{"id":547793,"date":"2026-07-28T12:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/547793\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:02:17","slug":"new-zealand-intelligence-casts-doubt-on-russia-spy-accusation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/547793\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Intelligence Casts Doubt on Russia Spy Accusation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand\u2019s intelligence service cast doubt Tuesday on Russia\u2019s claims that Wellington recruited a man to pass on sensitive information under Moscow\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian Federal Security Service \u2013 commonly known as the FSB \u2013 said a man living in the southeastern city of Khabarovsk had been arrested after passing information to New Zealand spies.<\/p>\n<p>JOIN US ON TELEGRAM<\/p>\n<p>Follow our coverage of the war on the <a class=\"inarticle_link\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/Kyivpost_official\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">@Kyivpost_official<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian citizen had proactively contacted the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, the FSB said in comments published by local media.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand then convinced him to pass on information that could damage the security of the Russian Federation, the FSB added.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand\u2019s Security Intelligence Service said it had a \u201clongstanding practice of not commenting on what may or may not be operational matters\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But it added: \u201cIt should also be noted that Russian state media are often not the most reliable source of accurate reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he would follow the convention against commenting on intelligence matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t comment on security intelligence issues,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>While New Zealand is not typically associated with sophisticated subterfuge, it is part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance alongside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign affairs expert Alexander Gillespie said Russia\u2019s accusations should be taken with \u201ca large bucket of salt\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a class=\"col-10 col-sm-3 block-insert-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kyivpost.com\/post\/81175\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"img-fluid post-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a35e6a3d96122988f68f01218a83faca.jpg\" alt=\"Russia Arrests Man Accused of Spying for New Zealand\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other Topics of Interest<\/p>\n<p>                                <a class=\"title-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kyivpost.com\/post\/81175\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russia Arrests Man Accused of Spying for New Zealand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Russian authorities claimed the man volunteered to spy for New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew Zealand has some history of spies and espionage, but it is nearly always with us being spied on,\u201d said Gillespie, a professor at New Zealand\u2019s University of Waikato.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe history is of Russia spying on us, not the other way around,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Gillespie said the arrest could be turned into a high profile show-trial used to tarnish the New Zealand government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this gets bad, expect relations between the two countries to sour even further.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand is among a host of nations to have hit Russia with sanctions in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s intelligence service cast doubt Tuesday on Russia\u2019s claims that Wellington recruited a man to pass on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-547793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}