Did Russia spy for Saddam?

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

Russia this week angrily denied that Russian agents gave Saddam Hussein information about U.S. military plans in the run-up to the Iraq war. The allegations came in a new Pentagon report with an appendix that includes Iraqi memos discussing the Russian intelligence. Vladimir Titorenko, who was the Russian ambassador to Iraq in 2003, called the report "the fruit of a sick imagination." Other Russian officials said the U.S. was simply seeking an excuse for its failure in Iraq. Both U.S. and Russian defense analysts, though, said the story was plausible, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would raise the issue with the Russians. "We would take very seriously any suggestion that this may have been done, maybe to the detriment of American forces," she said.