RUSSIA ACCUSES CIA OF ELABORATE PLOT

Airs Scheme On TV Allegations Of Mind-Altering Drugs And Invisible Ink

Moscow - Just weeks before President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to
host President Bush in a summit, Russia's intelligence agency accused
the CIA yesterday of trying to recruit spies, attempting to steal
military secrets and using such spy-novel techniques as mind-altering
drugs and invisible ink.

In a scene right out of the Cold War, Russia's national television
aired grainy footage last night allegedly showing CIA agents posing as
U.S. Embassy officials giving mind-altering drugs to an unsuspecting
Russian scientist at a secret Defense Ministry installation in an
unnamed former Soviet republic.

A spokesman for the Russian FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB,
identified the U.S. diplomats as Yunju Kensinger, a former third
secretary in the consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and
David Robertson, who held an unspecified post in a U.S. embassy in
another former Soviet republic.

U.S. Embassy officials in Moscow and CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield in
Langely, Va., declined to comment on the case. Agency officials say
they routinely decline to discuss foreign allegations of U.S. espionage.

Details of the bizarre allegations, which reportedly began a year ago,
were aired on the ORT network and broadcast across all nine time zones
in Russia.

According to an FSB spokesman -- who appeared on the broadcast with
his face blacked out -- the rocket scientist in the middle of the
alleged plot, identified only as Viktor, had gone to the U.S. Embassy
to find information about a relative who had gone missing abroad.

"Instead of help," said the ORT anchorman, "consular officials gave
the Russian scientist mind-altering drugs and tried to extract
classified information from him." The sought-after information
reportedly related to new Russian weaponry and Russian military
cooperation with former Soviet republics.

Viktor allegedly experienced memory loss from psychotropic drugs and
showed up at the Russian Embassy unable to remember even his own name.
When he finally regained his memory -- after psychiatric treatment,
said the Itar-Tass news agency -- he was used by Russian security
agents to uncover the alleged U. S. spy ring, the FSB spokesman said.

According to the Russian news reports, Viktor resumed contact with the
U.S. diplomats, who sent him an encrypted letter asking him to place
two classified documents in special "drop spots" in a Moscow park in
return for $15,000. The news reports included footage of the letter,
one alleged drop spot and the bundles of $100 bills allegedly left in
payment. The television broadcast also referred to messages written in
invisible ink.

Interviewed on the broadcast, an unidentified counterintelligence
officer said, "We got involved at an early stage, which allowed us to
thwart the leakage of classified information. . . . After we acquired
enough data to finish the operation, a decision was made to stop the
U.S. intelligence activity."

Some observers note the case comes at a time of rising tensions
between the United States and Russia -- over missile defense, trade
and other issues -- and of increased domestic criticism of Putin's
pro-American policies.

The post-Soviet warm spell in U.S.-Russian relations began to cool
noticeably after the U.S. imposed steel tariffs this year, which
Russia said would severely damage its metals industry. In what looked
like a retaliatory move, Russia banned U.S. poultry imports last
month, endangering the estimated $700 million a year business. The
U.S. expected the sanction to be lifted yesterday, but Russia opted to
extend the ban.

Relations were strained further when the United States recently
announced a plan to train and equip troops in the former Soviet
republic of Georgia to fight suspected Islamic terrorists supposedly
hiding in the remote Pankisi Gorge.

The political tension has been accompanied by growing anti-American
sentiment.

Recent polls by the National Public Opinion Research Center in Moscow
showed that 38 percent of Russians considered the United States to be
an enemy.

According to the polling agency, Russians have not felt this hostile
toward the United States since 1999, when thousands of people gathered
in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to protest NATO's bombing of
Yugoslavia.

A renewed spy war between the two countries erupted last year when the
FSB claimed to have uncovered more than 400 foreign spies. That year,
U.S. businessman Edmond Pope became the first American convicted of
spying in Russia in 40 years. Putin, a former head of the FSB,
pardoned Pope shortly after his conviction.

Last year, U.S. officials charged a 25-year FBI veteran, Robert
Hanssen, with leaking crucial information to Russia. In response,
Moscow ordered 50 U.S. diplomats to leave the country.