Week 29 (2010) Ciao Ciao: Part Three

On 5 May, we took a boat from our Venice hotel to reach the railway station. Six-year old Devyani invariably needed full tickets. In some places, the clever Italians have established a height rule. If the child is taller than 105 cm, you pay the adult charge. Parents can lie about the child’s age, but height is instantly verifiable. Devyani no longer has the height privilege either. We spent dozens of Euros on boat rides in Venice, only to find that nobody checked the tickets. I didn’t dare a ticketless travel, though. The relationship between a ticket-checker and your having a ticket is the same as that between the rains and your carrying an umbrella.

On the train from Venice to Florence, when the ticket-checker appeared I was truly delighted. My honest act of buying those exorbitantly priced tickets was rewarded at last. Our cabin had only four passengers – Mena, Devyani, myself and a middle-aged lady. She was talking over her cell phone, presumably to her daughter whom she would see the same evening. My brief conversation with her (lesson no. 5: phrases for travelling) revealed that she had a long way to go. She would travel north-south past Florence and go to Naples. The TC checked our tickets, smiled and left.

After a while, he reappeared. My family was sat closer to the windows. The Italian lady was sat closer to the door. The TC came and sat across her. He started talking to her, and after five minutes they exchanged names and shook hands. He was a balding Italian, of average looks, possibly in his early fifties. The lady passenger could be a couple of years younger than him. Being an Italian, his talk was animated. By the time the train reached Bologna, both were laughing and moving their hands all over the cabin. This man had leaned forward, so that his knees touched the woman’s. Now he put both his hands on her lap. (I was glad Devyani was completely engrossed in her book). The lady did not seem to mind. Venice-Florence is a three hour journey. During most of those three hours, the TC’s hands were on the passenger’s lap.

“My duty ends at the next station.” Just before Florence, he said to her.  “It was nice meeting you. You said you’re going back next Saturday? I may be on that train. Arrivederci!”

I presume this gentleman first checks all the tickets – and the passengers. He selects a suitable companion; a lady travelling alone, and going far enough. Unabashedly, he joins her, introduces himself and becomes friendly enough to caress the passenger’s lap.

He had a good time. The Italian lady enjoyed the brief companionship. I can’t imagine an Indian or even a British ticket-checker doing this – despite wanting to. They would rather sit at a secluded corner, with paperwork in hand and practise boredom for long hours. This is what I liked about Italians – they don’t suppress, they express. A TC finds a companion to flirt with every time, and the companion responds as well.

I remembered a story where a confirmed bachelor and a confirmed spinster live on the same street. Once they meet at the age of seventy or something, and talk for the first time. The man says to the lady he always fancied her but was shy to express his love. The lady, taken aback, says she too liked him always. Why did he not say anything? Had they talked, they would have had a long married life and children.

Expression of feelings can make life happier.

***

I know of an Indian delegation which had travelled on a similar train years ago. They knew no Italian. Whenever their train stopped, they would peep out and check if it was Florence. They travelled all the way from north to south and never found Florence. Because...

Because there is no such place in Italy. Florence exists only in English guide books. In Italian, it is called Firenze. Foreigners understand that Roma is Rome, Venezia must be Venice, and Napoli is Naples but Firenze?

On coming out of the Firenze railway station; the sight of cars, trams, buses was unbearable. It was like waking up from a beautiful dream to face reality. Is it possible to like any city after Venice?

***

Our hotel was a ten minute walk from the station. On the way we saw shops with names like Armani, Gucci, Nina Ricci, Prada, and Versace. For me, these are shops that I don’t need to enter. In this country, those global fashion symbols become local, but no less expensive than elsewhere. Later, I was surprised to learn that the colour-uniting Benetton is also an Italian brand. In my mind, I thanked signor Benetton for creating something for the ordinary man.

The building in which our pensione was located was a stone palazzo. I had to use all my strength to push the entrance door which was at least four times taller than me. Near the staircase, we saw something that resembled a lift. It had an iron door and two wooden doors inside opening on two sides. Only when I closed all these doors, the lift started. A couple of times, I have been in elevators that take you down into a mine. They rattle, shake and you pray until you land with a bang. I learnt later that this lift, which reminded me of those journeys, was more than 100 years old; the building itself was more than 500 years old, and the pensione Scoti in which we lived dated to 1875. An Italian friend remarked that in Firenze they consider a building old only if it is more than 200 years old. (In Bombay, some people are keen to demolish buildings that are forty years old). 

***

Italian crooks are as famous as Italian cooks. A few years ago, during their train travel, my friend Anuj and his girlfriend dozed for a few minutes. When they opened their eyes, their wallets and passports were gone. Instead of having a Roman Holiday, they spent two weeks locked up in the Indian embassy, struggling to get new passports, visas and funds transferred from home.

Besides the bag snatchers and pickpockets, you have other specialists. An Italian gentleman warns you about gunk dripping down on the suitcase you are wheeling behind you. Not only that, he offers you a clean tissue paper to wipe it out. By the time you clean the mess, his accomplice has disappeared with your other suitcase.

