Eye Spy - May 2018

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018 61

Anatoly Kargapolov Senior Consul Consulate General of the Russian

Federation and staffers in New York City

CANADA: Ottawa said it was expelling four

Russian diplomats alleged to be intelligence

officers “or individuals who have used their

diplomatic status to undermine Canada’s

security or interfere in our democracy.”

Additionally it was refusing three applications

by Moscow for additional diplomatic staff.

“The nerve agent attack represents a clear

threat to the rules-based international order

and to the rules that were established by the

international community to ensure chemical

weapons would never again destroy human

lives,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

Chrystia Freeland

MACEDONIA: The Macedonian Ministry of

Foreign Affairs said it would be expelling one

Russian diplomat in response to the Skripal

case.

NORWAY: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

expelled one Russian diplomat in response to

the attack. “The use of a nerve agent in

Salisbury is a very serious matter,” Norwegian

Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said in a

statement. “Such an incident must have

consequences.”

UKRAINE: President Petro Poroshenko said

Ukraine, which has experienced years of

hostility from Russia, including the annexation

of Crimea, would expel 13 diplomats. “Russia

has again reconfirmed its disdainful attitude to

the sovereignty of independent states and the

value of human life,” Poroshenko said.

UNITED STATES: Acting on intelligence

dossiers provided by the CIA, FBI and NSA,

America expelled 60 Russian intelligence

people and announced the closure of the

Russian consulate in Seattle.

Ine Eriksen

Soreide

Petro Poroshenko

EYE SPY EDITORIAL NOTES

Russia’s Ambassador to America,

Anatoly Antonov, issued a stern

warning to the UK and USA

hose engaged in the world of

espionage are always vulnerable to

Tcapture or worse. However, there is

MYRIAD OF POSSIBILITIES AND EXCUSES - CODE OF CONDUCT BROKEN

an unwritten code of conduct between

adversaries that any captured spy exchanged

for another, will not suffer retribution. Russia

seems to have opted out of this order. The

mass expulsion of Russian intelligence

officers from over 20 countries may seem

impressive, but losing the odd spook from

most embassies or missions affected, will

hardly dent Russia’s intelligence collection

capability. One former MI6 man told Eye Spy:

“Collectively the figures seem impressive, but

the United States, Britain and Ukraine

withstanding, the actions could be viewed as

‘token gestures’ - and it certainly won’t stop

Russia spying. Within a short period of time,

the single expelled officers will be replaced.”

Satire, propaganda, distasteful language (from

both Russia and the UK), plus the odd

reference to nuclear weapons. Kremlin-

sponsored media fronts have certainly fought

President Putin’s corner and are dismissive of

the international response.

Kirill Kleimenov, a newsreader on Russian

state-controlled television Channel One,

presented a story on the poisoning of Sergei

Skripal and carefully inserted a Kremlin