The International Pulse/Why Spy?
Haselkorn, Avigdor
Why Spy? by Avigdor Haselkorn T oward the end of his reign in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev presented the West with this dilemma: Should it actively push for Soviet reform, or adopt a hands-off...
...If you would, then send a $50 check to The American Help Foundation today...
...T he argument that Russia's spying is less harmful these days, because it is aimed at economic rather than military secrets, ignores the GRU's active part in the current offensive...
...That's the title of a play, written by The American Spectator's New York Correspondent William Tucker, that tells the story of the Writing of the American Constitution...
...As Primakov told Moscow television in October 1990 after a mission to the region, "The Soviet flag has been shown, and it is perceived positively...
...On April 11, Brussels radio reported that the ring supplied Moscow with high-tech military data, particularly in aeronautics...
...For example, in early 1991, Maj...
...No wonder that Lt...
...In an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda last April, Col...
...There are, then, three scenarios: (1) Yeltsin is in full control of the current espionage campaign and must be made to halt it...
...At the same time, he warned, "we have noted that there is still significant activity by the organization that has replaced the old KGB...
...Why throw out only our associates...
...Leonid Shebarshin told Pravda on April 22, 1990, that "on the whole intelligence is highly profitable work...
...After all, relations between Yeltsin and the KGB were tense (in 1990 the KGB was implicated in at least two plots to eliminate him), and most of the FIS still consists of former KGB personnel...
...In the words of Belgium's foreign minister Willy Claes: "It is at the very moment we are trying to convince our people to do things for Russia that we discover there is money somewhere to finance spying activities, activities we thought belonged to the past...
...1) We will send you a first-edition copy, signed by the author...
...Sweden: In an interview in the March 2 Svenska Dagbladet, Security Police chief Mats Borjesson confirmed that Russia has begun reducing the number of its intelligence officers in Sweden...
...Gorbachev's democratic reforms were hesitant, his plans for a market economy moribund, his efforts to reshape the military into a defensive force tentative...
...Belgium/France/Netherlands: On April 11, the Belgian foreign ministry announced the expulsion of two officials from the Russian embassy in Brussels and two officials from its trade mission for "involvement in a network of secret agents of the former KGB...
...Moreover, successful economic intelligence can cause as much damage as military espionage...
...Its endurance and scale could be taken as an indication of his weakness...
...For example, in early 1991, Maj...
...He is an old hand in the anti-Western struggle...
...It is now sitting in Moscow, having been translated into Russian...
...Yevgeni Timokhin, chief of the GRU and deputy chief of the General Staff of the CIS Joint Armed Forces, said, "Our military intelligence service forms a constituent part of the Armed Forces, and is one of the means of supporting their combat activity...
...The last two theories imply weakness on Yeltsin's part...
...Saudi Arabia, with which Russia and the Central Asian republics hope to develop close economic ties, may be offered "intelligence cooperation" as part of any deal...
...Naturally, as with Gorbachev previously, there is a tendency among Western governments to play down the problem in order to protect him...
...Wayne Gilbert, the FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, subsequently said the GRU had stepped up efforts to obtain U.S...
...General Timokhin can be believed...
...His enemies were able to exploit the reform paralysis to gather strength, and eventually tried to oust him...
...As for the GRU, it "is continuing its activities in Sweden as before...
...He noted that GRU operatives are increasingly masquerading as tourists or businessmen, which makes them harder to detect than the journalists and diplomats of yesteryear...
...by Avigdor Haselkorn T oward the end of his reign in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev presented the West with this dilemma: Should it actively push for Soviet reform, or adopt a hands-off approach in order to avoid an anti-Western backlash...
...While taking over former HVA agents is not without risks—such transfers could be known to other former GDR agents, who might see such information as a potential bargaining chip when they come in from the cold—Moscow may have no choice given its longtime depen38 The American Spectator July 1992 Why Spy...
...2) Your name will appear in the back of the book on a special page listing the contributors who made this publishing event possible...
