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Folks, this is to follow up our previous story on arrested "spy" in Rostov, 
Russia.  Looks like the old Sov-Russ-paranoia about spies is back. BTW, 
note a correction to the previous info: Mr. Bliss is not New Zealander, 
he is our fellow American who works for a New Zealand company.
                 Alex Kaplan, info-russ owner/coordinator
                              sasha@super.ece.jhu.edu
                              http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan
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Reuters, Friday December 5 9:06 AM EST

American Charged In Rare Russian Spy Case

By Adam Tanner

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A 29-year-old U.S. telephone technician was charged with
espionage against Russia Friday in what officials say is the first such case
involving an American since the end of the Cold War.

A spokesman for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Richard
Bliss, who was arrested in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don Nov. 25, had
been formally charged with spying.

The text of the criminal charges was to be read to Bliss in English
translation as he does not speak Russian, Russian television reported. But
the exact wording of the charges was not made public as it was a state
security matter, the report said.

Bliss had been in Rostov for two months working to install a wireless
telephone system when he was detained. He worked for San Diego-based
telecommunications company Qualcomm.

The U.S. Embassy has said Bliss was not a spy and Qualcomm also denied he
was involved in espionage, saying he was performing routine tests to help
install a wireless telephone system.

U.S. officials earlier said they were continuing to press for his release
and expected Vice-President Al Gore to telephone Russian Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin later in the day to appeal for his release.

"At the highest levels of government exchanges of information are flowing
back and forth quite rapidly," said Qualcomm's head of government relations,
Bill Bold.

The FSB earlier said Bliss had carried out long-distance topographical
surveys with what it called illegally-imported satellite receivers and
obtained secret information about unspecified "restricted" buildings in the
Rostov area.

Dan Pegg, a Qualcomm senior vice-president, said Bliss was using global
positioning system (GPS) equipment to measure the strength of radio signals
from a central communications transmitter.

Asked if Bliss could have worked as a spy without Qualcomm's knowledge, Pegg
said: "They say never say never, but I'd say absolutely not."

A resident of San Diego, Bliss had been in Russia about two months when he
was detained, Pegg said. A high-school graduate who never went to college,
Bliss worked for several communications companies before Qualcomm hired him
six months ago to help install telephone systems worldwide. REUTERS@
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