In this issue:

Ambassador Vershbow Provokes Diplomatic Scandal With Russia

Russia Wants UN Security Council To Meet On Iraq

Under Fire in Russia, Khodorkovsky Consorts With U.S. Influentials

Russian Foreign Minister Meets Palestinian Leadership, Arafat and Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas

Next U.S.-Russia Energy Meeting in September

From Volume 2, Issue Number 29 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published July 22, 2003
Russia and Central Asia News Digest

Ambassador Vershbow Provokes Diplomatic Scandal With Russia

In an interview with Interfax on July 12, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow provocatively asserted that Washington does not consider the Russian embassy in Iraq a "diplomatic mission" and "cannot accept responsibility for the security of its staff." The Russian Foreign Ministry responded with a sharply worded communiqué, noting that "since the present occupation of Iraq has no bearing on the existence of Iraq as a state, Iraq's diplomatic relationship with Russia continues." In particular, "Russian diplomats in Iraq retain their diplomatic status."

Furthermore, the Russian Foreign Ministry statement continues, "UN Security Council Resolution 1483 demands, that although an internationally recognized government of Iraq has yet to be formed, the 'occupying powers' are not absolved of 'their concrete responsibilities and conditions ... in correspondence with the norms of international law.' " The U.S. government is therefore obliged to honor "Russia's repeated requests" for the U.S. to "ensure the normal and secure functioning of the Russian embassy in Baghdad—especially since our countries had agreed at the highest level [presumably a reference to consultations between Putin and Bush] to cooperate closely on the post-conflict situation in Iraq."

Commenting on the background of this affair, Izvestia let loose the following bombshell story, referring to an unnamed source in the Russian Foreign Ministry: "When American forces seized Baghdad, a flood of [Iraqi] 'rioters' quickly looted representative buildings of the two states that had most actively opposed the U.S. military operation—the embassy of Germany and the French cultural center. According to Izvestia's information, the next in line was to be the Russian embassy. During two days, Moscow and Washington engaged in tense negotiations, both on the official and on the intelligence service level. During that period, the Russian Special Forces units, charged with protecting the embassy, had received the order to shoot to kill, in case aggressive crowds were to approach near to the building.

"It did not become necessary to fire. Moscow and Washington reached an agreement. The 'rioters' limited their pogroms to the French and Germans, and stayed away from the Russian embassy. It appeared that the problem had been solved, and there would be no further questions concerning the security of our embassy. But then, suddenly, the unexpected declaration by the U.S. Ambassador, and the sharp response from the Russian Foreign Ministry. A diplomatic scandal."

Interestingly, Izvestia accompanied this story with an article broadly covering former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and the Niger "yellow cake" story in the U.S., and entitled "Falsified information against Saddam may trigger 'Uran-gate.' " Izvestia notes that the "admission" by CIA director Tenet, has only compounded the growing mass of contradictions among various official statements from inside the U.S. government. "The Iraq war may backfire severely onto the Bush Administration," Izvestia concluded, drawing the comparison to the Watergate affair.

Russia Wants UN Security Council To Meet On Iraq

At a press conference after talks with Syrian President Assad in Damascus July 17, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reiterated Moscow's position that the situation in Iraq requires convening a UN Security Council session, which would hear a report from the UN Secretary General's representative, S. Vieira de Mello. Representatives of the new Provisional Governing Council in Iraq could be invited, while the purpose of the meeting would be for "the international community to determine further steps towards an Iraq settlement, above all in the interests of the Iraqi people."

Ivanov is touring the region as part of the Road Map Middle East peace process. He came to Syria from Jordan. On July 14, the Russian Foreign Minister was in Ramallah to visit Yasser Arafat, whom he called "the legitimate leader of Palestine." He met with Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas/Abu Mazen, who asked Russian help in getting the siege of Arafat's residence lifted. Ivanov said that Russia and the EU share Abbas' view that this is necessary, in order for the Road Map to proceed.

Under Fire in Russia, Khodorkovsky Consorts With U.S. Influentials

Even as police raided offices of Yukos Oil on July 11, in the fourth of five investigations of the company now under way, Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky travelled to the United States to attend the glitzey Wall Streeter Herb Allen's annual meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho. A U.S.-based intelligence source with business dealings in Russia reported to EIR that the trip, which lasted till July 16, would include an unpublicized meeting with Dick Cheney. Khodorkovsky has been in touch with Cheney and related U.S. oil circles, in connection with the Russia-USA Commercial Energy Dialogue.

