The FBI accused three Russian citizens living in New York City of being Russian spies on Monday. Two of the suspects worked as diplomats and remain at large; the third suspect, a banker named Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested Monday.
Igor Sporyshev, 40, and Victor Podobnyy, 27, both had diplomatic immunity through their jobs at the Russian embassy in New York and the U.N. Both are believed to have fled the county. Buryakov is scheduled to appear in a Manhattan federal court later today.
From the Justice Department's press release:
During the course of their work as covert SVR agents in the United States, Buryakov, Sporyshev and Podobnyy regularly met and communicated using clandestine methods and coded messages, in order to exchange intelligence-related information while shielding their associations with one another as SVR agents.
…
In numerous recorded communications, Sporyshev and Podobnyy discussed their attempts to recruit U.S. residents, including several individuals employed by major companies, and several young women with ties to a major university located in New York City (University-1), as intelligence sources for the SVR. On these recordings, the defendants discussed the potential value of these sources and identified particular sources by use of a "source name," which appears to be a coded name. In addition, during these recordings, Sporyshev and Podobnyy discussed the efforts of other SVR agents to recruit a number of other Russian-origin individuals associated with University-1 as intelligence sources.
For example, Sporyshev and Podobnyy discussed Podobnyy's efforts to recruit a male working as a consultant in New York City as an intelligence source. During this conversation, Podobnyy explained his source recruitment method, which included cheating, promising favors and then discarding the intelligence source once the relevant information was obtained by the SVR: "This is intelligence method to cheat. . . . You promise a favor for a favor. You get the documents from him and tell him to go [expletive] himself."
All three suspects were charged with participating in a conspiracy for Buryakov to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without first notifying the Attorney General; Buryakov was also charged with acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without first notifying the Attorney General, and Sporyshev and Podobnyy were charged as his accomplices. If convicted, all three face a maximum of 15 years in prison.
[Image via AP]