...In an apparent reference to the case of Igor Cherpinsky, a KGB officer stationed in Brussels whose defection in 1990 led to the uncovering of another KGB spy ring in Belgium, Izvestia on April 14 lamented that "once again, as in the 'cold war' years, a defector has dealt a blow to our state interests," and went on to ask whether it was not time to "shake up our intelligence cadres abroad...
...Accordingly, agents from both the GRU and FIS continue to attempt to recruit informants in Sweden "on a significant scale...
...Under these circumstances, it may be argued, delaying aid as punishment for spying will only play into the hands of the enemies of Russian democracy...
...Term, the largest publishing company in Russia, is prepared to print 100,000 copies...
...Most friendly countries spy on each other without much ado, the argument goes, and Russia, after the collapse of Soviet Communism, should be treated similarly...
...In particular, there has been "no noticeable change" in the collection activities originating at headquarters of the Western Group of the CIS Joint Armed Forces in Wuensdorf outside Berlin, work that is controlled by the GRU (military intelligence...
...Meanwhile, on March 25 Stockholm Radio reported that, according to Swedish military authorities, Russian spy ships continue to patrol the southern Swedish coastline, monitoring Swedish military activity as well as NATO exercises in Baltic waters...
...sian external intelligence service press bureau, that his agency is reducing its staff "both in the center and abroad throughout the world" to "a level of reasonable sufficiency," evidence of an emboldened and re-energized Russian espionage network is plentiful: •Germany: In November 1991, Peter Frisch, vice president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), told ADN, the former East German news agency, that the "phase of stagnation" in Soviet espionage against Germany, visible in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Communism, was ending...
...He added, however, that "only a few have gone home as yet...
...Der Spiegel reported in February that the BfV office in Cologne has discovered nineteen Morse radio lines still being used to control German-speaking agents...
...According to Le Figaro of April 23, Konopolev's revelations allowed the French counterintelligence service DST to dismantle a Paris-based network of Russian agents...
...While the Swedish official indicated that "there has been a certain decline in activity since the beginning of the year," he cautioned that it was "too early to say whether this is a reflection of a change in policy or simply a coincidence...
...Last October, soon after he was nominated to head the KGB's First Main Directorate (in charge of foreign intelligence), Primakov told Russian television that "the work with the agent network [abroad] will probably continue...
...Israel: Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, is so concerned about the presence of spies among the thousands of Jews arriving from the former Soviet Union that it took, the unusual step of running an ad in the Russian-language daily Nasha Strana in April, urging Soviet immigrants to call a special hotline with information on newcomers who might be suspect...
...In 1990, he served as Gorbachev's personal emissary to Saddam Hussein...
...No reductions have been noted here...
...By not pressing Yeltsin to take a stand against his FIS-GRU nemeses—by delaying aid if necessary—the West will be condoning a grave challenge tobetter relations...
...According to the Belgian justice ministry, the network was set up around 1967 and "remained active after the disintegration of the Soviet Union...
...In order not to weaken him, the West foolishly treated Gorbachev with kid gloves...
...Deliberate provocation or not, business as usual will only further embolden the sundry "dark forces" (in Mr...
...As before, this is the wrong approach...
...Would you like to help spread the story of American democracy to the people of the former Soviet Union...
...For despite assurances last March by Yuri Kobaladze, head of the RusAvigdor Haselkorn is a strategic analyst and defense consultant specializing in CIS and Middle Eastern affairs...
...We are a superpower and we have our own line, our own policies...
...In particular, there has been "no noticeable change" in the collection activities originating at headquarters of the Western Group of the CIS Joint Armed Forces in Wuensdorf outside Berlin, work that is controlled by the GRU (military intelligence...
...Finally, in a country where almost all military weaponry is for sale and where former KGB staffers are deeply involved in black market operations, there is every reason to expect that secrets stolen from the West will similarly be offered to the highest bidder...
