DATE=11/30/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / U-S / ESPIONAGE (S)
NUMBER=2-256652
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  Russian security services have briefly 
detained a junior U-S diplomat in Moscow who they say 
was trying to obtain Russian government secrets.  V-O-
A's Peter Heinlein in Moscow reports.

TEXT:  A spokesman for Russia's Federal Security 
Service says a second secretary at the U-S embassy in 
Moscow was detained late Monday during what was 
described as a spy operation.  The young woman was 
taken into custody, but later released to embassy 
officials.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted security 
service spokesman Alexander Zdanovich as saying the 
diplomat had tried to receive information of a 
military-strategic nature that constitutes a Russian 
state secret.

A U-S embassy spokesman could neither confirm nor deny 
the incident.

The diplomat's detention came the same day as an 
announcement in Washington that a U-S Navy petty 
officer had been accused of giving secret defense 
information to Russia in 1994.

            ///  UNVOICED OPT  ///

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov issued a 
statement Tuesday saying he hopes the detention of the 
embassy official does  not  interfere with relations 
between Moscow and Washington.  "But", he added "it 
will  not  help improve the climate of relations."  
(Signed)

NEB/PFH/JWH/gm



30-Nov-1999 04:57 AM EDT (30-Nov-1999 0957 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.