US federal agents arrest 10 Russian intelligence officers

[2tallbill]

US federal agents arrest 10 Russian intelligence officers accused of being Russian spies

HE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Monday, June 28th 2010, 4:58 PM

WASHINGTON - Ten people have been arrested for allegedly serving as secret agents of the Russian government in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

Eight of 10 were arrested Sunday for allegedly carrying out long-term, deep cover assignments in the United States on behalf of Russia.

Two others were arrested for allegedly participating in the same Russian intelligence program within the United States.

Their job, according to the court papers in the case, was "to search and develop ties in policymaking circles" in the United States.


Read the whole story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/06/28/2010-06-28_us_federal_agents_arrest_10_russian_intelligence_officers_accused_of_being_russi.html#ixzz0sCbabQmg

[2tallbill]

U.S. Espionage Claims Recall Cold War "Spy Mania," Russia Says

The U.S. Justice Department’s claims that it broke up a Russian spy ring are “regrettable” and reminiscent of the Cold War at a time when relations are improving, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

read it here
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/u-s-espionage-claims-recall-cold-war-spy-mania-russian-government-says.html


Russia warns of spy affair fallout
By Charles Clover in Moscow and Daniel Dombey in Washington

Russian officials on Tuesday reacted with outrage to the arrest of 11 suspected spies by US and Cypriot authorities this week, saying the timing of the dispute could torpedo the thaw between Washington and Moscow.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, criticised the arrests, telling Bill Clinton, the former US president, who was in Moscow on Tuesday: “You came at the right time. Back home your police have gone on a rampage, thrown people in prison.” He added that he hoped the incident would not harm the positive trend in US Russian relations.

read the story here
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/24ebcb06-835f-11df-8451-00144feabdc0.html

[2tallbill]

Suspected Spy Was Ready to Leave, F.B.I. Believed

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. agents who had tracked a Russian spy ring for more than a decade moved quickly to roll up the network after learning that one of the suspected spies was planning to fly out of the United States on Sunday night, according to two American officials familiar with the case.

read the entire story here
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/world/europe/30spy.html


Obama knew of spies before Medvedev talk
Updated: 07:26, Wednesday June 30, 2010

read the story here
http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=478948&articleID=


Clinton friend may have been spy's target

A leading Democratic fundraiser and close political ally of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have been a target of the alleged ring of Russian spies arrested yesterday by federal authorities.

read the entire story here
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/Clinton_friend_may_have_been_spys_target.html?showall

[2tallbill]

Bills note: I would have to say that most of the guys here at the forum have
girls at least as hot as this one that they are making a big deal about.

Ok Bills note complete

Spy ring's 'femme fatale'
Red-hot beauty snared in Russia 'espionage' shock



A ring of 11 Russian moles right out of a Cold War spy novel was smashed yesterday — and among those busted was a flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan.

Russian national Anna Chapman — a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victoria’s Secret body — had been passing information to a Russian government official every Wednesday since January, authorities charged.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/spy_ring_qzWW8bImf9yEDTbtXcQnUL#ixzz0sHbfhXtA

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/spy_ring_qzWW8bImf9yEDTbtXcQnUL#ixzz0sHbS3kOB



More photos etc
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sexy_russian_spy_anna_chapman_2Zmmc1rSqu2H71x3v7BibM

[2tallbill]

Cyprus police arrest man sought by US for involvement in spy ring


A man suspected of being the 11th member of a U.S. spy ring allegedly working for Russia was arrested and released on bail in Cyprus, AFP reported Tuesday.

Christopher Robert Metsos, 54, was arrested at Cyprus' Larnaca airport as he tried to leave the island for Budapest early Tuesday, police said.

Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said Metsos, who arrived in Cyprus on June 17 and stayed at a central Larnaca hotel was carrying a Canadian passport.



Read about it all here : http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/cyprus_police_arrest_man_sought_ClTTIt0KpPUWvmCiqg4ikN#ixzz0sHcchENX

[ecocks]

In that first picture on the Post article she looks like she is pregnant or has developed quite a pudge.

