Russia on Tuesday said US allegations that it had broken up a major Russian spy ring just days after President Dmitry Medvedev met Barack Obama in Washington were baseless and improper. The US said it had arrested 10 suspected spies who had recruited political sources and gathered information for the Russian government.
The US justice department accused them of operating under the orders of Russia’s SVR agency as “illegals”; the term applied in the intelligence world to agents infiltrated to live and operate under false identities, rather than officers who use diplomatic cover.
The US authorities said 10 of them were arrested on Sunday in Boston, New York, New Jersey and Virginia on charges including conspiracy to act as unlawful Russian agents and money laundering.
“Such actions are baseless and improper,” the foreign ministry said in Moscow. “We do not understand what prompted the US justice department to make a public statement in the spirit of Cold War espionage.” The US had earlier said it wished to “reset” ties with Moscow. —Reuters