FBI breaks up alleged Russian spy ring in deep cover

The CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia. Some of the accused were living in nearby Arlington. Photograph: Dennis Brack/Corbis

Arrests of ten accused agents living in suburban homes made after Barack Obama praised Medvedev as solid

Tuesday 29 June 2010
Chris McGreal in Washington
The Guardian

The FBI has arrested 10 alleged Russian spies and broken up a "long-term, deep cover" network of agents across America's east coast sent to infiltrate policy making circles.

The cracking of the alleged spy ring, the largest discovered in the US since the collapse of communism, came days after Barack Obama praised Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, at the White House as a "solid and reliable partner".

In a charge sheet that might have been taken from a cold war thriller, the FBI alleges that the Russian intelligence service, the SVR, had sent the 10 spies, and possibly many more, to live in the US many years ago under false names, with the intent of becoming so Americanised they could gather information without raising suspicion. Some of the agents lived as married couples.

The FBI said that it intercepted SVR messages, sent by "Moscow centre", to two of the accused spies.

"You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, your bank accounts, car, house, etc – all these serve one goal: fulfil your main mission, ie, to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels (intelligence reports) to C (Centre)," the intercepted message said, according to the indictment. The FBI does not give any indication as to how successful the alleged agents were.

The arrests were made at Arlington in Virginia, near the Pentagon and CIA headquarters, and in New York, Boston and New Jersey. The justice department said one other alleged spy was being sought.

All the 10 have been charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. They face up to five years in prison if convicted, although it is possible that more serious charges will be added.

The alleged spies are also accused of money laundering, which carries lengthy prison sentences.

The justice department said the arrests were the result of an FBI investigation over many years. According to testimony of an FBI special agent, Amit Kachhia-Patel, in the indictments of two of the accused: "The FBI has conducted a multi-year investigation of a network of United States-based agents of the foreign intelligence organ of the Russian Federation (the "SVR").

The targets of the FBI's investigation include covert SVR agents who assume false identities, and who are living in the US on long-term, "deep cover" assignments. Those arrested include agents who went by the names Richard and Cynthia Murphy, and Patricia Mills.

"These Russian secret agents work to hide all connections between themselves and Russia, even as they act at the direction and under the control of the SVR," the indictment said.

"These secret agents are typically called 'illegals'... The FBI's investigation has revealed that a network of illegals is now living and operating in the United States in the service of one primary, long-term goal: to become sufficiently "Americanised" such that they can gather information about the US for Russia, and can successfully recruit sources who are in, or are able to, infiltrate United States policy-making circles."

The indictment said the alleged spies used a number of methods to communicate with the SVR, including unique wireless networks to transfer encrypted data. One wireless network was allegedly run from a van in New York that on one occasion parked outside a coffee shop where one of the accused, named as Anna Chapman, was sitting. The FBI says it observed as she established a connection with the wireless link in the van and transmitted data. A few weeks later she did the same from a bookshop.

The FBI said it also observed a car with diplomatic plates registered to the Russian government park outside a Washington DC restaurant where another alleged spy, going by the name Mikhail Semenko, who is still being sought by the authorities, used a computer to establish a connection with a wireless signal from the car. Other information was passed by posting pictures on the internet with text buried in them, as well as traditional means such as drops and "brush pasts" in parks.

Kachhia-Patel described how the FBI set up a sting for Chapman on Saturday by using an agent to pose as a Russian consulate official in New York who needed to pass on a vital package. During the meeting, the FBI said, Chapman discussed the covert laptop communications because she was having technical difficulties. The FBI put Chapman through a charade in which she was asked to deliver a false passport to a supposed agent. Chapman was to signal to the person by holding a magazine in a particular way and staging a seemingly innocuous exchange of greetings.The US authorities also arranged for Semenko to make a drop of $5,000 that he believed was intended for a Russian agent.