BRUSSELS — Two Russian diplomats will lose their accreditation to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, Moscow’s envoy said today — two months after Russia was accused of receiving alliance secrets from a spy.
Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin said the two Russian diplomats had “no link to any spying scandal,” and the NATO action was meant as retaliation for the espionage case.
In February, an Estonian court convicted a former top security official of treason for passing domestic and NATO secrets to Russia in the Baltic country’s biggest espionage scandal since the Cold War.
Rogozin said he was told by NATO’s Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that the two diplomats — senior counselor Victor Korchakov and Vasily Chizov — would have their accreditation withdrawn over “a spying scandal in Estonia.”
NATO spokesman James Apparthurai said he could not confirm whether any diplomat’s accreditation had been withdrawn because he could not comment on intelligence matters.
Rogozin threatened retaliation today, just a day after NATO resumed relations with Russia following an eight-month freeze.
He said there was “no reason or motivation” for the action against the diplomats, and “the political leadership of NATO acted in a provocative manner just after we restored relations.”
“We will not be provoked, but the response will be harsh and decisive,” Rogozin said.
Such expulsions of Soviet and NATO alliance diplomats were routine during the Cold War, but relations had warmed until NATO froze links with Moscow after its August military offensive on neighboring Georgia.
It is unclear if the latest move would impact NATO-Russia cooperation in areas such as piracy and the war in Afghanistan, or a tentatively planned meeting in May between NATO foreign ministers and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Russia has allowed NATO nations to use its road and rail networks to transport military supplies to Afghanistan. NATO also wants Russia to open its airspace to military cargo flights, and to provide weapons and training for Afghan government forces.
Rogozin said it was absurd to link Korchakov and Chizov — the son of Russia’s ambassador to the European Union — to the Estonian case.
In February, an Estonian court convicted Herman Simm, the former head of security at the Estonian Defense Ministry, of spying for Russia and sentenced him to 12½ years in prison. Prosecutors said Simm had collected and forwarded classified Estonian and NATO information to Russia’s foreign intelligence service from 1995 until his arrest in 2008.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
