MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign intelligence service denied Saturday allegations made by the Pentagon that it had provided Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq with intelligence data in 2003 shortly before and during the U.S.-led invasion of the country.
"This kind of unsubstantiated allegation against Russia's intelligence service has been voiced repeatedly," said Boris Labusov, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service's press service.
The U.S. Joint Forces Command posted a report on its Web site, which, in particular, said: "Significantly, the regime was also receiving intelligence from the Russians... An example of this intelligence was the following document sent to Saddam on 24 March:
"The information that the Russians have collected from their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha is that the United States is convinced that occupying Iraqi cities are impossible, and that they have changed their tactic... The strategy is to isolate Iraq from its western borders."
A source in Russia's security agencies did not rule out that America's accusations were "a form of revenge on the part of the U.S. for Russia's firm position in regard to hostilities on Iraq's territory."
Russia was consistently against military operation against Iraq prior to the start of the 2003 U.S.-led operation, a move which President Vladimir Putin labeled a "big mistake" at the time.
