domestic and foreign policy," he said today in a prepared testimony before the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee.
The upcoming elections have prompted media frenzy both in Russia and in the West over possible "runners" for future Russian leader. President Vladimir Putin, who has been increasingly criticized in the West for his anti-democratic record, but who remains popular within Russia, has repeatedly denied any possibility of him staying in office for a third term, and is widely expected to name "a successor". A senior Kremlin official said in June a successor for Putin could be someone not widely considered as a potential candidate.
Russian media cited early this week an anonymous Kremlin source as saying Igor Ivanov, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, intends to step down later in July to join the presidential race. Daily Novye Izvestia suggested that Ivanov had been groomed for the post by an influential Kremlin grouping.
Meanwhile, the US intelligence official reiterated warnings about the alleged clampdown on democracy in Russia and the Kremlin's attempts to assume control over key sectors of the Russian economy, RIA Novosti says. He also warned about the growing political rift in relations between Washington and Moscow as Russia's blossoming aspirations to become an energy superpower continue to bolster the Kremlin's confidence both at home and abroad, news agency adds.
The Great Game: newspaper on KGB policy against Pakistan in 1980’s
In its today’s issue, the Khaleej Times describes the secret world’s Great Game of the 1980’s, as it puts it. The paper recalls August 1947, when Joseph Stalin concluded examining the map of the two winged Pakistan that emerged from the partition of the subcontinent that “this country cannot last”. A quarter century later, Soviet Union’s leader Leonid Brezhnev and KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, vindicated Stalin’s prophecy.
The intelligence caches provided by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin exposed the KGB’s systematic infiltration of Pakistan’s Government circles and diplomatic corps, confirmed that the then KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov and his agents of the KGB First Chief Directorate waged a secret war against Pakistan from the moment of its creation, Khaleej Times underlines.
The Kremlin’s “special relationship” on the subcontinent was with India, not Pakistan. India’s leader Indira Gandhi could not have won the Bangladesh war without New Delhi’s Friendship Treaty with the USSR.
Andropov distrusted Pakistan’s head Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, thought him a Chinese agent of influence ever since he joined Ayub Khan’s Cabinet as foreign minister in 1964, “was disgusted by the idea of a Berkeley–Oxford educated Sindhi feudal landowner donning a Mao cap and waving his little Green Book”. Bhutto visited Moscow twice but neither (Soviet higher leaders) Brezhnev, Podgorny nor Gromyko reciprocated with a state visit to Islamabad. The Kremlin distrusted Bhutto’s new friends and patrons in the Islamic world – the Pahlavi Shah of Iran, Saudi King Faisal, Colonel Gaddafi, the Gulf oil sheikhs.
Prime Minister Bhutto was deposed and executed by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq on April 4, 1979. His son Mir Murtaza Bhutto founded Al–Zulfiqar in Kabul, declared war against the Islamic world’s most powerful military regime. Al-Zulfiqar began covert-ops against Zia’s Pakistan in earnest, with KHAD/KGB support. The Kremlin, of course, also wanted to punish General Zia for allowing America, China and Saudi Arabia to finance the Afghan mujahideen revolt against its Marxist Kabul vassal regime, Khaleej Times writes.
Murtaza’s men bombed the Sindh High Court, assassinated Zia cronies in the Punjab who had signed his father’s death warrant, used the terrorist Tipu to hijack a PIA airliner at Karachi to divert it to Kabul. Murtaza welcomed Tipu on the tarmac at Kabul airport with the KGB resident watching and listening to everything in the control tower. Women and children were released from the hijacked PIA plane and a triumphant Tipu spoke to Babrak Kamal, the President of Afghanistan installed by the USSR after the invasion. An aide to Prime Minister Bhutto who the paranoid Tipu thought was an Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agent, Captain Tariq Rahim, was machine gunned, thrown to the tarmac to bleed to death. The KGB had armed Tipu and his men with grenades, explosives, timers, machine guns, money. Outraged by the killing, Andropov ordered Afghan intelligence chief, a de facto KGB general Najibullah to order the flight to Damascus, where President Assad negotiated the end of the hijack. Al-Zulfikar’s stock soared in Kabul and the Kremlin, Khaleej Times concludes. Murtaza was a hero to the Sindh and Baluchistan secessionists. It was a message from Andropov to Zia, KGB to ISI.
Two assassination attempts organized by Mir Murtaza against Zia’s Falcon private jet went wrong. Al-Zulfikar’s shooters bungled the SAM-7 missile’s viewfinder and aircraft heat sensor. Had Zia been killed as his plane landed at Chaklala by an assassin’s missile in 1982, the world would have been so different now, the paper adds.
Former Czech military intelligence head to work for Social Democrats
Miroslav Krejcik, former head of the Czech Military Intelligence service (VZ), has accepted the senior opposition Social Democrats' (CSSD) offer to join the party's security commission, news agency CTK reports, referring to the commission chairman Jeronym Tejc who held a press conference in Prague yesterday.
Krejcik said the CSSD had offered him to help it shape the party's security policy. He said he appreciated the offer because he had been not much optimistic during his last three months in the post of VZ director, which he didn't want to elaborate on. He added in a press statement he would cooperate with the CSSD only on the expert basis.
Krejcik became the VZ head from late 2004, under the then CSSD-led government. He resigned from the post this May without giving any reasons for his departure. According to unofficial information, he stepped down over long-lasting disputes with Vlasta Parkanova, Defence Minister in the centre-right government established in January, CTK marks. Parkanova (junior ruling Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) attempted to dismiss him several times before saying there was no confidence between them.
Bulgaria’s Finance Intelligence Agency receives hundreds of reports on dubious operations
The Bulgarian agency for Financial Intelligence has received a total of 376 reports about dubious operations and deals of a total value of about EUR 200 million last year, FOCUS News Agency reports from Sofia. The agency refers to the statement by the Director of the agency Svetlana Nikolova. According to Nikolova, five operations were stopped last year by the Minister of Finance; the operations had a value of almost EUR 2 million, news agency adds.
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry agents interrogate more newspaper’s correspondents
Four more correspondents of Gundalik Azerbaican newspaper, Famil Jafarli, Aynur Elgunesh, Jeyhun Nagi and Nemet Huseynli, were interrogated in the National Security Ministry regarding the criminal case launched on the founder and editor-in-chief of the Gundalik Azerbaican and Realny Azerbaijan newspapers, Eynulla Fetullayev, on articles 214 (threatening with terrorism) and 283.2.2 (stirring up national, racial, social or religious enmity) of the Criminal Code, news agency APA reports, referring to the correspondents.
The inspectors asked them about the relations between Gundalik Azerbaican and Realny Azerbaijan newspapers, their salaries, the themes of their articles, Eynulla Fetullayev’s articles and content of his computer files. The journalists said National Security Ministry officers told them that the computers and other equipment confiscated from the newspapers’ editorial office will soon be returned to them, APA adds.
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