02.06.2005

Russian FSB Against the Arab Secret Services Hakam Aql, AIA middle-eastern section Contents of the review:

* Kuwaiti "riddle" of the Russian counterespionage

* Special services of the Kremlin: complex relations with Persian Gulf monarchies

* The new affair between the secret services of Palestine and Russia



Attack on Kuwait



On May 12, director of Russian Federal Security Services (FSB) Nikolay Patrushev publicly accused Kuwait and Saudi Arabia of conducting spying activities on Russian territory. The acts of espionage by the Kuwaiti and Saudi secret services were carried out under cover of the nongovernmental organizations working in Russia, he claimed. In this connection, the head of FSB has named the Organization of the Red Crescent (Saudi Arabia) and the Society of Social Reforms (Kuwait).

Representatives of Moscow long ago accused Saudi Arabia of supporting North Caucasian separatists, as early as the first war in the Chechen Republic (1994-96). However, Kuwait was accused of such actions at an official level for the first time in history.

The Islamic charitable organization, the Social Reform Society (SRS,) with headquarters in Kuwait, was established in 1963. Its representatives and branches render humanitarian help to the Muslim populations in more than in 30 countries of the world. The local authorities registered the Moscow branch of SRS in 1993. Later, branches of this organization opened up in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. Up to the end of 2000, their employees freely conducted their activities in the countries of CIS. In Northern Caucasus and in Kazakhstan the distribution of the foodstuffs to refugees and needy was carried out. In Kyrgyzia and Kazakhstan boarding schools for orphans were opened, and in Tatarstan and Kyrgyzia new mosques were erected. The largest project of SRS in the former Soviet republics was the Southern- Kazakhstan Humanitarian Academy, which was opened in 1999. It was a unique educational institution in Kazakhstan, providing secular education free-of-charge for teenagers without parents and those from needy families. It was functioning under the permit and constant control of the authorities.

On October 17, 2000, FSB agents unexpectedly appeared at Moscow's branch of SRS. That very day this security service distributed a communiqué in which the Kuwaiti organization was accused of anti-governmental activity and connections with the notorious Muslim Brothers Association. According to the one former SRS employee in Moscow, such sudden "enlightenment" of the FSB regarding "terrorist connections," happened as a result of the refusal of the head of the branch Ramiz Halitov to give a large bribe to a certain high-ranking official in Moscow.

In January, 2003, FSB s prepared a "black list" for the State Office of the Public Prosecutor, of terrorist organizations conducting activities in Russia. SRS appeared on the list. The following month the Supreme Court of Russia outlawed all these organizations. In April 2003 a representative of the State Office of Public Prosecutor, Maria Petrik, announced that "the reason for closing Moscow's branch of the Social Reform Society was its infringements of the federal law on public associations." This statement contradicted the official version of the Supreme Court, which accused the Kuwaiti organization of terrorist activity.

In Spring, 2004, under pressure from Russia, the Kazakh authorities refused torenew the license of the Southern-Kazakhstan Humanitarian Academy. A year later, under the initiative of the Kazakh National Security Service, (the main partner of the Russian special services in the Central Asia) the Supreme Court of the Republic also declared SRS a terrorist organization.

Moscow's representatives also have tried to instigate persecutions against SRS in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzia. In the first case Rafik Aliev. the head of the Azeri state committee on religious organizations, reacted as follows: "we do not have data on the connections between the Muslim Brothers Association and any humanitarian or public organization in Azerbaijan" (14.08.2001).

Strangely enough, the authorities in Bishkek, who usually strive to satisfy any inquiries by Moscow, in this case reacted in the similar way. ”The Kuwaiti Social Reform Society is registered with the Ministry of Justice and operates legally in the Republic," the head of Spiritual Management of Muslims of Kyrgyzia Usur Azhi-Loma declared in June, 2004. Half a year before that announcement, the Supreme Court of the Republic published a Kyrgyz "black list" of terrorist organizations. The SRS was not on that list.