I had heard many such stories, and was determined not to clean my bag if someone shouted gunk. I must report that in our entire stay, we didn’t meet any such gentlemen, nor did we lose anything.

I learnt about another innovation when standing in a queue to see David. I overheard some American tourists discussing the latest trick in Firenze. A man bumps into you, almost hugs you and apologises. Your hand instinctively touches the pocket of your jeans to ensure the wallet is in place. You are happy it is. The next time you take the wallet out, you notice it is a substituted wallet. Similar in size and shape to the one you had – except it has nothing inside it.

***

I can write for six months why Firenze made me forget Venice by describing the museums, the riverbank, the churches, the sculptures in this city. But I won’t. Because this is not a Lonely Planet guide. I’ll restrict myself to two sights.

One is the Duomo cathedral, which defines the city. Like Taj Mahal or the Niagara, Duomo makes you understand how insignificant you are in the scheme of things. Eifel tower also dwarfs and overwhelms, but for me it has little aesthetic beauty; only its monstrosity impresses. That’s not the case with Duomo. Apart from its sheer size, the white and green neo-gothic facade gives sensory pleasure. Its vast interior, 155 x 90 meters, boggles the mind. Those who conceived and started building the Duomo never saw the final product, because it took 150 years to build it. Duomo has two challenging stone staircases- each more than 400 steps. The climbs are so invigorating that even little Devyani forgot her sleeping time, and kept running up. At every level, you get a different perspective of the panoramic city.

***

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo are the two candidates for the title of “the Renaissance man.” When I sat in front of David, my vote went to Michelangelo. Some of his quotes tell us a bit about that great man.

- Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. / I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

- A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.

- If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.

- The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.

- Genius is eternal patience.

Devyani gets bored in museums quickly, much quicker than adults. In the past, she had treated the grand armorial hall in St Petersburg’s Hermitage as a playground, and slept soundly in the Modern Tate gallery. Now, having reached a reading age, she carries books to the museum. While she reads sat on a floor, one of us keeps her company, and the other goes around the museum. At the Galleria dell’Accademia we were fortunate to find an empty bench right in front of the 17-feet tall David. Devyani read, Mena left to see the paintings and I stared at David – without blinking. I have never watched a man, certainly not a naked man, for such a long time. In Toronto, watching Niagara, I felt I could keep looking at the gushing water for ever. Here I had that feeling again.

God could have rewarded Michelangelo by making David walk and talk when the sculptor completed him. It’s such a divine creation – carved from a single block of white marble. Nowhere else have I seen the beauty of a human body executed to such perfection. David exudes a sense of confidence, purity and naturalness. (We are not born with fig leaves.)

David, even without anything else, could have made our Italian trip worth it.

***

Italians are fond of dogs. How fond?

In lovely packages; fresh wholemeal fusilli with salmon, cannelloni with venison and beef, lasagne with wild boar, mezzelune with hare, rigatoni whit grouper and cod, tortelloni filled with ricotta and ham are available for dogs. In India, humans are not served such a variety.

And once the dogs consume all this delicious food, Italians don’t forget to follow the other recipe. (This sign was in Lucca, a green town with ancient walls, not far from Firenze).

***

Having talked about the Duomo, David and dogs, I am tempted to continue and write about Daniela. But I’m leaving Bombay today for the weekend. The Daniela story will appear in the next instalment, a week from now.

Ravi

Week 28 (2010): Advice for Russian Spymasters

Two weeks ago, as you know already, ten Russian spies were arrested in the USA. They were charged with conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without notifying the US Attorney General. The ten Russians were swapped for four Russians serving sentences in Russia’s prisons. Most of the ten “illegals” lived under false names, in pairs and produced children with paired colleagues to make the cover look authentic; they sometimes swapped identical coloured bags when crossing each other in a public place, sent messages using invisible ink, buried money in fields. One of them took a Canadian boy’s death certificate and acquired a forged passport. (He had obviously read The Day of the Jackal.) If since the retirement of Frederick Forsyth, you have missed exciting stuff, please read the attached fifty pages.  They are both entertaining and educative.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/062810complaint1.pdf

http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/062810complaint2.pdf

Complaint one is filed by Amit Patel, a special agent with FBI, who was given the pleasant task of following Anna Chapman and some others residing in the USA since 1990s. What you read here are handful of examples out of thousands of conversations tapped, bugged mails, decrypted codes, video evidence, meetings with embassy staff and so on. Complaint no. 2 is filed by a lady agent, Maria Ricci, who also for years has been following the Russian spies. For the past fifteen years, at least ten SVR agents were gathering intelligence for Russia, and loads of FBI agents were conducting a counter-intelligence operation against them.  These efforts of fifteen years culminated in the deportation of all ten spies in less than two weeks since their arrest. When describing the whole affair a range of adjectives like bizarre, clumsy, old-fashioned, funny and amusing, shocking and illegal have been used. In this article, I shall not discuss any details about the spies themselves or the case, because you can read as much as you like and more on the www. I’ll simply offer some lesser known facts, my analysis of the case and finally some useful advice to the Russian spymasters so that similar embarrassments can be avoided in the future. 

