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Russia Detains American, Saying He Is C.I.A. Officer Russia Detains American, Saying He Is C.I.A. Agent
(about 3 hours later)
MOSCOW — Russia’s Federal Security Service announced Tuesday that it had detained a Central Intelligence Agency officer during an attempt to recruit a Russian agent, saying the American had brought a large sum of cash, technical devices and “appearance disguising means.” MOSCOW — Russian officials said on Tuesday that they had caught a C.I.A. officer trying to recruit a Russian counterterrorism officer to spy for the United States. They said he was detained on Monday night and then released to the American Embassy in Moscow and ordered to leave the country.
The F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., identified the officer as Ryan Christopher Fogle and said he had been “working under the guise of” third secretary in the political department of the United States Embassy in Moscow. It said that Mr. Fogle was detained on Monday night and that he was carrying written instructions for a Russian recruit. The Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., identified the man as Ryan Christopher Fogle and said he had been “working under the guise of” a diplomat, a third secretary in the political department of the embassy. It said that when Mr. Fogle was detained, he was carrying a large amount of cash, technical devices, items to disguise his appearance and written instructions for a Russian recruit.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned United States Ambassador Michael A. McFaul to appear on Wednesday to respond to the accusation. Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling Mr. Fogle “persona non grata” and demanding that he leave the country. It said the United States ambassador, Michael A. McFaul, had been summoned to appear on Wednesday to explain the incident.
Photographs that appeared on Russian news sites on Tuesday afternoon showed a man in a blond wig, a blue checked shirt and a baseball cap being pinned to the ground, evidently by a Russian officer, and later sitting at a desk in an F.S.B. office, grim-faced. Further images showed a number of items evidently confiscated from him: brown and blond wigs, several pairs of dark glasses, several stacks of 500-euro notes, a compass, a map of Moscow and an embassy ID card identifying him as Ryan C. Fogle. The ministry made clear that it viewed the apparent American clandestine effort as a serious slap in the face, after the high level of cooperation between Russia and the United States in the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing. Since the attack, President Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have spoken twice on the telephone. And American law enforcement officials said Russia took the extraordinary step of sharing secret wiretap transcripts of a call in which it was learned that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the bombing suspects, held extremist beliefs.
Russian news sources also featured the text of a letter, allegedly addressed to a recruit, that instructs the recipient to create a Gmail account that will be used for covert contacts. The letter, signed “your friends,” offers $100,000 “to discuss your experience, expertise and cooperation,” with much greater rewards for answering “specific questions.” It goes on to say that “we can offer up to $1 million a year for long-term cooperation, with extra bonuses if we receive some helpful information.” Communications were to be addressed to an enigmatic e-mail address, unbacggdA@gmail.com. “While our two presidents reaffirmed their readiness to expand bilateral cooperation, including through intelligence agencies in the fight against international terrorism, such provocative actions in the spirit of the cold war does not contribute to building mutual trust,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement.
“This is a down payment from someone who is very impressed with your professionalism and who would greatly appreciate your cooperation in the future,” the letter says. “Your security means a lot to us. This is why we chose this way of contacting you.” Photographs that appeared on Russian news sites on Tuesday afternoon showed a man in a blond wig, a blue checked shirt and a baseball cap being pinned to the ground, evidently by a Russian officer, and the same man sitting grim-faced at a desk in an F.S.B. office. Further images showed a number of items that apparently were confiscated from him: brown and blond wigs, several pairs of dark glasses, several stacks of 500-euro notes, a compass, a map of Moscow and an embassy card identifying him as Ryan C. Fogle.