[2tallbill]

In that first picture on the Post article she looks like she is pregnant or has developed qite a pudge.

Yeah I think it's a bit of a stretch calling her a "fem fatale" but consider the media who
covers such things. Here is a photo of media darling Helen Thomas

[2tallbill]

Obama declines to answer question on purported Russian spying in U.S.

read story here
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/TW021.html

[ecocks]

Give him a day or so, he's working on how to blame it on Bush.

[ecocks]

In that first picture on the Post article she looks like she is pregnant or has developed qite a pudge.

Yeah I think it's a bit of a stretch calling her a "fem fatale" but consider the media who
covers such things. Here is a photo of media darling Helen Thomas

Damn man, I just ate a good steak dinner and you had to go and post that......

Isn't she off on temporary assignment to Hamas or something?

[2tallbill]

Isn't she off on temporary assignment to Hamas or something?

        

[2tallbill]

Russian experts scoff at alleged spy ring

Former officials are embarrassed and angered by the FBI's
uncovering of an alleged spy ring in the United States, saying
it points to the sorry state of spy craft since the fall of the
Soviet Union.

Popular author and commentator Yulia Latynina dismissed the alleged
operation as "an imitation of espionage."

"Putin's Russia has an imitation of democracy, an imitation of the
empire and now an imitation of espionage," she said in a telephone
interview. "The only thing Putin's Russia is not even pretending to
have is an imitation of an economy."

read all about it here
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia-spies-20100702,0,3471233.story

[WestCoast]

Russian experts scoff at alleged spy ring

Former officials are embarrassed and angered by the FBI's
uncovering of an alleged spy ring in the United States, saying
it points to the sorry state of spy craft since the fall of the
Soviet Union.

Popular author and commentator Yulia Latynina dismissed the alleged
operation as "an imitation of espionage."

"Putin's Russia has an imitation of democracy, an imitation of the
empire and now an imitation of espionage," she said in a telephone
interview. "The only thing Putin's Russia is not even pretending to
have is an imitation of an economy."

read all about it here
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia-spies-20100702,0,3471233.story

It will be interesting to see how many of these spies request political asylum and if the USA grants them asylum. 

[dbneeley]

It will be interesting to see how many of these spies request political asylum and if the USA grants them asylum. 

Post-arrest for espionage, they would not be eligible for asylum in the normal course of events, other perhaps than as a plea bargain for giving extensive cooperation in uncovering other such activities.

David

[ecocks]

More like negotiatiing their plea-bargain terms.

Let's see we know one couple wants a house, Anna likes to party,........

[2tallbill]

Opinion piece not a News Story

Seeing 'Red' Over Russian Spies

Just last week President Obama visited with his old buddy, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at the White House. In an overt effort to demonstrate how he had single-handedly "repaired" the relationship between Russia and the United States, President Obama took the Russian leader out for lunch to a Washington, D.C.-area suburban hamburger joint. The whole event was overly staged and awkward.

What a difference a week makes.

This week it was announced an alleged Russian spy ring had had been caught "red-handed" here in the United States. The ring is accused of operating for years in "deep cover" here in America.

read the whole thing here
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/30/bradley-blakeman-russian-spy-ring-arrested-military-intelligence-medvedev/

[2tallbill]

Cyprus official: Russian spy has fled island

NICOSIA, Cyprus — After eluding a dragnet extending from airports to yacht marinas, the suspected paymaster for a Russian spy ring nabbed in America has likely fled this Mediterranean resort island, the Cypriot justice minister said on Friday.

Loucas Louca told the Associated Press in an interview that he thinks Christopher Metsos — who disappeared after being released on bail this week — will probably never be apprehended on the island because he is no longer here.

Read about it here
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i7-czCmVaUIvFjMeulzIGN4L2FWAD9GN40J00

[WestCoast]

It looks like the first of the Russian spies is making a case for asylum.  The lawyer for Anna Chapman, the Russian "femme fatale" alleged spy has stated that his client is worried about being deported and would like to stay in the USA.  She currently has UK citizenship.  I guess the partying is better in New York City than it is in Moscow.

