On Monday, June 28, Russian-speaking Americans were bombarded with sensational and shocking news: 10 Russian spies were arrested in our country who had been living in the United States for years and doing their dirty work….
It happened at a time when in Washington Barack Obama was hugging Dmitry Medvedev, and in New York the Russian Heritage month, held under the auspices of the Russian-speaking community of the United States, was coming to an end, and all the “events” of this lavish festival were willingly attended by Russian diplomats and distinguished guests from the Russian Federation.
It seemed that another era of friendship between the two countries would soon begin, an era of “détente,” mutual understanding and mutual assistance.
mutual understanding and mutual assistance. The U.S. and Russia would “compliment each other” and provide services, and sexy Russian girlfriends of “Agent-007” would reappear in new James Bond movies, replacing the beast-like Gebashniks. It also seemed that the long-standing efforts of some leaders and “people’s diplomats” from our community, who flirted with Russian authorities and diplomats, hoping thus to turn the Russian Federation from a foe into a friend of the United States and Israel, might succeed.
And suddenly everything changed, turned 180 degrees. The air smelled of “cold war” and spy passions, and predictable headlines like “The Russians are coming!”, “Moscow on the Hudson”, Caught Red! (play on words: “caught red-handed” and “Caught Red!”), etc.
There were also articles that featured secret and seemingly “accidental” meetings of spies, identifying marks, passwords, messages written in invisible ink, and other details seemingly borrowed from cheap spy novels.
It was also reported that President Obama was not very pleased with such a drastic intrusion into his idyllic dialog with Medvedev, but our intelligence services had to arrest the spies because they feared they suspected the operation had failed and might escape.
Russian beauties and desperate housewives
According to the FBI, all the arrested agents worked for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and had been abandoned in the US for a long time, and they had been under surveillance since 2003.
The arrests took place on Sunday, June 27, in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts; searches of the agents’ homes continued throughout the night from Sunday to Monday. And on June 28, the arrested men were charged in Manhattan Federal District Court with money laundering and being agents of another country’s government. All of those arrested confirmed that they understood the charges, but none pleaded guilty. An eleventh spy, Christopher Metsos, was detained on June 29, and was the only one released on bail.
Among those arrested are 28-year-old Enna Chapman (pictured), who could pass for a “Russian beauty,” and 28-year-old Mikhail Semenko, who fits the image of a young Russian nouveau riche (drove fancy cars, had a gorgeous brunette girlfriend with whom he spoke only Russian). There are also Latin Americans: colorful Vicky Pelaez, a native of Peru, who worked in the famous Spanish-language newspaper El Diario, published in New York, and her assistant Juan Lazaro.
As for the rest of the Russian agents, they lived in idyllic suburbs of different states and were no different from their neighbors – “average Americans”: they worked in decent companies, drove decent cars, exchanged gossip and grew flowers in their “backyards”. Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills lived in Seattle, Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracy Lee Ann Foley lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Richard and Cynthia Murphy lived in Montclair, New Jersey.
One of Cynthia Murphy’s neighbors even called her, in a conversation with reporters, “the epitome of suburbia” and added: “Look at the hydrangeas growing in her yard!” It seemed like Cynthia could have been the ***eye of another show about suburban ladies like Desperate Housewives, but alas, she turned out to be the Russian villain in a spy movie. To make things more convincing, some of the agents posed as married couples, although they were not actually married, but, as one Daily News reporter put it, “had spy sex” and had children who had no idea of their parents’ real names and occupations.
All the agents had bank accounts, documents, credit histories. And, of course, everyone had assignments: judging by the FBI’s intercepted message from the Moscow “center,” the spies were supposed to “Americanize” as much as possible, and then establish contacts with people who “make policy” in the United States at various levels – up to the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House – and collect information important to Russia on various topics. The list of these topics included the development of U.S. scientists in the field of nuclear weapons, U.S. foreign policy (particularly regarding Iran and Afghanistan), disagreements within the CIA, rumors from Congress and the White House, etc.
Diplomats and “illegals,” or Our man at the UN
When the Russian agents were arrested, many of my colleagues asked: “Why now? Why during Medvedev’s visit and not earlier or later? After all, they had been under surveillance for so many years?” There were quite predictable versions that some villains from the intelligence services on both sides of the ocean wanted to prevent the warming of Russian-American relations. Or some “far-right” groups in the U.S. and Russia decided to discredit their “weak” liberal presidents and use the spy scandal to pave the way for “tough guys” like Putin and Bush to come to power.
