Russian spy trial
threatens to
embarrass MI6
Amelia Gentleman in
Moscow and
Richard
Norton-Taylor
Thursday February
17, 2000
A mentally unstable
former Russian
diplomat who wrote
steamy spy thrillers
goes on trial for
treason in Moscow today,
accused of spying
for MI6.
In the final chapter
of a bizarre espionage
scandal that has
dragged on for almost
four years, the
long-awaited trial of Platon
Obukhov, a second
secretary at the
Russian foreign
ministry, threatens to
cause the British
intelligence service
considerable
embarrassment.
Mr Obukhov, 30, was
arrested in April
1996 by the federal
security service
(FSB), allegedly
while broadcasting
classified
information "of a political and
strategic defence
character" to MI6's
headquarters in
London.
The Moscow Times
identified his
controller as Norman
MacSween, who
was listed as a
counsellor in the British
embassy in Moscow.
If found guilty, Mr
Obukhov faces up to 20
more years'
mprisonment. The British
government has never
denied that he was
in contact with MI6.
Mr Obukhov's father,
Alexei, is a former
Soviet deputy
foreign minister and senior
disarmament
negotiator.
The arrest prompted
the worst spy row
between London and
Moscow since the
end of the cold war,
with Britain and
Russia each
expelling four diplomats. A
senior FSB official
heralded Mr Obukhov's
exposure as "one of
the biggest blows to
the world's oldest
and most experienced
intelligence
services".
The trial has been
postponed until now to
enable him to
undergo compulsory
psychiatric tests.
He was sent to the
Serbsky
psychological institute, the
notorious clinic
which used to declare
dissidents insane in
Soviet times.
Although Russian
officials concede that
the shock of Mr
Obukhov's arrest made
him temporarily
unbalanced, they claim
that he later
simulated mental illness to
evade the maximum
punishment.
Government doctors
say he is well
enough to stand
trial.
His parents insist
that he has been
psychologically
disturbed since childhood
- attempting several
times to kill himself
and set fire to the
family home - and that
he still suffers
from schizophrenia.
Footage showing Mr
Obukhov confessing
to his alleged
crimes was broadcast on
Russian television
soon after his arrest.
He was filmed in his
prison cell, grinning
strangely, rolling
his eyes and talking
incoherently,
dressed in a dunce's hat,
odd socks and
laceless gym shoes.
Russian television
also broadcast grainy
extracts, apparently
from surveillance
cameras, allegedly
showing him
transmitting
messages from a Moscow
trolleybus with a
sophisticated radio
device.
Alongside his
confession, he claimed that
he made contacts
with MI6 officials to
provide material for
his novels. Mr
Obukhov has
published 14 espionage
potboilers, brimming
with sex and
violence.
His mother, Olga,
said yesterday: "This is
a medical case and
not a spy case. I
don't know why the
British secret services
recruited a sick
person to work for them -
they behaved like
scoundrels. Now my
son is perishing in
a gulag."
Mr Obukhov's lawyer,
Galina Krylova,
spoke to him earlier
this week and
described his
condition as unpredictable.
"Sometimes he feels
alright, sometimes
he becomes extremely
aggressive. He
does not always
understand what is going
on around him."
She said he had not
received medical
treatment since
October 1998, when he
was moved from the
Serbsky institute to a
Moscow jail.
"Officials said he was faking
his madness and they
stopped his
treatment."
• Russia has more
spies than the United
States and the gap
has widened since the
cold war, the staff
director of the US
house of
representatives' intelligence
committee claims.
"Most places, it
[Russian intelligence] is a
factor of several
larger than the US
intelligence
presence, and that factor is
larger than it was
10 years ago," John
Millis told a
symposium at the
Smithsonian
institution.
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/international/0,2846,137454,00.html