LINK

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister, Associated Press Writer   – 1 hr 44 mins ago

NEW YORK – The Russian diplomat's daughter accused of being a spy is "embarrassed" by photos of her that have turned up in media reports and fears she will be deported, her lawyer said.

Attorney Robert Baum told The Associated Press that he showed Anna Chapman, 28, some of the tabloid newspaper stories that have branded the redhead as a femme fatale and feature photographs from her Facebook page, showing the smiling Russian enjoying Manhattan's nightlife scene, posing in front of the Statue of Liberty and mixing with businessmen at a conference.

"She was embarrassed by some of the photos that were obviously taken from her Facebook pages," the lawyer said. "The truth is she probably no different than your typical single 28-year-old woman in New York City. She runs a successful business, goes out at night. She dates men, enjoys a social life."

Chapman is charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, which carries a potential penalty of five years in prison. She was the first of 10 spy suspects arrested over the weekend in the United States to be denied bail.

Baum said Chapman's father told her to go to police with a fake passport an undercover FBI agent had given to her, leading to her arrest and solitary confinement. He said he may use that information to appeal the bail decision.

At a bail hearing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz said only that investigators on June 27 intercepted phone calls in which Chapman was "talking to a man who is advising her, who is telling her essentially ... to make up a story, to say that she's being intimidated, that this might be some other criminal activity, and who advises her to get out of the country and to go to the police."

Baum said he believed the phone calls cited by prosecutors were conversations between Chapman and her father, whom Baum described as a low-level embassy employee whose family was middle class.

Baum said Chapman told him she reached out to her father, Vasily Kushchenko, a day after an FBI agent posing as a Russian consulate employee asked her to deliver a fraudulent passport to another woman working as a spy.

"She spoke to her father, and her father said, 'Go turn the passport in,'" Baum said. "Her father said, 'You've got this passport. It's forged. Go turn it into the police,' and that's exactly what she did."

Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors in Manhattan, declined to comment on Baum's comments.

Baum discounted published reports Friday quoting Chapman's ex-husband as saying her father is a spy.

"I won't go into the circumstances of divorce, but he may be somewhat bitter about it," Baum said.

Baum said he has spent several hours with his client over two nights this week, finding her "very frightened."

He said she was kept isolated in a cell in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He said she is allowed one hour a day of exercise, the only time she is allowed to be with another inmate.

Otherwise, she is given no access to phones, television or newspapers, Baum said.

"I can't tell you why, whether it's because of the nature of the charges or whether she's in some type of protective custody," he said. "In some respects, it's a good thing that she's alone because she's frightened about being with other inmates."

Baum said another defendant, Cynthia Murphy, also is being held in isolation.

Prison spokesman James Davis said he couldn't comment on any inmate's housing out of security concerns.

Baum has argued for a $250,000 bail and said he was confident Chapman could post $25,000 in cash.

"She feels that if bail were granted there is no way in the world she would ever flee the area," he said. "In fact, she's concerned she may get deported. She'd like to live here."

"She's taking the charges very seriously," he added. "The only time I saw less than a serious outlook was when she read some of the things being said about her."

He cited descriptions in the press of her as a "party girl."

"I wouldn't say she laughed," Baum said. "She smiled and rolled her eyes."

[ecocks]

Or London.....

[2tallbill]

Russia threatens retaliation to Romanian expulsion
 Romanian spy detained in Moscow

In a move that could heighten tensions in the latest tit-for-tat spy flap, Russia said on Wednesday it could retaliate to the expulsion of its diplomat from Bucharest.

Romania on Tuesday declared Anatoly Akopov, first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, persona non grata after Moscow detained a Romanian Embassy official for alleged spying and ordered him out of the country.