***

1. SVR is Russia’s foreign intelligence service. The arrested spies worked for SVR. Is SVR the same thing as KGB?
2. In today’s Facebook and Google world, why is Russia conducting stone-age spying?
3. Why were Russian spies swapped for Russian spies? How could Obama, with a stroke of the pen, pick up Russian prisoners and fly them to the free West? Why did he not free Khodarkovsky – Russia’s erstwhile richest man, who is imprisoned for the past seven years?
4. And finally, the most intriguing question that many have asked. The Russians were charged with acting as agents without notifying the US Attorney General.  Is this some kind of a joke – like the US visa form asking the applicant whether he is a terrorist?

***

Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR) is translated as Foreign Intelligence Service.

Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) was translated as the Committee for State Security. It was formally born in 1954, but in reality existed under different names since the Russian revolution of 1917. KGB was formally dissolved in 1991, along with the death of the Soviet Union; but continues to exist under different names.

In 1991, about half a million people were employed by the KGB. KGB was grouped into at least sixteen key departments called “directorates” (Управления). Each directorate was assigned a specific area of security. For example, the 5^th chief directorate (later called “Z”) dealt with censorship and security against artistic, political or religious dissent. (The Russian Hare Krishnas were persecuted by this arm). The 9^th directorate provided bodyguards for the communist party leaders and their families. The 1^st chief directorate was responsible for foreign espionage. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s de-facto head, worked in the 5^th directorate, and later in the 1^st chief directorate for a long time. He worked as a spy in Germany between 1985 and 1990.

Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, KGB disintegrated as well. Geographic disintegration was expected and happened. Ukraine and Byelorussia, for example, have their own security agencies now. What was unexpected was the splitting of KGB into two organisations.

Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB) translated as Federal Security Service calls itself the successor of KGB. But in 1991, the First Chief Directorate was removed from it. This de-merged department was formed into SVR, another successor agency dealing exclusively with foreign intelligence. The former KGB, thus, are now FSB+ SVR. (A rose by any other name…, but Russia now has two roses smelling as sweet).

The reasons for such a split can only be speculated. It’s possible the new Russia (meaning Yeltsin) felt the erstwhile KGB to be too powerful. Or the split could have been done to create new positions for important people who had become jobless. People fill vacancies, but sometimes vacancies are created for people. Whatever the reasons, a new organisation SVR was created in 1991, with its chief reporting directly to the Russian president. As Parkinson’s Law suggested, the new organisation formed their own new directorates, thereby creating more directors and more deputies. The Russian spies caught in the USA were employed by SVR.

***

What happens in major corporations? A department or a business unit tries to justify its own existence. Human beings are driven by self-interest and instinctive self-preservation. Would you seriously expect a business manager to go to his boss and say, “Sorry, I think I am redundant, and the department I am running is redundant. Please dissolve it”?  

Every company and each country have people who are redundant, activities which should be shut down, initiatives that should not have been suggested.

Two years ago, India sent a spacecraft (chandrayaan-1) to the moon. The mission succeeded and the Indian flag was planted on the moon. The spacecraft detected water on the moon. The Indian media talked about it endlessly, trying to convince Indians that this was a moment of great national pride.

When half of the country’s people don’t have access to drinking water, what’s the sense in detecting water on the moon? The USA and other civilized countries have long abandoned moon trips as hugely loss-making, and suitable only for the cold war times. And India, fuelled by the self-preservation instincts of scientists, embarks on this senseless mission. You can’t expect the head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to assess his own mission objectively. He has to keep his job, and he must keep the organization running.

It’s the same with the United States of America. Many contemporary wars, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue because employed soldiers need to be employed somewhere, because new weapons need to be tested. The world will be a far more peaceful place if the war hawks and their departments, along with the nuclear scientists are given redundancy packages and sent home.

The same thing and worse happened with the SVR. In the age of Facebook and Google, the presence of sleeper agents (illegals) executing orange-coloured bag swaps on a railway staircase should only happen in a cheap movie. A good hacker sitting in his heated Russian apartment is capable of gaining far better information than the ten spies managed in the past two decades.

The size of a corporate man’s importance is decided by the size of his budget. As a result, you’ll see every director in a big organization fighting to increase the headcount under him, start new expensive initiatives, and ask for higher budgets. SVR is no exception. In fact, it is in direct competition with FSB. SVR must continue to preserve its budgets and ask for more. Sleeper agents are one guaranteed way of spending much and regularly. The longer they are stationed in a foreign country, the longer you preserve the budgets.

The Russian spies in the USA did not even look interested in finding out anything. If you are living in America (instead of Russia), earning two salaries (American job and Russian espionage) why would you ever want to risk going back? They sensed that their employer looked equally uninterested. No urgency was required of them despite lack of results for more than ten years. (In the American courts, the Russian spies could not be charged with espionage, because they had not managed to access or send a single piece of classified information). 

The same goes for the other side. Americans continued to follow the incompetent spies since the 1990s. Instead of arresting them, they were happy to follow them. The American paranoia is targeted at Islamist terrorists, not at Russians. If the illegals were Muslims, would FBI have trailed them for ten years – without any action? FBI is also a corporation, and their directors also must preserve their budgets and headcount. The American taxpayer’s money and Russia’s natural resources were wasted on a farce. 

***

Why did the swap happen? Why were Russians swapped for Russians? And why ten for four?

Obama’s current worry is Iran, not Russia. And his advisors have told him that the Iran issue can be dealt by using Russians as intermediaries. (USA and Iran have no diplomatic relations).  What are ten inept spies compared to the threat of another Islamic nuclear bomb? That is the reason why Obama had to sign the deportation of the Russian spies and do it as quickly as possible.

The real swap of agents vs Iran issue happened behind diplomatic doors. (This is further confirmed by Russian president Medvedev seeking on 16 July “appropriate” explanation from Iran on its nuclear programme). But that could not be cited as a White House press release. It became essential to create a spy swap.

As we saw above, the KGB cold war methods are outdated now. America does well with satellite surveillance and hacking. It can also buy Russians to spy for them. Capitalism won the cold war. Modern Russia has no ideology. Therefore, American communists can no longer be recruited to spy for Russia.

Secondly, it is easier for a Russian agent to infiltrate America. America is a land of immigrants and strange accents even from those holding American passports don’t surprise anybody. That’s not the case with Russia. A foreigner, no matter how fluent in Russian, stands out in the crowd. Why would an American want to risk a long imprisonment in a Siberian colony?

Safe to assume that the USA has no sleeper agents in Russia. Or if they have, none of them is in Russian prisons. The White House staff had to browse hurriedly through their files to dig out names of those charged with espionage. They evidently could not find more than four satisfactory names. Why did Obama not free people like Khodorkovsky, Russia’s richest man in 2004?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003, and has been kept in prison under different pretexts. (A riddle circulating in Russia in 2004: What is a question to which every American citizen will answer “yes” and every Russian citizen “no”? The question was: Would you swap places with the richest man in your country?)

There is a reason why Obama could not free other people. Russia rules by decree, America doesn’t. It must produce some existing law to justify its actions. On this occasion, it appears that the Geneva conventions (1929&1949) were invoked. They deal with the treatment of prisoners of war. According to the Geneva conventions, prisoners of war can be exchanged.

As a result, Obama could not free any political prisoners in Russia– they were not prisoners of war. Only those charged with espionage could be considered as POWs.

USA and Russia want to take their relationship to heights never before. In order to achieve that, they had to first acknowledge the existence of war between them.

***

Finally, the charge itself: Acting as agents without notifying the US Attorney General. The non-notification made the agents illegal. Did American justice seriously expect the Russian spies to go and register themselves with the US Attorney General’s office?

As a matter of fact, the USA does have a Foreign Agents Registration Act, 1938. The Counterespionage Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Act. At the US Dept of justice website, you will find the browseable database that tells you which foreign agents are registered. (http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fara/)

This act is used, among others, by the Saudi royal family to improve its image battered after 9/11. Qorvis communications, a consulting firm based in Washington D.C., is registered with FARA as Saudi Arabia’s agent. In 2002, Saudi Arabia gave 15 million USD to Qorvis to raise awareness of the Kingdom’s commitment to the war on terror. The heavy PR campaign covered all major media; the spokesman appeared 50 times on television. More importantly, the lobbyists met several White House staff – something that the Russian spies did not manage over a span of fifteen years.

Granted that the agents registered under FARA are not spies (presumably). Historically, though, the act was introduced during the Second World War to keep track of the German spies in the USA.  

My advice to the Russian spymasters in SVR is to use FARA in future. Register your spies with the US Attorney General. That way Russia can officially transfer millions of dollars to the spies and save on cash bags clumsily buried in fields. The spies can lobby actively, and actually meet high ranking politicians in the White House. The FBI agents will trail your spies, but they were doing that anyway – so nothing changes. The Russian Foreign Intelligence agency keeps its budgets, keeps the staff, conducts the spying activity far more efficiently, and since the agents are registered there is no fear of their getting arrested.

When Facebook and Google have made the world an open place, there is no reason why spying should be secret.

Ravi

 

The web-o-graphy:

1. http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/062810complaint1.pdf

http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/062810complaint2.pdf

The two complaints by FBI agents. If you are spy fiction lovers, read to feel nostalgic. You will not meet textbook spying anywhere else now.

2. http://svr.gov.ru/ (In Russian, naturally): Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Agency’s website. If you are Russian, you can apply for a job through this website.

3. http://www.fsb.ru/ (In Russian): Russia’s Federal Security Service, the other child of KGB.

4. http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/305?OpenDocument

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/375?OpenDocument

Geneva conventions of 1929 and 1949 detail the way prisoners of war should be treated.

5. http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fara/ : USA’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Browse through the database to find registered agents from your country.

6. http://projects.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=332&sid=100

Details of Saudis spending millions in this report from the center for public integrity.

R.

Week 27 (2010): A Week in the Life of Igor Sutyagin

Just outside the Automobile Ring road of Moscow, on its east side, is a prison called Lefortovo. Built in 1881, it has isolation wards for interrogation by the KGB. The walls of Lefortovo have accommodated well-known Russians like Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Noble laureate; the August 1991 putschists; or more recently Alexander Litvinenko, who after leaving Lefortovo fled to London, was granted asylum by the UK, but was soon poisoned to death there. 

At the beginning of this week, on 5 July, Igor Sutyagin was transferred to Lefortovo. Like it does to newcomers, Lefortovo didn’t intimidate Igor. He had spent two of his worst years, from 2002 to 2004, facing the interrogators in the isolation wards here. Possibly they wished to question him again. But there was nothing new he could say any more. For the past eleven years, he had been in maximum security prisons. Since he was convicted in 2004 for treason, he was sent to Arkhangelsk – 1000 km away from his family. Russia, the largest country in the world, has vast spaces for hard labour colonies, Arkhangelsk has many such. Until yesterday, Igor was in its penal colony number 12, serving his sentence as prescribed. In that colony, his energetic youth had transformed into a fatigued middle age. He would leave the prison as an old man, he thought. In 2007, Putin had refused to pardon Igor, despite the Russian scientist community and international organisations pleading for his release.  As recently as in March this year, the Arkhangelsk court had reconfirmed – Igor will not be released before his term ends.

Psychologically, Lefortovo was better. It was closer to his family. They may allow a weekly meeting. Oksana and Nastya had grown without their father around them. Three years ago, he had managed to talk to them over a mobile phone. The joy was short-lived. When they found a phone in his possession, Igor had to spend the next three months in solitary confinement – in a dark, freezing, small cell.  

“You’ll have a meeting now.” A uniformed man said to Igor. Igor’s heart leaped. It could be Irina, or more likely Dmitry. But how did they know? Who could have told them? He was brought in here only a few minutes ago.

“Is it a man or a woman?” He asked the guard.

“Woman?” the guard laughed. “No. Men. All men.”

The guard unlocked the cell, and asked Igor to follow him. In the small room at the end of the corridor, Igor saw four men waiting for him.

“Dobrii den” said the hefty elderly man and shook Igor’s hand. Over the years, Igor had seen so many members of the competent organs that he liked to guess who was who. They never introduced themselves. Igor looked at the other three men in the room. He sensed something was wrong. May be he was away from Moscow for too long. The three men were tall and white, but they didn’t look Russian.

“Hello Mr Sutyagin” one of them said. All three shook hands with Igor. The pleasant handshakes didn’t surprise Igor. The KGBs are trained to greet the victim politely before beginning the grilling. The presence of three Americans was bizarre. Not even CNN is allowed inside Lefortovo. Judging by his bearing, the Russian man was probably a general – a general from the foreign intelligence service. During his trial he had come across a few people from SVR.

“Please sit down, Igor Vycheslavovich,” said the general. All four men sat in the simple chairs. Igor once again looked at the three Americans.

“I’ve good news for you.” The general gave an awkward smile. “You’ll be released soon.”

“Soon? Meaning how soon?” Igor asked. Bureaucracy has a different sense of time.

“Very soon.” The SVR man looked at the Americans. They nodded. “This week if everything goes as planned.”

Igor’s heartbeat suddenly rose. He imagined himself hugging Irina, in his flat. He saw himself sat at a table with his parents. His father was already a cripple. After being imprisoned, Igor had seen only his photo. He would meet his friends in Obninsk. They were such a moral support all these years. He should call them over for lunch. Family and friends. And walks in the woods. It must be great weather now – a little hot. But does that matter, if you are free? He can now gather mushrooms. He should take Irina, Nastya and Oksana on a holiday – somewhere quiet. Igor didn’t know if the govt offers any money when you get out of prison. But they can go somewhere close. It was good his release coincided with the girls’ vacations.

“Yeah, I would like to congratulate you.” Said the American, the same one who had spoken earlier.

Igor watched the American’s lips as he spoke. For the past eleven years, Igor had not heard anyone speak in English. He wished to ask the Americans – why are you here, but he didn’t. In Lefortovo, someone else does the job of asking. Anyway, the foreigners didn’t look like journalists. They looked the diplomat type.

“Thank you”. Igor gathered courage to respond.

“We’ll need to complete certain formalities.” Said the general, in Russian. “After signing the necessary documents, you will be flown from Moscow.”

“Flown?” Igor asked. “But I live close to Moscow. In Obninsk. I’m sure you know that. My family lives there. My brother, my parents – everyone lives there.”

The general exchanged glances with the American diplomats.

“You see, Igor Vycheslavovich. We are not the ones who are releasing you.  These people are. So you go to their country.”

“Which country?”

“Well, these gentlemen are from the United States of America. I suppose that’s where you will go.”

Igor looked at the SVR general. And then at the Americans. His mouth was slightly open, but no words came out of it.

“I appreciate that you are confused. Let me explain.” The American diplomat once again took charge. “It’s like this. In the USA, ten Russian agents were arrested. They pleaded guilty in a New York court this week. The American and the Russian governments have agreed, at the highest possible level mind you, to swap – you know exchange. We send the Russian spies back home, and in exchange we demand that Russia frees... er... people languishing in Russian prisons, charged with espionage.”

The general rapidly translated everything the American had said. He was instructed to ensure there was no misunderstanding whatsoever.

“I don’t understand.” Said Igor. “I don’t understand anything.”

“Look. We, the American government, have a high regard for you as a disarmament researcher and scientist. Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have been very vocal about your case. And our government decided...” he looked at the fellow Americans... “Let me say it. President Obama himself approved the list. Your name is at the top. You are one of the four people who will be exchanged for the ten Russian agents.”

“If I am free, why can’t I go home? To my family?”

“Igor, look at this list. And this one. Do you know them?”

Igor took the first list. It had ten names. Mostly American names with Russian names in the brackets.

“Who are these people? I don’t know any of them.”

“No, you wouldn’t. We understand that. What about the second list?”

The second list had only four names. The first name was Igor Sutyagin.

“I think the name Skripal is familiar. But I don’t know the other two names.”

“You see, all four of you were charged by the Russian government of espionage and treason.”

“But I have always denied it. I am innocent.”

The American diplomat looked at the general.

“It doesn’t matter now. Our American friends want to free you. The Russian spies come back to Russia, and the... how should I put it... those convicted of helping the west will go to the west.” The general said.

“But I’m not a spy.” Said Igor. “I am a researcher. Whatever documents I shared in England were freely available to public. I had no access to classified information. And I have not denied offering consultations to foreigners. My case is well documented. I love Russia. I will never do something against her interests.”

“Mr Sutyagin, we are here to help you. To secure your quick release. We know you as an academic. As a nuclear scientist. You worked with the institute for US and Canadian studies. And we have high regard for your knowledge and abilities. There is one more good news.” He grinned. “Though the US government is releasing you, you have a choice of going to the UK. You have been there before, and...er... you were charged with helping the Brits.”

“But I didn’t help anyone. I am innocent.” Repeated Igor. “I offered my reports as per the contract, and they contained information that can be found in the internet. I am not a spy.”

The general intervened.

“Igor Vycheslavovich, the choice is yours. You either fly to the UK or fly back to Arkhangelsk. For me, the choice is clear. You must appreciate this is an exchange of spies... exchange of those charged with espionage. The Russian spies come back home, and you settle in the country that has got you in exchange.”

“But I am a Russian citizen.”

“Yes. In fact, we will have to make an urgent passport for you. They will take your picture, and by tomorrow, you will get a passport. You can travel to the UK on that passport.”

“What about my family?”

“This is about you. We will fly you. Things are moving fast. Honestly, I have no idea about what happens in the future. My immediate job is for you to sign this document. That will enable President Medvedev to sign a pardon for you. Then you fly to Austria.”

“Austria?”

“Sorry, if I’m confusing you...” the general said. “Your plane will fly via Austria. But you will be out in the UK. I suggest you keep all this confidential. Or else the media people will come after you like vultures.”

“And when can I come back to Russia?”

“Come back? Honestly, Igor Vycheslavovich, I don’t know. I don’t even know if the Russian laws allow that. In the old days, our agents who defected to the west were given a new identity. For their own safety.” The general looked at the Americans. He didn’t know how much Russian they understood. “But I suppose now... things might not come to that. This... this is the document you’ll need to sign.”

Igor started reading the document. This was a rare instance of a prisoner in Lefortovo being asked to sign a document without torture.

“Here.... here it says... I accept my guilt.” Igor pointed. “I don’t. As a matter of fact, over the past eleven years, I have always refused. That’s one reason why I am still here. I am innocent.”

“Dear Igor Vycheslavovich, president Medvedev can’t sign a pardon letter unless you accept your guilt.”

“But I am not guilty.”

The American diplomat came forward.

“I need to explain something, Mr Sutyagin. The American government has offered this deal on ‘all or nothing’ basis. And you are a critical element of the equation. You refuse and you go back to your hard labour. But also the ten Russians in the USA go back to American jails. Trust me, our jails may look better than this one, but the people there are as nasty as yours. Also the other three from your side will continue to be jailed. You see thirteen people’s lives depend on your signing this document.”

Igor knew nobody from the lists shown to him earlier. But he knew what it was to lose freedom for over a decade. He took the pen offered by the general and signed.

“But, please, please understand. My signing this does not mean I am confessing. I have not committed any crime.”

“Thank you.” The general said. “You will get an opportunity to meet your family members, once, before you fly. And I’ll arrange for your photo to be taken. You will get your passport tomorrow.”

“I wish you the best in life.” The American diplomat said. Everybody shook hands.

***

On the way out, the general talked to his man.  

“Arrange that photo. He looks bad and unshaven. Don’t take his photo in the prisoner clothes. We need it for the passport. Give him some shirt to wear... and tie. But no razor. Absolutely not.” He turned to his American colleague and said, “He is in a bad state. I want the operation to happen smoothly. Don’t want to take any chances.”

***

 On July 6, Igor Sutyagin was given a Russian passport – for international travel. In his photo, he looked gaunt and unshaven.

On July 7, in the jail, he met his family – mother, brother, and wife. The meeting was allowed for less than an hour.

On July 8, president Medvedev signed an executive order granting pardon to the four Russians who would be swapped for the ten Russians. The order mentioned that all four convicted persons had admitted their guilt. In deciding to pardon, Mr Medvedev took into account the fact that they had already served substantial lengths of time.

On July 9, a chartered jet of Vision Airlines arrived in Vienna from New York carrying the ten Russian spies. Within seconds, a Russian govt plane landed next to it. After 90 minutes, the Russian jet left first carrying ten agents this time. The American plane made a brief stopover at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England before flying to Washington.

Yesterday, on July 10, Igor managed to call his wife over the phone. He said he was in some English town, but didn’t know which. He must be brief because he had no money to buy a phone card. Since his Russian passport didn’t have a UK visa, he was not keen to go out of his hotel. The person who had brought him to the hotel said something would be done about it on Monday. They don’t work on the weekend.

Today, on July 11, Igor continues to be in that unknown English town, waiting for tomorrow so that someone can make his existence in the UK legal. And hoping someone may offer some money – so that he could call his home in Russia and speak to his daughters.

Ravi

P.S. 

 This entire story is based on newspaper and internet reports. Imagination is used only to connect the factual dots. 

The web-o-graphy:  (If desperate to read the Russian websites, you could take them through Google translate)

1. http://www.sutyagin.org/: Support Igor Sutyagin – a page by human rights organisation. 
2. http://www.sutyagin.ru/: (in Russian) Excellent website run by his family since the time he was arrested eleven years ago.
3. http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/597 : President Medvedev’s executive order granting pardon to Igor Sutyagin and others.
4. http://www.bfm.ru/articles/2010/07/07/rossija-idet-na-bolshoj-shpionskij-obmen.html : (In Russian) the journalist talks to his family about their meeting him before he was flown off.
5. http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2010/07/09_a_3396439.shtml?incut1 (In Russian) Another article offering resume of Sutyagin.
6. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10580301.stm : BBC news about the spy swap.
7. http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/198358/ (In Russian): Excellent NTV coverage. Click on all the links on the right to see the TV coverage and transcripts.
8. http://lenta.ru/lib/14183335/ (In Russian) A detailed entry on Igor Sutyagin in Lentapedia.

R.

Week 26 (2010) Ciao Ciao: Part Two

On 29 April, we landed in Venice. But landed may be a wrong word for Venice. We came out of the airport simply in order to catch the vaporetto. The water-bus took us to our hotel.

***

The same evening, I was standing outside a supermarket close to our hotel. The supermarket was located on a river-bank. I watched the Venetians, young and old, carrying colourful two-feet high trolley bags that they wheeled in and out of the store. A plump lady came out carrying three huge cloth-bags. Her young son followed her. She somehow dragged the bags ahead, and stood at the bank, facing the Adriatic Sea. Her shopping bags had no wheels. And her son was too young. How were they going to carry those bags home?

For a while, both she and her son did nothing but to look at the water. She then looked at her watch, and said something to her son. Her son, probably ten years old, threw his hands in air and shook his head.  She adjusted her bags, and both continued to look at the sea. Suddenly, from the right, a small boat appeared. It manoeuvred its way adroitly, and stopped in front of them. The tall Italian man driving the boat smiled, took the bags, then his wife and son in. The family boat sped away. 

***

Venice allows no cars. Or any other vehicles with wheels- not even rollerblades. You can only travel on water, or if on land a piedi. Venice is a maze of 117 islands, surrounded by 177 canals, and the land mass is connected by 455 bridges. You may be a great walker, but you also need to be a great step-climber. A walk of few meters is invariably followed by a bridge. Come to Venice only if you know how to travel light. Your suitcase may have wheels, but at every bridge you have to stop, climb the steps with the suitcase and carry it down on the other side. I saw young mothers trying to go across a bridge with prams. That’s a circus act. To make sure the child doesn’t fall out, the mother must hold the pram parallel to the ground on the steps. This requires muscular strength, a sense of balance and immense patience. (The bridges could be one reason why Venice’s population declines, while the rest of Italy’s grows. The historic old city of Venice has shrunk from 120,000 people in 1980 to only 60,000 today.)

***

When I say Venice is a maze, I use the word technically. The city is made of thousands of narrow lanes – so narrow that sometimes a maximum of two people can pass together. Bridges are more or less standardised. While aesthetically speaking, all this was great; for a geographic moron like me finding my way back to the hotel became a daily pastime. I tried a few maps. Venice is akin to the cardiovascular system in human body – with innumerable veins, arteries and capillaries. So the maps are cluttered and use the smallest available print. On the streets, the names are seldom visible. And when they do exist, they are somewhere up – often painted on building walls. (Because in winters, Venice gets flooded). The streets are full of people frustratingly studying maps and trying to make sense out of them. The city is divided into six districts, and houses have four digit numbers. The address often has the house number, followed by the district, but no street! Now go to the district, and try looking for a particular number. For a whole week, I tried to figure out the logic behind the numbers, and gave up. I remembered George Mikes (how to become an alien fame) mentioning in some book the way houses were numbered in a German town – chronologically! Every time a house was built anywhere in the town, it was given the next available number. Venice may not be that bad, but is very close to it. 

***

For a middle-aged man like me, using Venice maps was a struggle. I should have carried a compass as well.

To add to the mess, a street has hundred odd synonyms. While everywhere else in Italy a street is called a via, here it is called a calle. I had learnt that a square in Italian is piazza, but in Venice it is called campo. Canale is Italian for canals, but here they are rio. A street beside a canal is a fondamenta. A smaller street is ruga or rughetta, and the oldest streets are salizzada. Ramo is a tiny side lane, and corte denotes a dead-end street. As if this wasn’t enough, a street passing under a building is sotoportego.

To find my way through the tourist foe-ly mapping, I often used the Indian system. In India, only foreigners use maps, Indians ask the address to strangers. With my limited knowledge of Italian, (in the four months that I studied the language, I had managed to learn only the past and present tenses, no future. Whenever I spoke to Italians, I tried to divert the conversation to my past), I would ask directions.

That was when I first understood how Venetians were a different race. In other places, you ask for directions, and if the person knows them he tells you. Here, everyone I asked started moving their hands wildly, talking in rapid Italian and then walking the talk. Where the address was close-by they walked with me all the way. Despite their having to go in the opposite direction. It’s possibly because they understand how difficult it is to find an address in Venice. But also because they are Italians, warm-hearted, talkative and helpful.

*** 

How many languages does Italy have? I warn you it’s a trick question.

The answer is two. Italian and.... body language. You may have heard the joke about an Italian walking on the street carrying two giant watermelons under his arms. Someone stops him, and asks for an address.

“Could you please hold the watermelons?” The Italian asks the person asking for the address. That person obliges.

Released of the watermelons, the Italian throws his hands in the air and says, “I don’t know.”

Italians speak with their hands. The gestures are excessive. On a street, simply by observing the hands, you can tell who is an Italian and who is not. (Just like in the Soviet Union, one could tell from the dress who was a Russian and who was a foreigner).

This civilisation has toiled for centuries to create a whole new dictionary of hand gestures. You can learn some of them in those two short video clips. Also note in the second clip the different ways in which one can express “you are crazy.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0n4Vw6twKo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MqrW3adT6E&feature=channel

But in the clips, you see the gestures in slow motion. In reality, the movements are rapid and dramatic. This nation is a theatre.

*** 

Italians are warm-hearted. And it is an open nation. They dry their washed linen in public. Not as easy to do as it looks. In the picture where you see the jeans on top, the person living on the left side has to keep cordial relations with the neighbour living across him (in the building on the right). They have to agree on who is drying which clothes, how to bring some symmetry into it, and with clever pulling and pushing, to transfer all clothes on the rope. Venice has many such courtyards. And Naples has lanes after lanes full of hanging clothes.

*** 

 The Italian sense of humour is mischievous. Child-like. In Naples, they manufacture t-shirts with a seat belt design over the front. The drivers wear them while driving and never get caught.

Andrea (from Roma) was a friend of mine. We worked together at a voluntary camp in Austria – way back in 1987. He visited me in Bombay as well as Moscow. The letters I received from him were unique – well, not the letters themselves but the stamps posted on them. Andrea drew well. He would take a used postage stamp, turn it on its blank white side, and draw a picture on the stamp. He claimed that the post offices didn’t recognise his forgery. I can confirm that I did receive letters with stamps drawn by Andrea affixed on them.

In Moscow, when he stayed at my house, he started collecting the five kopeck coins.

“What will you do with so many?” I asked when I saw his rucksack full of five-kopeck coins.

“This is my hobby.” Andrea said. “I measure the coins from different countries. Many of them are similar, if not identical, in size. Then you can try to use them in automats. Use the coins from a cheap country in an expensive one. Now, these Russian coins I will use in German metros. The beauty is that you drop a Russian coin, and the automat will give change in Deutsch marks. This hobby can be quite profitable.”

Another Andrea story typifies Italian humour.

Andrea would pick up the telephone directory and select a number at random. He would call that number up.

“Is Roberto at home?” He asked.

“Sorry, there is no Roberto here. Wrong number.”

“Please tell Roberto,” Andrea would continue, undeterred, “that his grandmother died this morning.”

After another two weeks, Andrea would call that number again.

“May I speak to Roberto please?”

“No Roberto lives here. You’ve got...”

“I have a message for Roberto. Please tell him that he should come to Milan on the 15^th. His school classmates will be waiting for him.”

And these calls would continue, week after week, for a few months. After that Andrea would call the same number again. When the phone was picked up, Andrea would say,

“Hello, this is Roberto speaking. Do you have any messages for me?”

Ravi