Russian double agent 'helped crack' US spy ring

Russian double agent 'helped crack' US spy ring

A Russian spy ring broken by the United States this summer was detected with the help of a Russian intelligence agent whose daughter lives in the United States, the Kommersant daily reported Thursday.

The respected business daily identified the Russian accomplice as Shcherbakov, a colonel with the Russian foreign intelligence service.

It said Shcherbakov fled Russia for the United States three days prior to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's June visit to Washington.

The paper cited sources as saying that Shcherbakov's son also quit his post with the Russian drug control agency and fled to the United States shortly before Washington revealed the spy ring that month.

His daughter has long lived in the United States, the paper said, without providing further details.

"It seems odd that no one bothered to check why a person of that rank has a daughter living in the United States," Kommersant quoted an unnamed intelligence source as saying.

Shcherbakov himself turned down an important promotion last year, suggesting that he had already been working with Washington, the paper said.

The group of 10 spies, many of whom had been working for years undercover in the United States as sleeper agents, returned to Russia in a July spy swap that saw Moscow send four Russian convicts to the West.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who served as a Soviet foreign intelligence agent in East Germany, this summer denounced the then-unnamed Russian collaborator as someone whose life will end "with boozing or drugs," Kommersant said.

The Russian foreign intelligence agency was not immediately available for comment.

Russia-U.S. spy scandal caused by intelligence officer betrayal - newspaper

This past summer's spy row between Russia and the United States was the result of a betrayal by a Russian intelligence officer, a leading business daily reported on Thursday.

The scandal broke out in late June when 10 people were arrested in the United States. The spies were freed in a swap deal between Russia and the U.S.

Kommersant journalists carried out an investigation and discovered that a certain Col. Shcherbakov, who had long worked for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was to blame for the exposure of Russians who were working under cover.

The newspaper reported that Shcherbakov's daughter has long been living in the United States but that the SVR was not too concerned about this.

"It's strange that no one questioned why a person on that level has relatives abroad," an intelligence source told Kommersant. "Such things are strictly monitored even in less secret organizations."

The intelligence service failed to take notice when Shcherbakov refused to accept a career promotion a year before the spy scandal - a procedure that would require him to undergo a lie detector test. This could mean that he actively cooperated with U.S. secret services at the time.

Finally, no one paid attention to the fact that Shcherbakov's son, who had worked for Russia's drug watchdog Gosnarkokontrol, hastily left Russia for the United States shortly before the Russian agents were exposed.

The traitor himself, said a Kommersant source in Russian state power bodies, fled the country three days prior to President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the United States in June.

The reset of Russian-U.S. relations was threatened following the espionage scandal. However, the two countries pledged the espionage row would not affect bilateral ties.

Kommersant quoted a high-level Kremlin administration official as saying that Shcherbakov's fate "cannot be envied."

"He will carry this with him all his life and will fear retribution every day," the paper quoted him as saying.

MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) 

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http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Russian-Cultural-Days-to-be-held-in-three-major-cities/201011/121300.vov

The event’s opening ceremony will take place at Hanoi Opera House on November 15.

This is the second time Cultural Days are organised in Vietnam, with the aim of strengthening Vietnamese-Russian traditional cultural cooperative exchanges, and carry out the agreement between Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Russia’s Ministry of Culture.

It is expected to attract 75 Russian artists of three arts troupes. Also, under the framework of Russian Cultural Days in Vietnam, there will be Russian film week in the National Cinema Centre in Hanoi, Thang Long Cinema in Ho Chi Minh City and Le Do Cinema in Da Nang. An exchange between Russia’s famous artists and teachers and students in HCM City Conservatoire will take place.

Besides, an exhibition on Moscow will open on 29 Hang Bai street, bringing Vietnamese people and international friends to see more about unforgettable historical days 65 years ago.
Russian military base in Armenia part of southern military district

http://news.am/eng/news/37744.html

Russian Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov announced successful completion of reforms of Russia’s military administrative division.

RF President Dmitry Medvedev signed a relevant decree. Four military districts have been formed instead of the previous six districts.

Specifically, the Southern military district comprises the North Caucasian military districts, Black Sea and Caspian fleets, as well as the military bases in Armenia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.