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Accused German linked to spy flap, Russian agent’s whereabouts unclear
Belarus KGB transfers detained US lawyer to state psychiatric hospital
Students offered Belarusian KGB head to play toys, not human destinies
Latvian parliament re-appoints Janis Kazocins as Constitution Protection Bureau chief for next term
Russian Defence Ministry not yet received any request from Chechen parliament regarding dismissal of Vostok commander
Accused German linked to spy flap, Russian agent’s whereabouts unclear
A German citizen charged with selling sensitive technology information to Russia is a key figure in a mysterious spy case involving a former Federal Space Agency official that jarred Russian-Austrian relations last year, The Moscow Times reports.
AIA reported last week that German authorities had charged a 44-year-old native of Bavaria with passing sensitive documents to “a member of a Russian intelligence service.”
Interviews with officials familiar with the case made it clear that the Russian intelligence officer referred to by German prosecutors is the former Federal Space Agency official Vladimir Vozhzhov, who was arrested on spy charges in Austria last June and released after it turned out he had diplomatic immunity as a member of a United Nations conference,The Moscow Times says. German prosecutors identified the suspect only as Werner G.; meanwhile a member of the Austrian parliament said the accused is Werner Greipl, a former employee of Eurocopter, the helicopter subsidiary of European aerospace giant EADS, in which Russia holds a stake, the paper expands.
Austrian lawmaker Manfred Haimbuchner, referring to a “reliable” source in the Austrian military, said Greipl had known Vozhzhov since 1997, when they met at Eurocopter’s factory outside Munich during Vozhzhov’s visit together with Austrian military officials. Eurocopter’s spokeswoman Christina Gotzhein said Greipl had worked as an engineer for Eurocopter before 2000. According to media reports, Vozhzhov purchased classified information about the French-German combat helicopter Tiger, produced by Eurocopter. He paid up to 20,000 euros ($26,600) for information at each meeting with his contact, the Austrian magazine Profil reported in January.
Greipl, a helicopter pilot and engineer, was detained by German police in April 2007 and later admitted to divulging company documents, Profil noted.
Greipl’s statements to police were reportedly crucial in leading Austrian authorities to Vozhzhov, suggesting that the Russian official’s arrest at the Salzburg train station in June was a sting operation. The arresting Austrian authorities were acting on their own investigation and detained an Austrian warrant officer on spying charges along with Vozhzhov. Gerhard Jarosch, a spokesman for Austrian prosecutors, said the case against Vozhzhov and the warrant officer was ongoing. The Moscow Times marks that Vozhzhov’s current whereabouts were unclear. An employee of the Russian Federal Space Agency’s foreign relations department, where Vozhzhov had been a deputy head, said he no longer worked there. An Austrian aviation journalist said he had not heard from Vozhzhov since seeing him briefly at the MAKS air show outside Moscow last summer.
And yet the Salzburg case is only the most spectacular example so far out of an entire series of attempts by the Russian intelligence agencies to steal German military technology. The GRU has been especially active, attempting to recruit informers in the German military and in military companies with an intensity unknown since the end of the Cold War, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel marks.
Belarus KGB transfers detained US lawyer to state psychiatric hospital
The US State Department is denouncing Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) for secretly transferring imprisoned American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser, 54, to a psychiatric hospital, The New York Sun reports.
Emanuel Zeltser was arrested at Minsk airport March 12 by Belarusian KGB for allegedly dealing in forged documents. Zeltser faces three years in prison if convicted, The Associated Press notes. An attorney assigned to Zeltser by the state said that he would try to have him returned to the KGB prison.
The lawyer suffers from diabetes, gout, and other health problems for which he needs medication. According to the American Embassy spokesman, Belarus provided no "timely notification" of the arrest, nor did it inform the American Embassy of the prisoner's "recent transfer to a state psychiatric hospital."
The New York Sun reported last week that the arrest was linked to a battle over the multibillion-dollar estate of a Georgian-born businessman, Arkady Patarkatsishvili, a former Zeltser's client.
New York-based brother of the American lawyer, Mark Zeltser, said that the Belarusian KGB is allowing 54-year-old lawyer Emanuel Zeltser only one of the four sets of tablets he has been taking for the last 15 years to treat his diabetes, according to International Herald Tribune. Mark Zeltser says he has written a letter to prosecutors in Belarus saying that "Emanuel is dying in prison." The KGB has refused to comment, the paper marks.
Students offered Belarusian KGB head to play toys, not human destinies
Solidarity actions with Belarusian political prisoners and participants of rally of entrepreneurs held 10 January in Minsk took place in Vilnius (Lithuania) and Narva (Estonia), online paper Khartiya’ 98 reports.
The action in Vilnius was organised by student association of the European Humanitarian University. As BelaPAN news agency learnt from Kiryl Atamanchyk, activist of the StudAlliance youth initiative, young people placed a stand near the Belarusian embassy in Lithuania with an inscription “Play toys, not human destinies!” Young people laid toys to portraits of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Minister of Interior Vladimir Naumov and KGB chairman Yury Zhadobin. Students spread the information materials among passers-by about trail over participants of entrepreneurs’ rally.
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