ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:95081502.WWE

DATE:08/15/95

TITLE:U.S. SAYS RUSSIAN CHARGES AGAINST CAPT. LYNCH 'ABSOLUTELY UNFOUNDED'



TEXT:

(Text: State Department statement) (190)



Washington -- The U.S. State Department refuted Russian charges August

11 that U.S. Army Captain Jason Lynch, a West Point instructor,

engaged in intelligence activities while in Russia recently.



Following is the text of an August 15 statement by David Johnson,

acting spokesman of the Department of State:



(Begin text)



As the press reported, a West Point instructor, U.S. Army Captain

Jason Lynch, left Russia as originally scheduled on Saturday following

an official Russian protest that he had engaged in intelligence

activities. Those charges are absolutely unfounded. Captain Lynch was

engaged in an environmental study of radiological contamination along

the Yenisey River in Eastern Siberia at the invitation of the

Institute of Biophysics. All of Captain Lynch's activities in Russia

were under the direction of and in conjunction with his Russian hosts.

On August 11, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made public

these unwarranted charges, which apparently originated with the

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Today, in Washington and

Moscow, we formally rejected the Russian complaint about Captain

Lynch's activities.



(End text)

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