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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (8670)	5/16/1999 8:29:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Kremlin's edict on West, Kosovo sparks fears of a new Cold War By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES ussia's government has ordered high-ranking military officers to sever all ties to Western military officials in Moscow, prompting what a senior defense official called a "return to the Cold War." Army Brig. Gen. Keith Dayton, the top U.S. defense attache in Moscow, stated in an April 29 intelligence report that the Russian anti-spying measure was partly due to NATO's military bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which Russia opposes. Details of the report come from high-ranking Pentagon officials who have seen the document and Thursday revealed its contents to The Washington Times. An aide to Gen. Dayton, who was reached by phone in Moscow, said the one-star general was not available to -- Continued from Front Page -- comment on his report. However, one ranking U.S. official who saw the report said, "The feeling [among Russians] is that if NATO bombs Serbia to help the Kosovars, it might bomb Russia to help the Chechens." Russian military forces invaded the southern Muslim enclave of Chechnya in 1994. The report from the general in Moscow also said current or former high-ranking Russian military officers who continue contacts with Western military attaches "are being followed or harassed by the Main Intelligence Directorate," the military spy service known by its Russian acronym of GRU. The report said that of all Russian ministries, the Russian Defense Ministry has taken the hardest line against contacts with military attaches. Western attaches, like Gen. Dayton, are military officials posted to the embassies in Moscow and to consulates in other major Russian cities. They are overt, or nonsecret, collectors of intelligence information, which they gather during formal and informal interactions with Russian military personnel and government officials. A senior Pentagon intelligence official confirmed in an interview Thursday that overall interactions between the West's military attaches and Russian military officials have been strained ever since the Balkan conflict began. But he said they had not been severed until now. He explained, "There is some reporting indicating limitations on what I would refer to as routine contacts. People aren't attending parties as much." But beyond that, the Russians "did react rather strongly" to NATO's initial air strikes against Yugoslavia and stopped some exchanges, the senior official added. Stanislav Lunev, a former GRU officer now living in the Washington area, said the GRU works closely with the Federal Security Service, a successor to the KGB, in watching foreigners in Russia. "They keep an eye on every foreigner who visits Russia. The Cold War never really finished," for the GRU and other Russian security agencies, he said. "As a former professional intelligence officer, I can tell you the GRU never reduced its intelligence attack against the U.S. Just now, since the Kosovo crisis, . . . the role of the GRU has become more important, and they are much more active in intelligence activities, both in the U.S. and domestically," Mr. Lunev continued. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who has frequent contacts with Russian parliamentarians, called Gen. Dayton's report disturbing and "very scary." In an interview, he said, "It's not a good sign and is an indication things are getting worse." Russian sentiment against the United States is growing as a result of the NATO bombing, and many in the Russian government who favor democratic reforms are being pushed aside by anti-U.S. communists and nationalists, the representative said. In Mr. Weldon's view, Russian President Boris Yeltsin's firing of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has created dangerous instability within the Russian government. Add to that the fact that the Russian president is facing impeachment and could move to disband the parliament, and the situation looks still more unsettling. Unsettling too is the fact that Mr. Primakov, a former Russian intelligence chief and Communist Party official, has been replaced by Sergei Stepashin, who was the head of the internal security police. To Pentagon officials, replacing one security specialist with another can be read as a sign that the Cold War-style intelligence activities in Moscow will continue. washtimes.com