Russia says CIA spy agency ‘crossed red line’

The spokesman for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikolai Zakharov, said Thursday that in October 2011 the FSB officially warned the CIA station chief in the country that “if provocative recruitment efforts aimed at Russian security service employees continued, the FSB would take ‘mirror’ measures.”

“The CIA crossed a red line and we were forced to react,” Zakharov stated.

On May 14, Russian authorities detained a US diplomat, identified as Ryan Fogle, on allegations of attempting to recruit a Russian national to spy for the CIA. Fogle was ordered to leave Russia.

The FSB said that at the time of capture Fogle had been carrying “special technical equipment and written instructions for recruiting a Russian citizen.”

Zakharov also stated that in 2011, the FSB had named Russian officers who had been approached by the US spy agency, and the CIA operatives who had targeted them, adding that the US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, had been “made aware of this issue.”

“The CIA did not take our concern over the situation into account” and went on with its efforts to recruit Russians, the FSB spokesman said.

Zakharov said in December 2012 another US diplomat, who was a third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow, had been caught red-handed when he was trying to recruit a Russian agent.

The diplomat, identified as Benjamin Dillon, left Russia on January 15 after being declared persona non grata.

However, the US embassy did not comment on whether an employee was expelled in January.

The Russian Federal Security Service said it knew Fogle worked for the CIA when he entered Russia in April 2011.

“In the hope that the CIA leadership would draw the necessary conclusions, we did not make this case public. But apparently the adherence by the FSB to the principles of professional ethics was not properly appreciated,” Zakharov said.
The issue of Fogle came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Moscow that the relationship between Moscow and Washington was improving.



Presstv