...In March, the same magazine reported that "a large number" of former members of the Intelligence Collection Main Administration (HVA), East Germany's foreign intelligence agency, have been recruited by the FIS...
...There are signs that the West may repeat its mistake with Boris Yeltsin...
...The West, in other words, would be financing Russian espionage against itself...
...He blamed the August 1991 coup on Gorbachev's having surrounded himself with reactionaries...
...If we accept the Russian line that all its intelligence efforts in the West are "normal commercial espionage," it shouldn't be surprising that most GRU operations are aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Russia's weapons for export...
...In fact, even "months before the change in the GDR" the KGB switched to an "operational area covering the whole of Germany" and activated their "emergency agents" to compensate for lost GDR contacts...
...Worse yet, the timing of the spying spree may be aimed at undermining him politically, by snarling his relations with the West...
...In March, for example, FBI director William Sessions charged that Russian agents have intensified their efforts to recruit in U.S...
...His enemies were able to exploit the reform paralysis to gather strength, and eventually tried to oust him...
...But now—are we partners or not...
...In fact, Pravda reported last October 31 that the Armenian KGB was planning to offer sophisticated communications equipment to private buyers...
...According to the Brussels daily Le Soir, the ring was exposed after Vladimir Konopolev, first secretary at the Russian embassy, defected to the West this April...
...Curtailing Russia's "commercial" espionage is thus consistent with promoting international stability...
...Unfortunately, there is a good chance that the Russian intelligence offensive is proceeding without Yeltsin's approval...
...arms production technology...
...German officials estimate that this office ran between five and six thousand agents in West Germany...
...The dissolution of the KGB after the failed coup last August had little impact on these activities...
...For a few days it seemed the Cold War would be reignited...
...Several people were arrested, at least one of whom, an electronics engineer, was charged with spying for Russia...
...by Avigdor Haselkorn T oward the end of his reign in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev presented the West with this dilemma: Should it actively push for Soviet reform, or adopt a hands-off approach in order to avoid an anti-Western backlash...
...Indeed, there are at least three reasons why Israel remains high on the Russian intelligence list...
...Specifically, how should we handle continuing Russian espionage against the West...
...The Russians, he added, have registered a marked increase in "source recruitment" at trade fairs and scientific exchanges...
...2) The Russian intelligence apparatus is acting independently, a possibility raised by CIA director Robert Gates (and rejected out of hand by Kobaladze...
...He went on to acknowledge Western demands to curtail the "activities of our military intelligence abroad," but said, "I must emphasize that such ultimatums are futile...
...The last thing the Soviets wanted was a demonstration of American superiority...
...In 1988, for example, Herbert Hellenbroich, then president of BfV, estimated that Soviet economic spying was costing West Germany upwards of DM 8 billion a year...
...are increasing...
...In order not to weaken him, the West foolishly treated Gorbachev with kid gloves...
...0 WANTED: ONE HUNDRED PATRIOTIC AMERICANS...
...Nixon's words) waiting to destroy Yeltsin...
...3) The campaign is a deliberate provocation against the Yeltsin government...
...The dissolution of the KGB after the failed coup last August had little impact on these activities...
...Only 1,700 have been exposed so far, and it is thought that as many as 350 Stasi agents are now working for Moscow directly...
...However, the publishing company needs $5,000 to pay hard currency for paper and to reduce the price of the book so it can be read by the average Russian...
...Yeltsin will appreciate a tougher Western position...
...40 The American Spectator July 1992 Most disturbing, of course, is that Russia's foreign intelligence effort is in full gear at a time when Moscow is appealing for massive financial and economic aid...
...sian external intelligence service press bureau, that his agency is reducing its staff "both in the center and abroad throughout the world" to "a level of reasonable sufficiency," evidence of an emboldened and re-energized Russian espionage network is plentiful: •Germany: In November 1991, Peter Frisch, vice president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), told ADN, the former East German news agency, that the "phase of stagnation" in Soviet espionage against Germany, visible in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Communism, was ending...
