The story of the Russian spies

On June 27, the FBI arrested 10 people in America – 8 of whom are married couples – and charged them with not identifying themselves as spies for the Russian government.

Such charges are rarely used, and sound a bit self-defeating if you’re a spy.

Nevertheless, their arrest proves the Cold War-era of spy tricks and espionage (giving classified information to foreign governments) is still very much alive.

Being a spy

There are two kinds of spies that operate in a foreign country.

The first is a legal resident, who must be registered as an intelligence agent with their government’s embassy in that country.

This gives them immunity from prosecution, meaning they can’t be arrested for espionage. Indeed, the worst the host country can do is expel them from the country.

The second is an illegal resident who doesn’t register as a spy. This is so they can use their deep under cover status to get closer to people in order to find out information.

As a result though, they don’t have the protection of their embassy, meaning they can be arrested for espionage like any other person.

These ‘illegals’ often operate under a false identity, using forged documents to make them out to be a local citizen or one from a friendly country.

The Russian spies

The 10 Russian suspects are believed to be illegal spies.

They haven’t been charged with the crime of espionage – actual spying activity. Instead they’ve been charged with the lesser crime of not being registered spies.

Few details have been revealed about what information was actually given to Russian intelligence.

This is partly because the FBI doesn’t want to compromise future investigations by revealing what they know.

And it’s partly because it’s believed the suspects didn’t uncover anything particularly secretive (supposedly much of the information they provided could be found via a simple Google search).

Indeed, that’s what some of the defence lawyers are claiming. One lawyer is saying his clients are innocent and that all they managed to infiltrate was their local school’s PTA.

Nevertheless, a lack of competence is not a lack of intent. And US prosecutors claim they have plenty of evidence to prove the suspects’ spy links with Russia’s intelligence agency SVR (formerly the KGB).

The evidence includes undercover FBI agents discussing instructions with the spies and giving out false passports to be used.

They also tracked the spies meeting their handlers at home, cafes, train stations, parks, street corners, and around the world.

They bugged homes and intercepted coded messages over the internet including a new technique of hiding messages in uploaded photos.

The conversations covered laptop equipment, passports, bank accounts, pay, and of course, the information being provided.

The suspects lived remarkably ordinary lives in suburban America with jobs and children.

However, according to prosecutors, it was all part of an act to integrate themselves into American society. Their job was to search and develop ties in policy-making circles in order to find out information.

Richard and Cynthia Murphy had assumed false identities using fake birth certificates. They lived in a quiet town in New Jersey with their two daughters, who are presumed to be oblivious to their parents’ double lives.

Donald Heathfield, who lived with his wife and two sons in Boston, stole his identity from a Canadian child who died at the age of six months.

Mikhail Semenko used his real identity, as did Anna Chapman. Both were stylish young up-and-comers, working in Washington and New York respectively.

Chapman, whose father still works for the Russian foreign ministry, became a regular on the social scene and her glamourous ways have drawn comparisons to a James Bond-type Russian spy beauty.

The eleventh spy

The eleventh suspect in the case is Christopher Metsos, who lived in Cyprus and was responsible for sending money to those in the spy ring.

On the same day as the others were arrested last week, he was arrested in Cyprus as he tried to board a flight for Hungary. But he was released on bail by a Cypriot court and has since vanished.

There is now an international manhunt to find him.

Russia’s reaction

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had only met with President Obama a few days before the arrests.

He and Obama have a good working relationship and both have come out saying this incident won’t harm their progress.

Many in Russia are embarrassed at the revelations, though only at how incompetent the spies appear to be.

Comments made by both sides suggest the arrests are no surprise, and that such spy operations are still common in today’s world.

As it stands, only one request for bail has been granted, given the disappearance of Metsos.

Meanwhile, one suspect has confessed to the spy charges and two others have admitted using false identities.

But perhaps the most frustrating part from Russia’s point of view is that the whole operation seems to have provided little value for money.

By The Casual Truth

Photo – One of the supposed leader’s of the spy ring, Anna Chapman.