Georgian-Russian Spy Row Preceded Vice President Joe Biden's Visit to Tbilisi

by Alexander Melikishvili

On Tuesday, July 21, on the eve of the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's July 22-23 official visit to Tbilisi, the Georgian television company Imedi aired a news report in which the Secretary of Georgia's National Security Council Eka Tkeshelashvili stated that Georgia refused the entry to two unnamed Russian diplomats, who were supposed to assume their responsibilities at the Russian Federation's interest section* in the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia as part of the regular cadre rotation. According to Tkeshelashvili, the Georgian government's refusal was based on the suspicion that the two were engaged in espionage activities and were affiliated with the Russian intelligence services. In her comments to Imedi regarding the diplomatic scandal, Tkeshelashvili noted,

"It is a sovereign right of any state to identify those people, who work at the diplomatic representations. Each country has the right to allow or to refuse the entry to diplomats, against whom there may be serious suspicions that they work for other services."

In response, the Russian side ordered two Georgian diplomats, including the Consul of Georgia in the Russian Federation, Zurab Pataradze, who was declared persona non grata, to leave Moscow. According to the Imedi news report, the diplomatic row took place two weeks ago. Although, later an unnamed Georgian government source told The Moscow Times that the reciprocal expulsions occurred in May.

However, the Russian side disputed the details of the diplomatic row and provided a pointed interpretation of why it was publicized by officials in Tbilisi. A Russian diplomatic source told the Russian news agency Interfax that the "exchange of diplomats" occurred in April and that neither of the two Georgian diplomats was declared persona non grata. Officially they were simply recalled and the two sides agreed not to use the incident for public relations purposes against each other, according to a source in Interfax with contacts in Russian diplomatic circles. On July 21, responding to Tkeshelashvili, the official spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Nesterenko stated,

"Any action taken by this side or that, which deviates from customary practice, is, of course, regretful. A diplomat's work entails rotation of cadres and in this regard Russia follows the appropriate agreements. Usually in such cases, if a justification [for expulsion] is not based on logic or diplomatic explanation then, as a rule, adequate steps are taken in order to maintain the normal diplomatic parity."

The significance of the row can also be judged by the fact that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov found it necessary to comment on the sidelines of the 16th session of the ASEAN Regional Security Forum in Phuket, Thailand. Lavrov confirmed that the incident took place "some months ago" and added, "The Georgians had asked us not to publicize it, yet now they did it themselves and I have difficulties telling you why." Finally, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin interpreted the diplomatic scandal as yet another demonstration of the Georgian government's anti-Russian policy timed to coincide with Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Tbilisi. Karasin derisively noted, "The Georgians are clumsily trying to use the spy theme to show their high-ranking guest their presumed strength and resolve."

* NOTE: Since the August 2008 war, diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia have been significantly downgraded to the level of interest sections which mainly handle consular and limited diplomatic affairs. At present the Georgian interest section at the Embassy of Switzerland in Moscow and the Russian interest section at the Embassy of Switzerland in Tbilisi represent the only diplomatic presence of the two countries on each other's territory.

NATO Expels Two Russian Diplomats

On Wednesday, April 29, on the same day that NATO and Russia formally resumed contacts since they were broken off eight months ago in the aftermath of the Russia-Georgia war, the accreditation of two diplomats from Russia's 50-member strong Permanent Mission to NATO was revoked and they were ordered to leave Brussels. The expulsion of Russian diplomats - senior adviser and political desk chief Viktor N. Kochukov and attaché and executive secretary Vasily V. Chizhov - was in retaliation for the spy scandal involving a high-ranking Estonian defense and intelligence official Herman Simm. Mr. Simm, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in February, was arrested last year for passing 2,000 pages of classified information to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

It appears that Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin was personally informed about the expulsion of two Russian diplomats by the NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer after the ambassador-level meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) on Wednesday. According to Rogozin, Scheffer told him that NATO was outraged over Russia's spying activities against the alliance and its member states. According to NATO sources, even though the two Russian diplomats were not directly involved in the Simm affair, NATO had to respond in kind. The expulsion of Russian diplomats carries special significance considering that one of them is the son of Russia's Ambassador to EU, Vladimir A. Chizhov.

Russian Foreign Ministry reacted angrily to the expulsion of Russian diplomats calling it a "crude provocation" and Rogozin vowed as yet unspecified but "harsh and decisive" response. The timing of the incident is rather peculiar as both NATO and Russia are trying to revive ties badly strained after last year's conflict in Georgia. Thus far there have been no indications by the Russian side that the NRC meeting at the ministerial level scheduled for May 19 would be called off due to the spat over the expulsion of the Russian diplomats from Brussels.

In an exclusive commentary for the Jamestown Foundation Blog an Estonian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, characterized the expulsion of Russian diplomats as a significant precedent. First, by making the expulsion public at the time of the NRC ambassadorial meeting, which was supposed to restart the official relations, NATO sent an unusually strong message to Moscow. According to Estonian official, the assertion of some analysts, who think that the announcement was not intentional and that the NATO security team simply did not consider the diplomatic implications of the timing of the expulsion, seems highly improbable. It is more logical that NATO indeed decided to tell the Russians that it takes its own security seriously.

Second, Moscow's reaction to the expulsion of Russian diplomats will be interesting to observe. In a traditional diplomatic tit-for-tat, the Russians usually respond by expelling the same number of diplomats of the "relevant" country. In this case, however, it is unclear, who the Russians should expel. There is only one NATO official in Moscow. The nominal country that expelled the Russians was Belgium and the case was investigated by the Estonians. Moscow's reaction will be a new and interesting precedent in intelligence affairs. The Kremlin is facing a conundrum. By expelling Estonians the Russians would tacitly admit the guilt in the Simm case. By expelling officials of a bigger NATO country, they would send a Cold War-type message that implies that any attempt to restore good relations with NATO is doomed to be stillborn from the outset.

The Simm affair and NATO’s subsequent retaliatory expulsion of Russian diplomats follow the latest trend of intensified Russian espionage activities in the U.S. and allied countries. Sources have informed The Jamestown Foundation that the level of Russian espionage activities in the U.S. has significantly escalated and now even surpassed the threshold established during the Cold War. One of the recent demonstrations of this was a little reported row over the appointment of Russian defense attaché in Washington, DC. In mid 2008, the Russian military attaché in Canada, First Degree Captain Viktor Nikitin was declared persona non grata for engaging in espionage activities incompatible with his status as a foreign diplomat and was ordered to leave Ottawa by the Canadian authorities. The Russian government then tried to transfer Nikitin to the U.S., but Washington refused due to the NATO-wide ban on foreign diplomats accused of espionage in allied countries. In response, in January of this year the Russian government asked the senior American defense attaché Brigadier General Henry J. Nowak to leave Moscow. Nowak has been reassigned since then and now serves as the Deputy Director for Counterterrorism Issues at the Office for Strategic Plans and Policy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It appears that the Russia and U.S. decided to let bygones be bygones and resolved the dispute by a mutual appointment of new defense attachés.