By Alkman Granitsas
LARNACA, Cyprus -(Dow Jones)- As police continued to search for an alleged Russian spyMaster who jumped bail here two days ago, authorities have begun pointing fingers at who is to blame for his escape amid speculation that either politics or money may have played a role in his disappearance.
Ever since Russian master spy Christopher Robert Metsos eluded police and vanished without a trace, Cyprus has been awash with rumors about his whereabouts. Many Cypriots think Metsos has since quietly slipped into the Turkish-controlled north of the war-divided Mediterranean island, which Turkey occupied following a 1974 invasion. While others suggest he may be in hiding in a friendly foreign embassy, or has already been captured by American intelligence agents who are keeping him incommunicado in a safe house somewhere close by.
U.S. officials flatly deny they are holding Mr. Metsos, but that hasn't stopped them from weighing in on the apparent blunders that led to his escape. " We are disappointed that Christopher Metsos was released on bail following his arrest in Cyprus," said State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley. "As we had feared, [having] been given unnecessarily the chance to flee, he did so."
Mr. Metsos, 54, is accused by U.S. authorities of being the paymaster for a network of Russian spies operating in the U.S. He was arrested early Tuesday by Cypriot police acting on a request from the U.S., but was allowed to go free on bail of about EUR26,000 by Cyprus District Court Judge Christos Philippou--over the objection of government prosecutors. Within hours, Mr. Metsos had fled, leaving behind only a pair of slippers in his hastily vacated room at a two-star hotel in Larnaca.
The Cyprus government has described the court decision as a mistake, but many here think that politics or other factors may have played a role. Cyprus has long had cordial relations with Russia and has actively courted ties--just this year, Cypriot government ministers have made repeated official visits to Russia, while Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit the island in October. At the same time, Russians constitute a mainstay of Cyprus' tourist economy and of its outsized banking sector.
"You will get a lot of this kind of speculation," says Theodore Couloumbis, vice president of Greek foreign policy think-tank Eliamep and the author of several books on Cyprus. "There is a lot of Russian money in Cyprus and people can be bribed. At the same time, there is speculation over whether it was a conscious political choice. Most likely it was just a slip up, but can you know which of the three it was?"
Mr. Philippou, the district court judge, is seen as a competent and experienced jurist with more than a decade of experience on the bench and many more before that as a lawyer. So far, he has refused to comment on the case to the media, while efforts to speak with the judge directly in his chambers were rebuffed.
Mr. Metsos' lawyer, Michaelis Papathanassiou, says the judge acted correctly in granting bail, based on the facts of the case as presented by Cypriot government prosecutors in a 25 minute hearing midday Tuesday. He says that neither he, nor the prosecutors, fully grasped the full ramifications of the allegations against Metsos and the risk of his subsequent flight.
"In my opinion, the decision was completely correct based on the facts presented by the prosecution. The truth is, they didn't have a strong argument to order his detention," says Mr. Papathanassiou. "Since then, we have learned from the media that (Metsos) was a spymaster and that he may have had other passports and so on. But that was not said in court. If the prosecution had said that, the judge would surely have decided differently. When I think about it after the fact, and if I were the judge, I would have made the same decision."
Mr. Papathanassiou says any suggestions that the judge allowed Mr. Metsos free on bail based on political considerations is "ridiculous."
Even so, many Cypriots, who are no strangers to conspiracy theories and believe that the island has long been a pawn in Cold War politics, cling to the belief that the decision was politically motivated.
"It was complete stupidity to let him go on bail of just EUR26,000," says Andreas, a 50-year-old public servant who declined to give his last name for fear of repercussions. "The government let him go because they did not want to anger the Russians. The Russians are the only ones that support us in, say, the UN Security Council, whereas the Americans are always on our back. So why would we want to get mixed up in their politics?"
Certainly, by his demeanor, Mr. Metsos aroused no suspicions. According to Mr. Papathanassiou, in the three hours that they were together, he showed no anxiety in court and came across as "a very nice person, a very normal person."
A receptionist at the Achilleos Hotel where Metsos checked in on Tuesday afternoon after the hearing echoed those remarks. "There was nothing strange about him," she said without giving her name. "He was very polite and friendly, he didn't stand out in any way. He behaved just like any other tourist coming on holiday to Cyprus."
However, his stay at the hotel was brief. According to the receptionist, he paid EUR630 up front for a two-week stay with a Visa card, then retreated to his room and posted a Do Not Disturb sign on his door. Sometime during the night, she reckons, he left the hotel although no one saw him leave. The slippers he left behind were found the next day when the police searched his room. They remain wrapped in a plastic bag behind the front counter.
"I think he's probably left the island by now. If he was a spy then he must have had a means to escape. After all, he wasn't just some ordinary thief," she says. "But I don't think he will be coming back for his slippers."