...Or is he deceiving the West...
...In 1980, he authored the definitive ideological justification for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan...
...Is Yeltsin too weak to control the KGB's successors...
...While taking over former HVA agents is not without risks—such transfers could be known to other former GDR agents, who might see such information as a potential bargaining chip when they come in from the cold—Moscow may have no choice given its longtime depen38 The American Spectator July 1992 Why Spy...
...2) Israeli military and high-tech industries are tightly linked to the U.S., where spying poses a greater political risk...
...He specifically mentioned stealth technology, communications equipment, and computer software...
...Radical Muslim regimes like Libya and Iran are ready to pay cash...
...If war could not be prevented, Primakov's aim was to provide Saddam maximum time to prepare his defenses so that the U.S...
...Ostensibly he was to bring about Saddam's peaceful withdrawal from Kuwait, but in fact lobbied hard to postpone any U.S...
...Despite all such evidence, a decid- edly more relaxed attitude toward Russian espionage has emerged in the West, no doubt because of the diminution of the Soviet military threat...
...Gelyi Batenin, an expert on strategic weapons and an adviser to the CPSU, complained in an article in New Times that the changes announced by Gorbachev four years earlier "have not affected the organizational pattern of the Soviet Armed Forces, which have for forty years been intended for an offensive war bringing a prompt victory...
...For the West to look the other way is to recognize the power of Yeltsin's opposition and acknowledge that a confrontation could lead to his toppling...
...This was not the end of the story...
...Specifically, how should we handle continuing Russian espionage against the West...
...military attack against a longtime Moscow client...
...There are signs that the West may repeat its mistake with Boris Yeltsin...
...According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli auThe American Spectator July 1992 39 thorities are convinced that some of the many qualified scientists and engineers who have been absorbed into sensitive high-tech projects are providing information to their Russian spymasters...
...United States: In several statements, FBI and CIA officials indicated that Russian intelligence efforts in the U.S...
...Gelyi Batenin, an expert on strategic weapons and an adviser to the CPSU, complained in an article in New Times that the changes announced by Gorbachev four years earlier "have not affected the organizational pattern of the Soviet Armed Forces, which have for forty years been intended for an offensive war bringing a prompt victory...
...Gorbachev's democratic reforms were hesitant, his plans for a market economy moribund, his efforts to reshape the military into a defensive force tentative...
...It would now be a tragic irony if he himself were to provide them with the sanctuary from which to continue their unholy work...
...Surprisingly, the FIS admitted that the four expelled diplomats were its agents and even disclosed Konopolev's rank (lieutenant colonel...
...In fact, Timokhin has argued that cutting the budget of the GRU could in the final analysis cost the country more, since the development of advanced weapons autonomously is often more expensive...
...1) Operating in Israel is relatively cheap, given that many immigrants still have family in the ex-Soviet Union and are thus easy targets for blackmail...
...In fact, even "months before the change in the GDR" the KGB switched to an "operational area covering the whole of Germany" and activated their "emergency agents" to compensate for lost GDR contacts...
...Some German officials now believe that HVA, under its former chief Markus Wolf, supplied up to 80 percent of its findings to the Soviets, sometimes without the knowledge of Stasi boss Erich Mielke himself...
...The contradiction between actively seeking Western help while simultaneously intensifying espionage raises the possibility that it is all a gambit of the "old guard" to undermine Russia's relations with the West and bring down the Yeltsin government...
...But Le Figaro says, more reliably, that the defection came in 1991, after which Konopolev acted as a double agent for a few months...
...Is Yeltsin too weak to control the KGB's successors...
...The greater the reduction in the quantity of forces, the more central the quality of military technology becomes, and the greater the incentive to steal it—especially in Russia today, where there is little money to spend on R&D...
...For a few days it seemed the Cold War would be reignited...
...government circles...