Interestingly enough, in his statement in May, 2005 the head of FSB said nothing about the SRS involvement in terrorism, unlike the verdict of the Supreme Court of Russia. Patrushev's statement that special services of Kuwait operate in Russia under cover of the Social Reform Society caused even greater bewilderment. The chief of counterespionage should have know that since February 2003, when the Supreme court declared SRS a terrorist organization, all its representatives left Russian territory. And yet another strange thing; even in the heat of the campaign against Social Reform Society, neither FSB nor other Russian bodies announced any connection between these organizations and the government of Kuwait. Moscow has accused this state of complicity in terrorism or espionage activity.

Naturally, such a sudden propaganda attack caused ae sharp protest from official Kuwait. Its ambassador in Moscow transferred a special note to the deputy head of the Middle East and Northern Africa Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this note Patrushev's charges are called absolutely groundless. To understand, the reason behind the FSB attacks on Kuwait, it is necessary to pay examine the general background of his statement. The essence of this speech may be reduced to the charges in address of the USA and Britain, ostensibly promoting realization of "Velvet Revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzia. According to Patrushev, change of regimes in these ex-Soviet republics led to the decrease of Russian influence on the CIS countries. In this connection it becomes clear, that Kuwait was selected as a target only because of its close connection with the West. In the Kremlin's opinion this small country is the main advanced post of the American presence at the Persian Gulf. Even after a certain degree of cooling in the relations between Er-Riyadh and Washington at the last years, Al Kuwait remained true to its pro-American policy.

Having failed to prevent "Velvet Revolutions" in the former colonies, the Russian leadership is trying now to find the enemy ostensibly guilty in "the spreading of the western democracy" in the CIS countries. The USA and Britain, and also "their henchmen among the most reactionary Arab regimes" have been selected for this purpose in the best traditions of the Soviet period.



Cooperation with Oman



Patrushev's accusations directed against Kuwait are not the first instance of the"active participation" of the secret services in Moscow's relations with the monarchies of the Persian Gulf. In February of last yea, two agents of the Russian intelligence were detained in Qatar on suspicion in the murder of the ex-president of the Chechen Republic.

Moscow's response (on FSB's initiative) was the arrest at the airport of two Qatar sportsmen – wrestlers. They were on transit flight from Belarus to Serbia where were supposed to take part in preparatory competitions before the Olympic games of 2004. The FSB investigators accused both sportsmen in connections with "illegal armed forces of the Chechen Republic".

To this it is possible to add the liquidation of somebody called Jerah, who had been participating in military actions against Northern Caucasus from the rebel's side. He was killed five days after Nikolay Patrushev's statement. In the official message about his death, representatives of Russian security bodies brought focus on the detail that he was the citizen of Kuwait. Two months prior to that, the Russian authorities publicly accused other citizens of this Arab country of participation in the capture of the school in Beslan in September of last year.

All these events, of course, did not promote normal relations between Russia and the monarchies of the Persian Gulf. Probably, in an effort to lower tension after the statement of Patrushev, President Putin`s personal envoy on the issues of international cooperation in the struggle against terrorism and criminality, Anatoly Safonov, met the ambassador of Oman Mohammed Al Lawati, in Moscow on May 27. Safonov is a former colleague of the present Russian President. In the summer of 1995, he was a provisional head of FSB, thus, he is an expert in the supervised questions, understanding perfectly the details of the complicated relations between Russia and the Gulf countries. According to the message of the Russian Foreign Minister, at his meeting with the ambassador of Oman, "the emphasis has been made on strengthening interaction between the two countries in the struggle against the international terrorism". The paradox of the situation is in the fact that Kuwait is the main partner of Oman in this sphere! In May, 2004 the heads of the Ministries of Internal Affairs of these two countries inked an Agreement on strategic partnership in struggle against terrorism, within the framework of the Cooperation Council of the countries of Persian Gulf…



Struggle for Palestine



The discussion over the activization of Russia's participation in rendering assistance to the Palestinian special services proceeded throughout May. This issue was the main one during the negotiations by the head of the presidential office of Palestine Taeb Abed el-Rahim (former PLO ambassador to Yugoslavia), when he visited Moscow at the beginning of month. It was also discussed at the meeting of the representatives of the "Quartet" on conflict resolution in the Middle-East,, which took place in the Russian capital on May 8. As the speaker of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Yakovenko, declared after the meeting: "we are ready to grant technical assistance to the Palestinian security bodies and to help in training of its staff."

