Mos News
Friday, November 24, 2006

Russian Canada spying case is postponed while Russia says Moscow’s agents were handing over secret intelligence to help protect Canadian troops in Afghanistan, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday.

Last week, Montreal police arrested a man who Ottawa says is an elite Russian spy who had been living under a false Canadian identity for more than 10 years. Canada says the alleged Russian spy who went by the false name Paul William Hampel worked for Russia’s elite SVR foreign intelligence service. Ottawa wants him deported.

Georgy Mamedov, the Russian ambassador to Canada, said he knew nothing about the case. “I don’t run a spy shop here,” he said. “I don’t have any information about that.”

Mamedov stressed close ties between Russia’s spies and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). “It’s very important for our special services to concentrate on co-operation now. By the way, we are sharing intelligence information with CSIS about Afghanistan, which helps to keep your forces out of harm’s way,” he told CBC television.

In May, Mamedov told Canadian reporters that “your cannons are firing Russian ammunition in Afghanistan and your special forces are using small arms procured in Russia.”

Canada has 2,500 soldiers based in the southern Afghan region of Kandahar, scene of recent clashes with Taliban militants.

No one at CSIS or the Defense Department was immediately available for comment.