By Country / Iraq

Russian Intelligence Denies Moscow Passed Info To Iraq

March 25, 2006 -- Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service today denied that Moscow provided information on U.S. troop movements and plans to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov said similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia's intelligence have been made "more than once" in the past.

He said the service does not "consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications."

A U.S. Pentagon report released on March 24 cited two captured Iraqi documents as saying that the Russians collected information from sources "inside the American Central Command".

It said that battlefield intelligence was provided to then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad.
    
(AP, AFP, dpa)