Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
May 14, 2008 By C. J. Chivers
MOSCOW — The two American military attachés who were expelled from Russia early this month, days ahead of the Victory Day martial parade on Red Square, had made an uninvited visit to a military aviation factory in Siberia that Russia regards as strategic, several American officials said this week.
The visit occurred in late March at the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association, a plant that manufactures Sukhoi-34 fighter-bombers.
The two officers, an Army lieutenant colonel and a Navy lieutenant commander, appeared at the factory’s gates and were subsequently questioned by the surprised local authorities, according to three American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss the matter publicly.
The Russian government later asked for them to leave the country — a request the United States honored.
Neither the United States nor Russia has provided much information about the expulsions.
The more detailed account of the officers’ travels and the Russian reaction appeared to undercut the assertion last week by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the attachés had fallen victim to simple tit-for-tat retaliation for the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the United States.
It seemed instead, the American officials said, that the officers had erred in judgment by seeking access to a military plant without making advance arrangements.
The Foreign Ministry declined to comment after the expulsions were made public last week. The F.S.B., the domestic successor of the K.G.B., said it would review questions submitted in writing, but then refused to answer them upon receipt.
But the American officials said the officers, who worked at the United States Embassy in Moscow, had complied with all of the rules for American diplomatic travel in Russia.
Under those rules, American diplomats must give the Russian government three days’ notice before traveling, a practice that the American government requires of Russian diplomats in the United States as well.
But as a longstanding practice and matter of protocol, diplomats who hope to enter sensitive sites almost always make advance arrangements and receive invitations. That did not appear to have happened in this case.
The officials said the attachés’ visit was especially odd because Novosibirsk was a formally closed city in Soviet times, and its military plants and local authorities remain security-minded.
The expulsions became publicly known during Russia’s busiest political week of the year, and as the Kremlin was on the international stage. Vladimir V. Putin yielded the presidency to his protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, last week and then was confirmed as prime minister the next day. A day later, the first military parade with tanks and nuclear missile launchers since 1990 was held in Red Square.
But American officials rejected the idea that the expulsions had larger significance in the relations between the governments, or were retaliatory.
“It is our sense,” one of the officials said, “that what happened to these two guys was about them.”
Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington.
May 14, 2008 By C. J. Chivers
MOSCOW — The two American military attachés who were expelled from Russia early this month, days ahead of the Victory Day martial parade on Red Square, had made an uninvited visit to a military aviation factory in Siberia that Russia regards as strategic, several American officials said this week.
The visit occurred in late March at the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association, a plant that manufactures Sukhoi-34 fighter-bombers.
The two officers, an Army lieutenant colonel and a Navy lieutenant commander, appeared at the factory’s gates and were subsequently questioned by the surprised local authorities, according to three American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss the matter publicly.
The Russian government later asked for them to leave the country — a request the United States honored.
Neither the United States nor Russia has provided much information about the expulsions.
The more detailed account of the officers’ travels and the Russian reaction appeared to undercut the assertion last week by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the attachés had fallen victim to simple tit-for-tat retaliation for the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the United States.
It seemed instead, the American officials said, that the officers had erred in judgment by seeking access to a military plant without making advance arrangements.
The Foreign Ministry declined to comment after the expulsions were made public last week. The F.S.B., the domestic successor of the K.G.B., said it would review questions submitted in writing, but then refused to answer them upon receipt.
But the American officials said the officers, who worked at the United States Embassy in Moscow, had complied with all of the rules for American diplomatic travel in Russia.
Under those rules, American diplomats must give the Russian government three days’ notice before traveling, a practice that the American government requires of Russian diplomats in the United States as well.
But as a longstanding practice and matter of protocol, diplomats who hope to enter sensitive sites almost always make advance arrangements and receive invitations. That did not appear to have happened in this case.
The officials said the attachés’ visit was especially odd because Novosibirsk was a formally closed city in Soviet times, and its military plants and local authorities remain security-minded.
The expulsions became publicly known during Russia’s busiest political week of the year, and as the Kremlin was on the international stage. Vladimir V. Putin yielded the presidency to his protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, last week and then was confirmed as prime minister the next day. A day later, the first military parade with tanks and nuclear missile launchers since 1990 was held in Red Square.
But American officials rejected the idea that the expulsions had larger significance in the relations between the governments, or were retaliatory.
“It is our sense,” one of the officials said, “that what happened to these two guys was about them.”
Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington.