“FOREIGN” INTELLIGENCE OPERATION THWARTED IN LITHUANIA.

President Valdas Adamkus has received a group of State Security Department officers to thank them for a successful counterintelligence operation which thwarted the transmittal of state secrets to a foreign power. The Lithuanians had apparently monitored the foreign agent or agents for several months before swooping down. Lithuanian officials have carefully refrained from identifying either the foreign power or the nature of the secret information.

According to sources cited by the country’s leading newspapers, the main agent was a Russian representative in Lithuania, operating apparently with Belarusan assistance, and collecting information about both Lithuania’s defenses and military sites in the country. Lithuania, in keeping with its previous practice, will handle the case quietly in the interest of “maintaining good relations with neighboring countries.” The authorities will not declare the agent persona non grata, but will allow his country to withdraw him under some “innocent pretext” (Lietuvos Rytas and Respublika, December 5, cited by BNS, December 7).

RUSSIA COMFORTABLE WITH OSCE RESOLUTION ON MOLDOVA.