Russian authorities have detained a 55-year-old resident from the city of Khabarovsk accused of “treason” for transmitting information to the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service — a partner agency in the Five Eyes alliance with Australia.
According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the man who was not identified by name, was alleged to have gathered and shared information “that could be used against Russia’s national security”.
Video released by the FSB showed officers rushing over to the man on a street pavement and pinning him to the ground before locking him in handcuffs, as well as police searching his home where they uncovered large amounts of US dollar bills.
The FSB said in a statement it had “identified and stopped the illegal activity of a citizen of the Russian Federation suspected of committing treason” and claimed he had “proactively” established contact with the NZSIS for “selfish motives”.
In a separate statement to the TASS news agency, the FSB claimed New Zealand had “recruited” the Russian man to gather intelligence on the country’s defence cooperation with nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters and the minister with responsibility for the country’s spy agencies Chris Penk on Tuesday directed questions to the NZSIS.
“I’ve seen the reports overnight in the Russian media. These matters, if true, that would be operational in nature. So we make a practice, and it’s been a long-standing practice of not commenting on those,” Minister Penk told reporters in Wellington.
“We don’t comment on matters alleged, including and especially in overseas media that may or may not have taken place.”
Minister Penk would also not be drawn on whether the Russians had been in contact with New Zealand and would not say whether his government had ever conducted espionage on other nations.
“I would love to give reassurance, but to breach the long-standing practice around not commenting on operational matters wouldn’t be the right thing for me to do.”
“I don’t think it would be in the public interest, and perhaps New Zealanders who are weighing the nature of the claims might consider its source and draw any conclusions in terms of the likelihood of that being accurate or not,” he said.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was similarly tight-lipped saying he had seen the reports, adding: “I don’t comment on security intelligence issues, and I’d encourage you to talk directly to the NZSIS”.
A spokesperson for the NZSIS told Radio New Zealand that the agency had a long-standing practice of not commenting on what “may or may not be operational matters”.
“It should also be noted that Russian state media are often not the most reliable source of accurate reporting,” the spokesperson said.
Russia’s Ambassador to New Zealand, Stanislav Krans, said it has come to the attention of the Russian embassy the FSB had “identified and suppressed unlawful actions by a Russian citizen suspected of committing a crime of high treason”.
“According to the FSB, the suspect has provided the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service with information which could be used against the security of Russia. The investigation is currently underway,” he said.
New Zealand, like Australia, has been a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, and has slapped heavy sanctions against Moscow.
While the Putin regime has regularly accused foreign nationals — mostly Americans — of spying in Russia, this week’s incident is believed to be the first time New Zealand has been linked to espionage claims by Moscow.
New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes alliance with the UK, US, Canada and Australia vowed to rid itself of Russian spies in 2018 following the Salisbury nerve agent attack against a former GRU agent and his daughter but couldn’t identify any “undeclared intelligence officers”.
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