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TOKYO — The intrigue has been as thick as homemade borscht soup in
Tokyo's diplomatic quarter after police recently caught a Japanese
Maritime Self-Defense Force officer red-handed, passing confidential
documents to the Russian Embassy Naval Attache in a posh restaurant.
Ramifications from the case have already dimmed the luster of
achievements of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit here Sept.
3-5. Official Moscow reaction was that the incident was a "set-up by
parties aiming to slow improved Russo-Japan ties."
On Sept.14, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Japan to tone down
public criticism of the case, saying the two countries should resolve the
issue behind closed doors before moving on to repair ties.
Ivanov spoke to Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono when they met on
the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Police led Peter Sellers look-alike (from his Inspector Clouseau roles)
Russian Embassy Naval Attache Victor Bogatenkov,44, and Maritime Self
-Defense Forces' Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, 38, from a restaurant in the
Hamamatsucho district on Sept.7.
Requested through diplomatic channels to submit to questioning,
Bogatenkov invoked diplomatic immunity and fled Tokyo on Aeroflot's
Saturday Sept. 8 flight to Moscow.
Bursting into tears when apprehended, Hagisaki told police that he had
betrayed his country, according to the Mainichi Daily News.
Japanese authorities said the pair had met at least 10 times and were
seen exchanging envelopes.
Putin visited Pyongyang and Beijing enroute to the G-8 Okinawa summit
and made a bilateral call on Tokyo later. He displayed a lot of
showmanship (including demonstrating his judo skills) but otherwise there was
no movement on the outstanding Northern Islands or peace treaty issues
between the two countries.
Putin met South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in New York Sept. 9 and
discussed plans for a rail network from the Koreas through Russia to Europe.
Putin has discussed this "iron silk road" linkup with the Trans-Siberian
Railway with North Korea's Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, further suggesting
that Russia wants to get back in the Far Eastern ball game.
There has been speculation that some Japanese and Russian factions were
not pleased with the positive overtures by Putin in East Asia recently. The
scenarios about a set-up from the spy scandal apparently evolved from this
with no authentication.
The defense agency has decided to indefinitely postpone two planned
Japan-Russia defense cooperation events in the wake of the leak of the
agency's confidential information to Bogatenkov.
The agency has informed the Russian Embassy in Tokyo that it would not
be able to host Col. Gen. Yuri Bukreyev, the supreme commander of the
Russian Army, who was scheduled to visit Japan later this month.
The agency also put off a visit by 30 middle ranking officers and
bureaucrats to Russia later this month.
However, a high-ranking official said the agency is not considering
putting off a visit to Japan by Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev
scheduled for this coming November.
In a bizarre twist, a son of Bogatenkov will shortly begin working at
the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, gaining the same diplomatic immunity that
allowed his father to scamper back to Moscow and avoid prosecution, officials
said.
Sergei Bogatenkov, a Japanese-language specialist who has studied at
International Christian University in Tokyo, applied for a diplomatic visa
in Mosow Aug 29, receiving it just hours before his father was caught spying
on Japan.
Government officials told the Mainichi Daily News that there's nothing
wrong with the younger Bogatenkov coming here.
"Just because the father's a spy doesn't mean we should stop the son from
coming to the country," the paper quoted a government spokesman.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.