"Unlike the first secretary of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, who was caught red handed in possession of materials and spying equipment that completely exposed his illegal activities, the Russian diplomat was not involved in any activities that could provide grounds for such decisions," the Foreign Ministry said.

read all about it here
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100818/160250322.html

[2tallbill]

Russian spy waves off cosmonauts

Russian spy Anna Chapman made a rare public appearance on Friday to bid farewell to astronauts who blasted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Dressed in a scarlet peacoat, Chapman made a brief appearance before the launch, but was swiftly led away by a guard after she was spotted by journalists.

The glamorous Chapman was at the centre of the biggest spy scandal between the United States and Russia since the Cold War as one of the US-based "sleeper" agents who in July were exchanged in a dramatic spy swap.




read the entire story here
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f87b9580da07ab7dc68bb8c1d9d001c6.3f1&show_article=1

[WestCoast]

The ten 10 Russian sleeper agents that lived and worked in suburban American were honoured at the Kremlin on Monday.  President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed the country's highest state honour on each of the ten agents.  Now of course the question is did any of these sleeper agents actually get any American secrets or is this all a PR campaign by Putin et al?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_spies_honored

Report: Russian spies get Kremlin's highest honors

By SIMON SHUSTER, Associated Press Writer Simon Shuster, Associated Press Writer   – Mon Oct 18, 11:48 am ET

MOSCOW – President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed the country's highest state honor Monday on the Russian sleeper agents deported from the United States as part of the countries' biggest spy swap since the Cold War, the Interfax news agency reported.

The awards were handed out at a Kremlin ceremony less than four months after the exchange, the agency quoted Medvedev spokeswoman Natalya Timakova as saying. No other details on the ceremony were available and Kremlin spokespeople were not immediately reachable.

In June, 10 Russian agents who infiltrated suburban America were deported in exchange for four people convicted in Russia of spying for the West.

The spies received a hero's welcome in Russia, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin leading them in a patriotic singalong in July.

The most famous of the agents, Anna Chapman, visited the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this month for the launch of a Russian spaceship, fueling her celebrity in Russia and abroad.

Chapman was in Baikonur ostensibly as the new celebrity face of a Moscow bank.

FondServisBank, which works with Russian companies in the aerospace industry, said it had hired Chapman to bring innovation to its information technologies.

It did not escape Russians' attention that the initials of the bank, FSB, are the same as Russia's main spy agency.

Although Russia has now reportedly given the spies the country's top state honor, the U.S. court complaint against the flame-haired Chapman and her alleged cohorts described their many spying blunders, leading to some embarrassing coverage for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service in the Western press.

Putin, who served as a spy in East Germany before going into politics, said in July that he had met with the spies to celebrate their return and warned that the "traitors" who exposed them could end up "in a ditch."

Russia and the United States have both said the spy scandal would not interfere with the improving tone in their relations.

[andrewfi]

Medvedev & Putin are a couple of proper mesters! Cool blokes!

[AvHdB]

While this thread is quite ancient and there are numerous other mentions of Anna Chapman on RUA. A recent article in Het Parool in The Netherlands brings this back into the news. There were in fact ten or so spies who were caught by the FBI spying for Russia. One couple were, A. Bezrukov and Y. Vavilova or as they were known in America, D. Heathfield and A. Foley. During there time in North America they had two sons, Tim and Alex.

It has taken an interesting turn approximately six years on, the sons now young adults are attempting to reclaim there Canadian citizenship after having lived in Moscow, since there 'return' to Russia.

From an article in the Guardian which sums up the reality succinctly; "The brothers' battle to regain Canadian citizenship is not just about logistics. Moscow is not a city that embraces newcomers, and neither of them feel particulary Russian. "I feel like I have been stripped of my identity for something I had nothing to do with." . . . Both, . . . .but want to move to Canada when they feel ready to start families. More than anything, their Canadian identity is the lasp straw they have left to grasp on to, after so much of the rest of their previous reality fell away."

I have posted some links to give additional background

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/october/russian_103111/russian_103111
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley

[Tom Cat]

Bumbling CIA Agents Get Repeatedly BUSTED in Moscow (Video)

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/bumbling-cia-agents-get-repeatedly-busted-moscow-video/ri15952