...In March, the same magazine reported that "a large number" of former members of the Intelligence Collection Main Administration (HVA), East Germany's foreign intelligence agency, have been recruited by the FIS...
...Although the KGB's headquarters in East Berlin have been dismantled, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS), the KGB's successor, has merely redeployed intelligence operatives to other posts across Germany...
...In return, we will do the following...
...If you would like to help spread the story of American democracy, send your tax-deductible $50 check, made out to The American Help Foundation, to: 430 4th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215...
...Der Spiegel reported in February that the BfV office in Cologne has discovered nineteen Morse radio lines still being used to control German-speaking agents...
...Even if there is only circumstantial evidence to support this theory, it cannot be entirely overlooked...
...The theory and practice of military science were subordinate to this principle...
...Five Belgian nationals, including three industrialists, a journalist, and a civil servant, have been arrested...
...German officials estimate that this office ran between five and six thousand agents in West Germany...
...In these circumstances, economic relief could allow Russia to divert resources from the civilian economy to espionage...
...3) The sheer size of the new immigration-370,000 and counting—makes monitoring well-nigh impossible...
...OTLIN - OCHOBATEJII4 The line above reads "Founding Fathers...
...Some even argue that Russian spying is in the West's best interests, on the assumption that anything that helps the Russian economy will solidify Yeltsin's democratic rule...
...Meanwhile, the Netherlands said it had ordered four Russians out of the country for spying, in cases unrelated to those in France and Belgium...
...The proceeds would go to strengthen the KGB's "technical services" and "help resolve some of the problems in providing social and consumer amenities for personnel...
...Or is he deceiving the West...
...If Yeltsin is not in full control, an approach like Germany's, reported by Die Welt in April, offering him an intelligence cooperation agreement in return for curtailed spying, has little chance of being implemented once signed...
...There is an inverse relationship between cuts in military capabilities and the need for timely information...
...Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes revealed to the New York Times in May that a highly sensitive battlefield communications system—developed by the French electronics giant Thomson under the code name RITA and used by the U.S., French, and Belgian armies—"was apparently stolen by the spy ring...
...The theory and practice of military science were subordinate to this principle...
...The American Spectator July 1992 41...
...The Russians, he added, have registered a marked increase in "source recruitment" at trade fairs and scientific exchanges...
...would pay a heavy price for attacking him...
...Already there are predictions, for instance in Le Figaro, that the probable expulsion of Russian diplomats posted to France "could in fact lead to an open crisis between Paris and Moscow...
...At least this is how the FIS wants the West to react...
...Referring to the Belgian spying scandal, the Independent Gazette quoted an indignant Kobaladze as saying: "When Russia was Communist, then it was possible to understand the malicious rejoicing of our opponents...
...But instead of issuing an apology, FIS press secretary Tatyana Samolis was quoted in Moscow's Independent Gazette of April 16 as complaining that Konopolev "has inflicted considerable damage on the Russian intelligence network in the West" and that he was motivated by "exclusively mercenary considerations...
...The current campaign has all the markings of Yevgeni Primakov, now director of the FIS...
...by Avigdor Haselkorn T oward the end of his reign in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev presented the West with this dilemma: Should it actively push for Soviet reformdence on East German spies in the former Federal Republic...
...Incredibly, after the Gulf War, Primakov traveled to New York specifically to receive an award at the Waldorf-Astoria for his work on behalf of U.S.-Soviet relations...
...For despite assurances last March by Yuri Kobaladze, head of the RusAvigdor Haselkorn is a strategic analyst and defense consultant specializing in CIS and Middle Eastern affairs...
...As far as can be judged, the GRU is unaffected by all the changes that have taken place in Moscow...
...Although the KGB's headquarters in East Berlin have been dismantled, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS), the KGB's successor, has merely redeployed intelligence operatives to other posts across Germany...
...Only 1,700 have been exposed so far, and it is thought that as many as 350 Stasi agents are now working for Moscow directly...
Vol. 25 • July 1992 • No. 7
