Russia sends S-400 system to Serbia for drills Aussie ex-intel boss charged with secrecy breach

MOSCOW: Moscow has sent a S-400 missile system battalion and a Pantsir anti-aircraft gun and missile system to Belgrade for their first joint drills in Serbia, the defence ministry said.

The systems will be deployed at Batajnica base, outside the capital, as part of the exercises that will take place on October 23-29, a statement said.

It is the first time that the S-400 missile system and Pantsir missile system systems will appear in military drills outside Russia, it said.

Russian and Serbian air defence units will jointly perform various tasks including detecting and destroying “the entire spectrum of air targets of the enemy force”.

The drills come after the first phase of the first joint Russian-serbian air defense exercises, Slavic Shield-2019, took place in the southern Russian region of Astrakhan in September.

Serbia is Moscow’s key ally on the edge of Europe and Russian President Vladimir Putin received a rock star welcome when he travelled to the country in January.

Although Serbia aspires to join the European Union, it has kept close ties with Russia, a historical “Orthodox big brother” whose people also share Slavic origins.

SYDNEY: A former top Australian intelligence official has been charged with mishandling classified documents, officials said Thursday, years after his home was raided during an investigation into Chinese influence operations.

Police and government officials said Roger Uren had appeared in court on Wednesday over mishandling sensitive intelligence. He is believed to be facing around 30 charges.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation — the main domestic spy agency — raided Uren’s Canberra home in October 2015 and uncovered a stash of classified files.

Uren had been the deputy head of the now-defunct Office of National Assessments, which provided intelligence analysis to Australia’s prime minister, and was once considered a possible ambassador to China.

Around the time of the raid his Chinese-australian wife Sheri Yan, a fixer and lobbyist, was arrested in the United States on bribery charges.

She pleaded guilty and was jailed in 2016 for conspiring to bribe former UN General Assembly president John Ashe.

Australian MP Andrew Hastie last year used his parliamentary privilege to claim

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation raided Uren’s Canberra home in October 2015 and uncovered a stash of classified files

the 200,000 bribe was provided by Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman Chau Chak Wing, who has denied the allegations and sued media organisations for making similar claims. The Australian Federal Police on Thursday said Uren was arrested last week and appeared before an Australian Capital Territory court “in relation to allegations he illegally dealt with classified intelligence information”.

“The AFP (Australian Federal Police) investigation alleges unauthorised removal and retention of classified intel

ligence information from the man’s place of employment,” a spokesperson said in a statement. ABC previously reported that the “highly classified” files

laid out what Western spy agencies knew about Chinese intelligence operations.