Cyprus case of the alleged Russian spy recalls Med island’s rich tradition as an espionage hub

Cyprus, a familiar stopover in spy lore

LARNACA, Cyprus — The parade of foreigners who trod on Cypriot shores is long and ancient. Kings, sages, crusaders, merchants, tourists. Hittites, Assyrians, Romans, Venetians, Britons, Turks. They came in war and peace. One group, the spies, came in secrecy.

The arrest and escape of an alleged member of a Russian spy ring last week recalls the rich history of espionage in Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediterranean whose position at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East made it a hub for clandestine activity.

The end of the Cold War dampened that tradition, and mysterious attacks and arrests linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict subsided on the divided island. In January 2009, however, Cyprus seized a boat that was suspected of carrying Iranian-supplied weapons bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon in violation of a United Nations embargo.

“From the point of view of all participants in the Middle East dispute, Cyprus was always very, very convenient to conduct espionage business and also for the transportation of personnel and goods, legally or illegally,” said Ronen Bergman, Israeli author of “The Secret War with Iran.”

“It is an active place as long as it is an active place for the other side,” said Bergman, who believes some Arab spies still meet their Israeli handlers in southern Cyprus because of its proximity and the fact that it is relatively safe from scrutiny.

Cypriot authorities don’t know what the alleged paymaster of Russia’s “deep cover” operation in the United States was doing in Larnaca, a coastal city that hosts the main international airport and fills with beach-bound tourists in the summer. Was Christopher Metsos of Canada — Canada says the identity was stolen — on business or pleasure? Or both?

No hard evidence has emerged, though Cypriot authorities plan to look at his confiscated laptop, which is sought by U.S. officials to build their case against the spy ring. There is a strong Russian presence in Cyprus, partly a legacy of the influx of Russian cash after the fall of the Soviet Union that fueled a culture of money laundering. The government has since cracked down on financial wrongdoing.

Escorted by police after his June 29 arrest, Metsos paid bail with money from a bank account in Larnaca, according to Cypriot officials. Ten alleged co-conspirators were detained in the United States and face charges including money laundering and acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government.

Cyprus was a convenient place for money to change hands in the past. Former CIA agent Harold Nicholson, in a U.S. prison for espionage, recruited his 24-year-old son Nathaniel to meet Russian agents in cities around the world from 2006 to 2008 to collect money owed by his former handlers. One of those cities was the Cypriot capital, Nicosia.

The island was a high-tech listening post during the Cold War, and colonial Britain negotiated a deal for Cypriot independence in 1960 that allowed it to keep military bases there. British plans to build giant communication antennae at the Akrotiri base once set off riots by Cypriots who feared they would become sick from waves of radiation and saw the bases as an affront to their sovereignty.

The bases served as logistics hubs for the 1991 Gulf war and 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Hubert Faustmann, an analyst at the University of Nicosia, described politically stable Cyprus as the “last safe haven” for spies operating in the Middle East. He noted the large American and Russian embassies, a few hundred meters from each other and “way out of proportion,” in his view, to the size of the small island.

Today, the fences, border posts and empty buildings pockmarked with bullet holes that divide Cyprus into ethnic Greek and ethnic Turkish sides mirror other Cold War-era fissures — the dismantled Berlin Wall, the Korean peninsula’s (very much intact) DMZ — from the golden age of espionage. The island split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup attempt by Greek Cypriots seeking to unite with Greece.

Tensions subsided, but a political settlement remains out of reach. Most spy skullduggery has happened in the Greek Cypriot south, an open society accustomed to outsiders. The Turkish Cypriot north is smaller and less populated.

Initial speculation suggested Metsos crossed into the Turkish Cypriot north, which is only recognized by Turkey and has no extradition treaties with the rest of the world. However, he could have escaped just as easily, and perhaps less obtrusively, through the south. Some Larnaca residents wonder if he hopped on a boat at the marina. Authorities are more or less certain of one thing: he’s no longer in Cyprus.

On the Larnaca waterfront, the only hallmarks of espionage are kitschy. The “Spy Cafe” serves iced coffee and cocktails to customers in sunglasses. Near the amusement rides, a kiosk sells children’s gimmicks — small bottles of invisible ink and “exploding” match books.

A placard advertises “Russian Fantasy,” a series of concerts of Russian works by the symphony orchestra of Cyprus.

There were times when this easygoing tourist getaway and other Cypriot towns were staging grounds for political killing and subterfuge.

In 1985, gunmen killed three Israelis on their yacht in the Larnaca marina, and Israel bombed the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Tunisia in retaliation. In 1988, a blast in Limassol port damaged a ship that the PLO planned to use to transport Palestinian deportees on a protest journey to Israel. Suspicion fell on Israel, and the trip was canceled.

The event foreshadowed the Gaza flotilla that gathered near Cyprus and was boarded by Israeli commandoes on May 31, sparking clashes that killed nine activists on a Turkish ship. Both sides said they acted in self defense. A key flotilla organizer, the Free Gaza Movement, was based in southern Cyprus.

At the Pierides Museum in Larnaca, home to ancient maps, pottery, glassware and sculptures, curator Ashdjian Peter reached deep into history to explain why Cyprus drew conquerors, explorers and spies.

“It’s a sensitive location, geographically. That’s why it’s been sought after for all these years,” Peter said. Pondering the elusive Metsos, he added: “If you have the right amount of money, you can move around anywhere you want. You can even do it in America, which has the biggest security in the world.”