The possible activization of Russian-Palestinian cooperation in the field of special services was mentioned for the first time by head of the Foreign Ministry, Sergey Lavrov, during his visit to Kazakhstan on February 25. He said, "we are contributing to rendering support to the Palestinian security services and we already have delivered to them some technical equipment. We also are considering additional Palestinian appeals. The leadership of Russia tends to supports these requests. I think that decisions will be made in the near future on these questions." Three days later, in London, Lavrov added: "At the given stage we study a number of offers on rendering additional help to Palestine, among them ... a professional training and a hardware supply of the Palestinian security bodies".

In many respects the secret services of Palestine owe their existence to Moscow and its former partners in the Warsaw bloc. From the beginning of the seventies up to the end of the eighties, the Soviet Union and its East European satellites, primarily East Germany and Romania were the main patrons of PLO special units. Cooperation of the Soviet special services with Palestinians included an exchange of intelligence information, rendering of technical help and professional training (since 1974 directly in the territory of the USSR). In the middle of the eighties the attitudes between Moscow and PLO's political leadership have grown somewhat cold. However, this was not reflected in the bilateral connections between the special services. External and military intelligence of the USSR (KGB and GRU) in their activity in the Middle East were bypassing the official Kremlin's leadership’s control more and more obviously. Fiercely competing with each other, they actively participated in quarrels between various PLO groups, secretly continued to supply weapons, and through them marketed military equipment and ammunition to different fighting forces in the number of the countries of the Arab East such as

Yemen.) It was not seldom that as the result of an attack of "unidentified fighters" or sudden shelling of the convoys the “goods” "disappeared on road to the official customer. The corresponding messages went to Moscow, and huge amounts of money arrived in the secret Swiss accounts of a narrow circle of party bosses and heads of the Soviet special services. It happened up to 1990-91. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the beginning of Oslo process have put an end to close confidential connections between Moscow and the Palestinians. They renewed only in the middle of the nineties. In 1995 the security services of Palestine received 45 armored troop carriers from Russia. Simultaneously the group of the Palestinian special services agents left for training in Russia. The Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Sergey Stepashin, former head of the Russian counterespionage. visited Gaza in 1998. In 2000 FSB and the Service of General Security of Palestine signed the cooperation agreement, which was prepared by a special joint working group. At the end of last year the adviser of the Palestinian President on national security, Jibril Rajoub, (one of key figures in intelligence bodies of Palestine) visited Moscow.

Mahmoud Abbas` election to the post of the President (January 2005) created extremely favorable conditions for activization of cooperation of the secret services of Palestine and Russia. A number of influential persons - Abbas` environs, show discontent with the determining role in the Middle-Eastern process being played by the USA, which is to patronizing Israel. They hope for activization of Russia in region, and support rapprochement with Moscow. The most outstanding figure in this group is the Minister of Internal Affairs Nasser Yussef. He received high education in Russia, and supervises today, all power and secret bodies of Palestine.

Before Arafat's death, Abbas maintained the closest relations with Russia from all the Palestinian politicians. Some representatives of Moscow privately supported his actions against the late President. The Russian secret services even transferred to Mahmoud Abbas the classified information on attempt to murder him ostensibly prepared by Arafat's supporters. As a result Abbas began to trust his Russian friends even more. Today the leader of Palestine outwardly aspires to get the maximal support of the USA before the renewal of negotiating process after Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. However, in veiled ways he supports Nasser Yussef and other supporters of the pro-Russian course in the Palestinian foreign policy. This resulted in the appeals to Russia on rendering assistance to security services of Palestine.

As a consequence, Moscow received real chance to take an appreciable place among foreign partners of the Palestinian security services and by that to push away the USA and their allies - Egypt and Britain. If Russia succeeds, then its cooperation with Palestine in this sphere becomes the jumping-off place to the Kremlin`s efforts on activization in the zone of the Middle-Eastern conflict.



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