Russia on Wednesday announced the arrest of a Chinese national who was allegedly trying to secure secret documents on S-300 missile systems while posing as an official interpreter.The Federal Security Service
... the successor to the KGB...
(FSB) said the arrest was made on October 28 last year but did not explain why it had failed to report the incident.
The announcement was made just a week before Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
begins a two-day state visit to Beijing aimed at reaffirming the neighbors' joint diplomatic clout and economic importance.
The FSB domestic security service identified the man as Tong Shengyong and said his case had been forwarded by prosecutors to the Moscow City Court on Tuesday.
"The investigation established that the Chinese national (was) working on assignment from the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China," FSB said in a statement.
It said the man had posed as an interpreter for "official delegations" and tried to purchase his data from Russian nationals. The espionage charge carries a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years.
The S-300 system is an older version of Russian surface-to-air missiles that Moscow has produced since the Soviet era and has since replaced with the more modern S-400.
China has a decades-long history of military ties with Russia and is one of its largest arms purchasers alongside India.
But Beijing has more recently launched the development of its own missile systems similar to those it used to purchase from Moscow.
Putin will in a week visit Beijing for two days for talks with counterpart Wen Jiabao
...Wen has a professional background in geology and engineering. Unlike most American politicians, he actually knows things. ...
and President Hu Jintao
...Hu has been involved in the Communist party bureaucracy for most of his adult life, meaning his viewpoint has a lot more theory than it does practice. He espouses a
Harmonious Societyapproach, suggesting everybody should play nice or they'll be shot...
in his first foreign trip since he announced plans to return next year to the Kremlin post he has already held in 2000-2008.
China and Russia have enjoyed close diplomatic and trade relations in the past decade while seeking to put behind them the border and other disputes that simmered in the Soviet era.
The two this week jointly vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Syria crackdown and share a deep-seated suspicion of foreign interference in their internal affairs.
China's growing reliance on its own weapons systems is one area hurting Russia directly as it struggles to keep its Soviet-era clients despite its waning list of modern technology.
The Chinese embassy in Moscow could not be reached for comment but analysts said they found the case mystifying because it's a delayed announcement and reference to old weapons.
"The S-300s have been delivered to different countries including China," said Alexander Konovalov of the Institute of Strategic Assessment.
"This is not how it usually happens," he added in reference to the delayed announcement.
The FSB statement said the alleged spy was also trying to secure system repair manuals that apparently were not a part of the Chinese arms purchase contract.