FSB Accuses West of Bankrolling Revolutions

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) head Nikolai Patrushev on Thursday accused US organizations of bankrolling political upheaval in Belarus, and charged the US, British, and other foreign intelligence services with using international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as covers for spy operations in Russia.

Addressing the Russian parliament, Patrushev - who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin - said that the directors of the offices of the US International Republican Institute (IRI), which has branches across the former Soviet republics, had recently convened in Slovakia to discuss ways to support “regime change” in Belarus.

“At the meeting they discussed the possibility of continuing orange revolutions,” Patrushev said, referring to the political upheaval in Ukraine last year that handed the country to the opposition’s Western-backed presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko.

The FSB head said the directors of the US institute had allocated US$5 million in aid to support the opposition in Belarus and to study the feasibility of recruiting Ukrainian activists to train them.

IRI spokeswoman Lisa Gates told the Associated Press on Thursday that the organization spent about US$500,000 annually in Belarus, but that none of that money went to political parties.

Recently, US President George Bush referred to Belarus as the “last dictatorship in Europe”, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was time for a change in the country.

Belarus is scheduled to hold presidential elections in June 2006.

President Aleksandar Lukashenka has ruled Belarus for the past 11 years and is widely viewed in the West as a dictator and an opponent of democracy. He is also often criticized for his support of the former authorities in Iraq and the current regime in Cuba.

A controversial referendum introduced by Lukashenka in 2004 abolished presidential term limits, allowing the president to seek a third term in next year’s election.

Patrushev also alleged that representatives of the secret services of other former Soviet republics had met in April to discuss the possibility of uprisings similar to those that led to regime changes in Georgia in 2003, in Ukraine in 2004, and in Kyrgyzstan this year.

On Thursday, Patrushev accused the US Peace Corps, the British medical charity Merlin, the Saudi Red Crescent relief organization, and the Kuwaiti Society of Social Reforms charity of serving as covers for “a series of espionage operations” that had been thwarted by the FSB.

He said the NGOs were engaged in the gathering of classified information and promoted the interests of the countries supporting them.

Patrushev called on the State Duma to pass a law to regulate the activities of foreign NGOs on Russian soil more strictly.

Western NGOs were the major channels for Western support of regime changes in Ukraine and Georgia.

In 2003, the Peace Corps was forced to cease operations in Russia after authorities there said that the country had developed to the point where it no longer needed assistance from the organization. Later, the FSB accused the Peace Corps - which has operated in Russia since 1993 - of spying.

Source: ISN Security Watch