On Tuesday, the day after the sensational reports about the arrest of Russian agents, I received a call from Arkady Bukh, a well-known Lawyer Bukh, who told me that he could give me exclusive information. In particular, to tell me why the spies were arrested now, when the FBI actually found out about them, and who helped our brave agents in this.
According to Bukh, the FBI and federal prosecutors have no doubt that all employees of the Russian mission to the UN are agents of Russian foreign intelligence. “The official purpose of these diplomats is to protect the interests of the Russian Federation in the United States, but behind this “kosher” task hides another – espionage in favor of Russia. Judging from my personal experience, most Russians at the UN are really spies,” Bukh added. However, these spy-diplomats are taken for granted by the FBI and are usually not touched. No less dangerous for the U.S. are the so-called “illegals” – that is, spies masquerading as ordinary Americans and, at first glance, in no way connected to Russian diplomats from the UN. But only at first glance…
Arkady Bukh recalled that back in 2005, a Russian UN employee, Alexander Yakovlev, was arrested and charged with money laundering. The case of Mr. Bukh, who was represented in court by Mr. Yakovlev, is still pending, and he is still at large. Two years later, another diplomat, Vladimir Kuznetsov, an employee of the Russian mission to the UN, was arrested in the same case. He, too, was charged with money laundering, which Bukh says masks a charge of espionage. “Money laundering means that the spy receives payment for his work through various ‘left-wing’ organizations, because directly the Russian government cannot pay him,” Mr. Bukh said.
Mr. Kuznetsov was sentenced to 51 months in prison. But soon, for unknown reasons, he was sent to Russia to finish his sentence. “This is very rarely practiced, especially when it comes to high-ranking people,” says Bukh. One way or another, the Russian spy-diplomat went to his homeland, where he was soon released. And Arkady Bukh began to be attacked by reporters from American newspapers who thought they could find out from him the reasons for Kuznetsov’s unexpected “deportation.”
“Some journalists were sure that Kuznetsov had made a deal with the federal prosecutor’s office and turned over all his colleagues – spies – ‘illegals,’” says Mr. Bukh. In his opinion, this version is quite plausible. “It’s not just that Kuznetsov was transferred to Russia. There are other suspicious details. For example, Kuznetsov also lived in Yonkers, like some of the 10 spies. And the prosecutor at his trial was the same federal prosecutor – Michael Fabriars…”
This isn’t Stirlitz
What is most striking about the activities of the arrested Russian agents (the details of which we will continue to inform our readers) is the paucity of their accomplishments. So many years of work in the United States – and only some contacts, meetings or even attempts to meet, say, with not the most influential figures of our country.
Judging by the articles in the mainstream newspapers of the United States, Russian spies were not distinguished by any special diligence, nor even by any special devotion to their homeland. Moreover, people from the Moscow “center” even feared that, having put down roots in America, the agents would forget about their original goal and defect to the side of the “enemy”, or even abandon spy activities altogether, and become peaceful American citizens. For example, Cynthia Murphy was advised by her superiors at the SVR not to buy a house in the suburbs of New Jersey, suspecting that she might turn from a Russian spy into an American “desperate housewife”.
What can be said, today’s Russian agents are not the legendary intelligence agents of Soviet times – heroic, selfless, perfectly trained. Perhaps during the trial, new details will emerge that speak of the larger victories of the 11 agents, but for now they give the impression of lazy and cynical dilettantes. Moreover, they resemble many people from post-Soviet countries, who in recent years have come to America to use it in some way and then go home. Some work as baby-sitters, some catch a rich husband, some steal money from Americans’ bank accounts, and some … spying.
But what is even worse – the impression of dilettantes is given by both the American intelligence services, which were after these spies, and their “puppeteers” from the Russian center. It seems that everyone wants to report to their superiors about the work done and put ticks in some forms. “Center” creates a network of amateur spies, the spies report that they have turned into worthy members of America’s suburban communities, and the FBI catches these ‘worthy’ people….
In short, we can agree with the New York Times reporter who stopped by the RR newsroom the other day to ask our opinion of the scandal and called it “summer fun.”
It is difficult to predict now how this scandal will affect U.S.-Russian relations or the attitude of Americans toward their Russian-speaking fellow citizens. But it is safe to say that our community should be more cautious and discerning in its relations with both Russian diplomats and people who come here from post-Soviet countries to “catch happiness and ranks.”
Source: https://forum.rusrek.com/thread-2776.html