Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about Russian spy network in the United States. For the general topic, see Illegal immigration. Ten Russian agents apprehended on June russian spy marriage, 2010. Russian sleeper agents under non-official cover.

Canada was a common place for Soviet, and later Russian, illegal immigrants to go so they could create a “legend” of being Western citizens before their deployment to target countries, often the United States or the United Kingdom. The spies were planted in the U. The suspect arrested in Cyprus skipped bail the day after his arrest. A twelfth person, a Russian national who worked for Microsoft, was also apprehended about the same time and deported on July 13, 2010. Ten of the agents were flown to Vienna on July 9, 2010, soon after pleading guilty to charges of failing to register as representatives of a foreign government. On October 31, 2011, the FBI publicly released several dozen still images, clips from surveillance video, and documents related to its investigation in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Using forged documents, some of the spies assumed stolen identities of Americans, enrolled at American universities and joined professional organizations as a means of further infiltrating spies into government circles.

The criminal complaints later filed in various federal district courts allege that the Russian agents in the U. The Russian agents were tasked by “Moscow centre” to report about U. According to the media reports, planning by the FBI to have the “illegals” arrested began in mid-June 2010, but the action was hastened reportedly by some members of the group intending to travel outside the US as well as by Anna Chapman’s growing concern about having been exposed. June 27, 2010, in a series of raids in Boston, Montclair, Yonkers, and Northern Virginia. They charged the individuals with money laundering and failing to register as agents of a foreign government.

One of the suspects using the name of Christopher R. Metsos was detained on June 29, 2010, while attempting to depart from Cyprus for Budapest, but was released on bail and then disappeared. Pavel Felgenhauer believed that they consequently did not constitute a “spy ring”. Shortly after the arrests, The Guardian commented: “The FBI operation represents the biggest penetration of SVR communications in recent memory.