The US sharply rejected allegations by the chief of the KGB's main successor agency that Washington had used non-governmental organizations and the Peace Corps for espionage.
Nikolai Patrushev, director of the Federal Security Service, made the accusations Thursday and directed similar allegations at British, Saudi and Kuwaiti groups.
A statement from the US Embassy on Friday said Washington "categorically rejects charges ... that American non-governmental organizations are being used to carry out intelligence operations against Russia in the guise of charitable and other activities. Moreover, allegations that the US Peace Corps has been involved in intelligence activities are completely unfounded and untrue."
Patrushev said the groups were being used not only for espionage but to promote political upheaval in former Soviet republics.
The Kremlin has watched with displeasure as popular uprisings sparked government changes in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the past three months. All three countries are part of what Russia regards as its historical sphere or influence. Key figures in those uprisings have had contact with Western democracy-promoting groups that Russia accuses of fomenting revolution. Among those groups is the International Republican Institute, which gets most of its money from the US government.
The embassy statement did not mention the IRI by name, but said that Russians who have worked with the Peace Corps and NGOs "are now taking more active roles in the civic and economic loves of their communities."
The Peace Corps pulled out of Russia in 2003 amid spying allegations. When the program was closed "the Russian government expressed its gratitude for the assistance Peace Corps had provided," the embassy statement said.
Yesterday, the state-run Kuwaiti News Agency said the country's charge d'affaires in Moscow met with a Foreign Ministry official and delivered a letter denying the allegations about his country.
Charge Abdul-Wahab al-Saqer was quoted as saying Patrushev's accusations were "absolutely baseless."
Russia's neighbor Belarus is widely expected to see rising pro-democracy activity, with last year's Orange Revolution in neighboring Ukraine encouraging opposition to hardline Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
On Friday, Stepan Sukhorenko, head of Belarus' security service, which has retained the Soviet-era acronym KGB, was quoted by the news agency Interfax as saying "We are well aware of preparations from abroad to change the powers in Belarus."
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
Ugandan wildlife authorities have reintroduced rhinos into a remote protected area where they were once poached into extinction, an event seen by conservationists as a milestone in efforts to support the recovery of a species threatened by poaching. On Tuesday, two southern white rhinos from a private ranch in the East African country were reintroduced into Kidepo Valley National Park in the country’s northeast. Two more rhinos in metallic crates arrived on Thursday. There have been no rhinos in the park since 1983, the result of poaching. However, a private ranch in central Uganda — the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary — has been
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
RSS