Reply #16: Russia says 'spies' work in foreign NGOs

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Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Friday May 13, 2005
The Guardian

Russia's security chief accused Britain and America of using civic groups as a front for spies yesterday, and blamed similar operations for fomenting recent uprisings in other former Soviet republics.

Nikolai Patrushev, the director of the KGB successor Federal Security Service (FSB), told parliament that his agency had uncovered spies working for the British and US governments, as well as for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, operating under cover of non-governmental organisations.

Among those he named was the British medical charity Merlin, which denied the allegation last night.

"Foreign secret services are ever more actively using non-traditional methods for their work and with the help of different NGOs' educational programmes are propagandising their interests, particularly in the former Soviet Union," Mr Patrushev said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1482966,00.html