The discussion of Khodorkovsky came up in the context of questions about U.S. policy, around the behavior of U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow, who provocatively demanded—around July 10—that the Russian government explain its investigation of Yukos.

Yukos oil is the second largest oil company in Russia (slated to become the largest, if its merger with Sibneft goes through), which is under investigation by the Russian government. The July 11 raids on its offices by armed Russian police followed the arrest, one week earlier, of Yukos partner Platon Lebedev, in a Prosecutor General's investigation of the allegedly illegal acquisition of a mineral company in 1994. Yukos chief Khodorkovsky has been questioned in that case and on tax matters; so have the corporate leaders of Yukos' prospective merger partner, Sibneft.

EIR is working on independently confirming the reported meeting with Cheney, because such a meeting intersects a number of important crimes in which the Cheney/Halliburton nexus is involved:

* Halliburton's Brown and Root is moving the looting of Iraqi oil to a new phase as of a meeting in Iraq, which discussed driving the Iraqi oil production up to 3 million barrels a day.

* Cheney has close ties to another Russian oligarchy group—Tyumen oil—which was also reportedly tied to organized-crime financier Marc Rich. When Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, he secured Eximbank credits for Tyumen oil, which was subsequently bought out by British Petroleum.

Vremya MN of July 12, according to RFE/RL Newsline, reported leaks from President Putin's meeting with Russian political and institutional leaders the previous day, to the effect that Putin had communicated to Khodorovsky through Volsky, "not to use the Sun Valley conference as a platform for airing his grievances against the Kremlin."

Upon his return to Moscow, Khodorkovsky made a statement at the airport. He tried to threaten that "there will be a significant outflow of capital," due to these attacks. Khodorkovsky said he "felt this in my meetings with powerful business people in the United States."

Russian Foreign Minister Meets Palestinian Leadership, Arafat and Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas

The Palestinian and Russian views on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process are identical, said a press statement from the Palestinian National Authority on July 14, following the meetings that visiting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov had with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and with Prime Minister Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas. Both leaders held separate press conferences with Ivanov.

After his meeting with Ivanov, Prime Minister Abu Mazen emphasized that "Arafat is, and will remain the legitimate President of the Palestinian people," in his press conference with Ivanov. This statement came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in London demanding that the British government and the Europeans cut off connections and meetings with Arafat, which the British government has rejected. Other Israeli officials were anonymously saying that they would "deport or arrest" Arafat if he "sabotages" the government of Abu Mazen. But these efforts to splinter the Palestinian leadership are being denounced as such by Palestinian journalists and others.

The meeting came following a tense week, in which Abu Mazen cancelled a scheduled a meeting with Sharon, amid protests from the Palestinian leadership bodies over the lack of Israeli motion on meeting the obligations spelled out in Phase I of the Road Map.

With Ivanov beside him, Abu Mazen told reporters that he had reviewed with the Russian Foreign Minister all of the points that the Palestinians are demanding from the Israelis, including "the necessity of releasing brother Abu Ammar (President Arafat) and to allow him to travel and depart wherever and whenever he wants." The other points were the Palestinian detainees release, the illegal settlements being shut down, "the (Apartheid) separation wall," and the Israeli roadblocks.

The same day, Arafat addressed the overall implementation of the Road Map with international support in his press conference with Ivanov. Arafat called for the Quartet (the U.S., UN, EU, and Russia) to have "direct supervision" of the implementation of the Road Map, but emphasized "we hope that the Quartet will quickly send international monitors and will at the same time start strict implementation of the Road Map on the ground."

Next U.S.-Russia Energy Meeting in September

Ambassador Alexander Vershbow—whose undiplomatic statements that Russian authorities should back off from the Yukos investigation have raised hackles in Moscow—said at an energy conference in Sakhalin July 17, that the green light is on for the next Russia-USA Commercial Energy Summit (of which Vice President Cheney and Khodorkovsky are prominent movers). That meeting is supposed to take place in St. Petersburg in September, focussing on the private pipeline project of Lukoil, Yukos, TNK (BP), and Sibneft, to export West Siberian crude to the United States via Murmansk.

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