Trouble at NATO's Borderlands: Espionage Involving Romanians, Bulgarians and some "non-NATO faction"

[Romano-Dacis]

http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_...garian-spy.htm

The Organized Crime and Terrorism Division of the Romanian Interior Ministry took into custody a Romanian low-rank officer, Floricel Achim, and a Bulgarian citizen, Marinov Zikolov. According to judicial sources, Achim sold state secrets to Zikolov, who sent it further to a non-ally state, through a complex network, organized as an intelligence service.

Achim and Zikolov have 29-days arrest warrants, but filed an appeal and expect a sentence for paroled release on Thursday. The Romanian non-commissioned officer admitted he was selling secrets for 1,000 US Dollars or less.

The Bulgarian citizen only said that he knew an Ukrainian official interested in military information.

The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) announced that the Counterespionage Division was monitoring Achim's actions since 2005. Even more, the Service already had data about Zikolov's activities. SRI did not confirm that the destination of the document stolen by Achim was Russia.

UPDATES: http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_...onage-case.htm

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry would not comment by Wednesday morning the information that Romania had expelled a diplomat following an espionage scandal in Bucharest, according to RIA Novosti. The statement comes as Romanian authorities on Monday arrested a Romanian low-rank officer and a Bulgarian citizen under suspicion of espionage for Ukraine.

The Romanian suspect is said to have delivered the Bulgarian a series of classified information including maps and technical data about radar installations and Romanian military units. The latter is suspected of having passed the data to an employee of the Ukrainian Embassy to Bucharest. News later appeared that the military attache of the Ukrainian Embassy was expelled from Romania.

Ria Novosti also reports unofficial information that because of the scandal Romanian president Traian Basescu had postponed his visit to Ukraine, which was scheduled for February 25-26.

Marinov Zikolov, a Bulgarian citizen involved in an espionage case recently revealed in Romania, has worked for the Romanian secret services for almost 10 months, starting June 2008, Romanian news channel Realitatea TV informs, quoting the official document issued for the arrest of Zikolov and for a Romanian low-ranked officer, also accused of espionage.

According to quoted sources, the Bulgarian agent presented to Romanian investigators all activities he was conducting in our country, including a list with foreign collaborators, starting June 2008. Romania's Intelligence Service (SRI) had claimed that the Bulgarian citizen worked for other specialized services, abroad.

On the other hand, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service denied any connection with Ukraine's military attache, Serghei Ilnitki, who was expelled on Monday. According to Romanian daily Gandul, quoting Svobodnaia Pressa, Russia wishes to distance itself from the issue.

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Services spokesperson Serghei Ivanov declared that the incident was not Russia's problem since the expelled attache was Ukrainian not Russian. He added that Ukrainian diplomats were the ones in position to comment the situation

Further Reading:
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=73312

http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/...s_Romania.html

Unlike Akim, Zikulov did not give away many details about his alleged spying activity. He only told officials about his acquaintance with a certain Ukrainian official who showed an interest in receiving military information back in 2001

http://www.stratfor.com/sitrep/20090...tache_expelled

Romania declared Ukraine’s military attache persona non grata and expelled him, Itar-Tass reported March 4, citing a source in Kiev. The source said Ukraine “was engaged in a serious espionage scandal” for the first time in several years.

I must say if the Ukranians think it is funny to play espionage against an organization which they plan to join some day then they have something to learn about international politics. The primary concern right now would be finding out what was on those documents (like radio frequencies etc.) and changing them around.

[Erik]

NATO members spy on each other all the time, it's no big deal.

But Romania should be smarter: you should NEVER expose a spy, because once you do you'll just get a new spy you don't know yet.
Instead, they should have keps a close eye on his movement and fed him false information when possible.

[Romano-Dacis]

NATO members spy on each other all the time, it's no big deal.

I think the big problem is that the Bulgarian was supposedly working for Ukraine (maybe Russia?). I personally wouldn't care if it was Bulgaria spying on us because we are in the same alliance (nevermind the fact that they are relatively small).

[Војвода Драгутин Кесеровић]

This is not surprising at all - let's not forget that only 20 years had passed since Romania and Bulgaria are no longer "enemies" - and a lot of people there are not friendly or happy about NATO presence.

My personal hero is the railway technician from Romania who in 1999. prevented the passing of NATO train column trough his station, during the NATO aggression on FRY/Serbia.

[Carpathian Wolf]

With the way the American and world economy is going the whole "intergration" business doesn't look that interesting anymore (if it did to anyone) and we'll probably be soon sold off by NATO in exchange for some political bs somewhere else in the world that has nothing to do with us, as usual.

[Kavhan Isbul]

Bulgarian or not, if proven guilty, I hope this guy gets a heavy sentence to discourage similar individuals in the future. My problem is that by spying on Romania and selling secrets to Ukraine (and who knows who else, but I am cringing at the thought), he is betraying Bulgaria as well, since we are in the same alliance.