WASHINGTON (AP) — American spies caught Russian intelligence officers bragging about convincing the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to “work together against American and British intelligence agencies,” according to an alleged US document posted online as part of a campaign huge US intelligence breach.
US officials declined to comment on the document, which had top-secret known markings and was seen by The Associated Press. The Emirati government on Monday dismissed any accusation that the United Arab Emirates has deepened ties with Russian intelligence as “categorically false.”
But the US has had growing concern that the The United Arab Emirates was letting Russia and the Russians thwart sanctions tax on the invasion of Ukraine.
The document seen by AP includes an article citing a March 9 investigation with the headline: “Russia/UAE: Deepening Intelligence Relationship.” US officials refused to confirm the document’s authenticity, which the AP was unable to do independently. However, it resembled other documents released as part of the recent leak.
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents that were posted on various social media sites. They appear to detail US and NATO aid to Ukraine and US intelligence assessments regarding US allies that could strain ties with those nations.
Some of the documents may have been altered or used as part of a disinformation campaign, US officials said. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby urged caution on Monday, “as we know that in at least some cases that information was manipulated.”
Referring to the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, the document seen by AP says: “In mid-January, FSB officials claimed that UAE and Russian security service officials had agreed to work together against the US and UK intelligence agencies, based on newly acquired signals intelligence.” Signals intelligence refers to intercepted communications, whether they are phone calls or electronic messages.
“The UAE probably sees the engagement with Russian intelligence as an opportunity to strengthen growing ties between Abu Dhabi and Moscow and diversify intelligence partnerships amid concerns about US withdrawal from the region,” the assessment concluded, referring to the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
It is unclear whether there was such an agreement as described in the UAE-Russia document, or whether or not the FSB’s alleged claims were intentionally misleading.
But US officials are increasingly talking about an increase in dealings between the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
A US Treasury official, Under Secretary Elizabeth Rosenberg, singled out the United Arab Emirates as a “focus country” in March. She said the companies there were helping Russia evade international sanctions to obtain more than $5 million worth of US semiconductors and other controlled parts for export, including components with battlefield uses.
US intelligence officials have in recent years pointed to possible links between the United Arab Emirates and the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary group closely linked to the Kremlin and active in Ukraine and several African countries. In 2020, the US Defense Intelligence Agency assessed “that the United Arab Emirates may provide some funding for the group’s operations.”
Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at King’s College London, on Monday called the United Arab Emirates “the most important strategic partner for Russia in both the Middle East and Africa.” The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, held extensive meetings with the leadership of the United Arab Emirates in Dubai in 2020.
Russia and the United Arab Emirates share similar views on some key conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, and the influx of Russians into the United Arab Emirates since Russia launched its war in Ukraine has also strengthened ties between the two. said Kristian Ulrichsen, a Middle East expert. at the Baker Institute of Rice University. But the reference to partnering against US and British intelligence agencies is striking, Ulrichsen said.
Russian intelligence officials “probably have an interest in describing something in those terms,” he said. “If that was the way the United Arab Emirates described it, I would certainly take it…quite differently.”
A US official told the AP separately that the United States was also concerned about Russian money enters the hot Dubai real estate market.
And in October, federal prosecutors in New York announced charges against two Dubai-based Russian men and others accused of stealing military technology from US companies, smuggling millions of barrels of oil and laundering tens of millions of dollars for the oligarchs they surround. to Russian President Vladimir Putin. .
Prosecutors in that case quoted one of the Dubai-based Russians assuring his partners that there were “no concerns” about using a UAE financial institution for the transactions. “This is the (worst) bank in the Emirates,” he said, using a swear word. “They pay for everything.”
In a statement Monday to the AP about the apparent intelligence document, the United Arab Emirates said UAE officials had not seen the document and that the claims about the FSB were “categorically false.”
“We refute any accusations about an agreement to deepen cooperation between the UAE and the security services of other countries against another country,” the statement said. “The United Arab Emirates has deep and distinguished relations with all countries, which reflects its principles of openness, partnership, bridge-building, and work to serve the common interests of countries and peoples to achieve international peace and security.”
The leak of the alleged document comes as Emirati officials have recalibrated their Middle East foreign policy following a series of attacks blamed on Iran. Attacks claimed by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck Abu Dhabi in 2022, killing three people and forcing locally stationed US forces to respond with Patriot missiles.
Since then, and as the Emiratis perceived the US presence in the region waning after its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates reached a détente with Iran. That’s even as the United States maintains multiple military bases and stations thousands of troops and weapons in the region, including at Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra Air Base. Dubai’s Jebel Ali port remains the US Navy’s busiest port of call outside the continental US
The United Arab Emirates also remains one of the few places that still offers daily direct flights to Moscow after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That has sent money, mega-yachts and Russian citizens pouring into the United Arab Emirates, an autocratic federation. of seven sheikhs in the Arabian Peninsula. However, it has not been a complete hug.
Relations between the US and the United Arab Emirates have wavered over the past decade, as Abu Dhabi’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, consolidated his power. Under the Trump administration, the UAE diplomatically recognized Israel.
In the wake of the deal, the United Arab Emirates sought, but has yet to receive, advanced US F-35 fighter jets under President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, the Emirates have criticized Israel for escalating violence between Israel’s far-right government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinians.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP diplomatic writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
