Russia makes a point

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, DEC. 7. Lawyers for Mr. Edmond Pope denounced the trial of the U.S. businessman on charges of espionage and the verdict as a travesty of justice, arguing that the prosecution had failed to prove the American's guilt.

A former U.S. intelligence officer, Mr. Pope was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Russia on charges of espionage in what analysts said was a signal that Russia was serious about defending its national interests. Mr. Pope was found guilty by a Moscow court on Wednesday of illegally obtaining classified blueprints for a high-speed Russian torpedo and handed down a maximum prison term of 20 years. He is the first American to be tried and convicted of spying in Russia since the U2 spy plane pilot, Colonel Gary Powers, was shot down over the Soviet Union and sentenced to 10 years in jail in 1961. Since then Russia has expelled suspected spies.

The 54-year-old former Navy intelligence officer admitted purchasing blueprints for the Shkval torpedo from a Moscow-based scientist, but he argued the documents were already in the public domain (which left open the question why he had paid money for something that could be obtained free). Media reports said after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Western intelligence services had taken advantage of chaos and absence of a clear-cut legislation on State and commercial secrets in Russia to hunt for military and industrial knowhow.

Things started changing after the new President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, took over last May. Mr. Pope's Russian lawyer conceded that part of the problem was that the U.S. businessman had started collecting information in Russia in 1996, in a more open time, but the atmosphere had recently changed sharply. ``There are State secrets to protect in Russia and we have done and will do everything for their protection,'' Federal Security Service spokesman, Mr. Alexander Zdanovich, said commenting on Mr. Pope's sentence.

Analysts stressed political aspects of the trial. ``Russia is learning the art of making threatening gestures towards other countries to make them respect its interests without resorting to force,'' a Moscow daily quoted a Russian defence expert as saying.

Moscow ignored Washington's threats to retaliate and calls to release Mr. Pope on humanitarian grounds as he is said to be suffering from bone cancer.

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Section  : International
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