NewsMax.com
Monday, March 19, 2001

The New York Times said that Vladimir Frolov, who came to be regarded among American journalists and experts at Washington policy organizations as a reliable, candid observer of United States-Russian relations, has mysteriously cut short his second tour of duty in the United States.

That's because all the while he's been an officer in the S.V.R, Russia's foreign intelligence service, say officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The speculation is that Frolov's departure may be related to the recent arrest of FBI counterspy Robert P. Hanssen on charges of spying for Russia.

And it may have been no coincidence that it occurred at the very time the Bush-Cheney administration is known to have been deliberating whether to demand Moscow recall some of its intelligence agents who have been working, as they often do, under cover of diplomatic immunity in this country.

In other words, did Frolov get out of Dodge just a step ahead of being put on the stage by a U.S. marshal?

No, no, nothing like that, the popular Frolov told reporter acquaintances in Washington, it was simply a matter of his yearning to return to the days of yesterday when he was a reporter. So there was this opening, see, on the newspaper Izvestia back home in Moscow, and, well, it was just too good to pass up.

He wasn't forced to leave by the U.S. government? What an unkind thought.

Then maybe his Russian employers acted to beat the State Department to the draw, and whistled him home before he was sent packing? That's the impression some U.S. officials are giving.

When the Times asked the spokesman for Russia's foreign intelligence service, Boris Labusov, if Frolov's precipitous departure was related to the Americans' arrest of Hanssen, he replied, "Let it remain on their conscience."

Whatever that means.

Whatever, Frolov will be covering whatever he's assigned to cover by the editors of Izvestia. Or maybe vice versa.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Hanssen Case
Russia
Bush Administration

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