Russia expels Israel military attache

[Prapor]

18 May 2011 Last updated at 15:36 ET

Russia expels Israel military attache 'for spying'


Russia has expelled the Israeli military attache to Moscow after accusing him of espionage, the Israeli military has confirmed.
Col Vadim Leiderman was questioned 10 days ago, given 48 hours to leave and is back in Israel after claiming diplomatic immunity.
The Russian government has not commented officially.
However, the Israeli army said it had investigated the claims and believed them unfounded.
Israeli media said Col Leiderman was taken from a cafe or restaurant and accused by Russian intelligence of passing sensitive information to Israel.
A joint statement by Israel's defence ministry and the military spokesman's office said: "The [Israel Defence Forces] military attache and ministry of defence representative in Russia, an IDF colonel, was detained for investigation last week by Russian authorities, on suspicion of spying.
"Security authorities in Israel completed a thorough investigation and concluded that these claims were unfounded."
Israel's Haaretz daily said there had been a gagging order on reporting the matter until Wednesday evening.
Israel has expressed concern recently at Russia's nuclear co-operation with Iran and arms sales to Syria, Agence France-Presse news agency reports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13449292

 

[84RFK]

It could mean:

a) The Israeli Military Attaché was simply doing his job, including passing information (also sensitive information) to his superiors in Israel.

b) The Russian government needed to express some kind of dissatisfaction with Israeli conduct/politics.

The historical solution in such cases is to expel some diplomatic personel.
The real cause for this may never be known by the public.

 

[Korean Seaboy]

Agreed, 84RFK. What is the real cause will never be known, unless either Russia or Israel publishes it decades later when the information will become useless....