Mr. Fogle was taken to F.S.B. headquarters and then delivered to officials at the American Embassy, the statement said. The F.S.B. went on to say its counterintelligence service has documented a series of recent attempts by the United States to recruit officers from Russian law enforcement and “special departments.” Russian news outlets also published the text of a letter that they said Mr. Fogle was carrying, written in Russian and addressed to a recruit, that instructed the recipient to create a Gmail account to be used for covert contacts. It offered 100,000 euros, or about $130,000, “to discuss your experience, expertise and cooperation,” with more promised for answering “specific questions.” It goes on to say that “we can offer up to $1 million a year for long-term cooperation, with extra bonuses if we receive some helpful information.” Communications were to be addressed to an enigmatic e-mail address, unbacggdA@gmail.com.
The United States Embassy has not commented on the report. “This is a down payment from someone who is very impressed with your professionalism and who would greatly appreciate your cooperation in the future,” the letter says. “Your security means a lot to us. This is why we chose this way of contacting you.” The letter is signed “Your friends.”
The accusations come as Russian officials express high anxiety about what they describe as Western attempts to undermine political stability here. President Vladimir V. Putin has thrown his support behind new laws seeking to prevent Russian officials from keeping wealth overseas, saying it leaves them dangerously exposed to pressure from foreign governments. And nongovernmental organizations are being forced to brand themselves as “foreign agents” if they receive financing from other countries. Aides to Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Stockholm on Tuesday to attend a conference of Arctic nations, including Russia, declined to comment on the matter. The Central Intelligence Agency also declined to comment, as did the American Embassy in Moscow.
Mr. Fogle’s arrest, lavishly detailed on Russian television, fell easily into that line of reasoning, though some of its details, like the pile of wigs, left many in Moscow incredulous. The Russian security agency said its counterintelligence service had documented a series of recent attempts by the United States to recruit officers from Russian law enforcement and “special departments.”
“There is nothing new about it — I’m just surprised that the guy was such an idiot,” said Yevgenia M. Albats, the author of a 1994 book on the K.G.B. “I am not interested so much in this Christopher Fogle as much as the person he was trying to recruit, and why did he have to do it in such an old-fashioned way? It sounds like the ‘70s.” The recruitment target was apparently a counterterrorism officer specializing in the Caucasus region, in which the United States has developed intense interest in recent weeks because the Boston bombing suspects, Mr. Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, had once lived there. Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned to Dagestan in the North Caucasus last year and was in contact with Muslim rebels there.
In 2010, the American authorities arrested 10 people who were part of a Russian spy ring and had been living in the United States for a decade, posing as Americans. The so-called “sleeper” agents had not sent home any classified secrets and were not charged with espionage. Instead, they were sent back to Russia as part of a swap in which the Kremlin released four prisoners who had been jailed for spying, three of whom were serving long sentences. A video posted on the state-financed Russia Today news site shows Mr. Fogle seated, with other American officials standing beside him, as an unidentified Russian security official is heard expressing perplexity at the incident.
At the time, the Obama White House quickly made clear that it did not envision the episode causing undue strains with Russia. “At first, we could not even believe that this could be happening, because you well know that in recent time the F.S.B. has actively helped the investigation of the bombings in Boston,” the official says in Russian to the Americans. One of the men standing next to Mr. Fogle is Michael Klecheski of the embassy’s political section.
In recent days, President Obama and Mr. Putin have increased up cooperation on antiterrorism efforts in response to the bombing at the Boston Marathon. So it seemed likely that this latest espionage arrest would also not get in the way of larger bilateral priorities, including plans for the two presidents to meet in Ireland later this month and in Russia later this year. Toward the end of the video, the Russian official appears on screen but his face is blocked out. He says the Americans have committed “a serious crime in Moscow” and then turns to the Americans, who have said nothing, at least in the part of the video released to Russia Today.
Since being expelled back to Russia, at least one member of the suburban spy ring, Anna Chapman, has become a celebrity here, with her own TV show. “Do you have any questions about what you have been shown?” the Russian official asks. The Americans, standing with their arms crossed, glance at one another, shrug and shake their heads no.
Espionage arrests, though not frequent, have long been an element of diplomatic life in Moscow. In May 2011, Russia expelled Israel’s military attaché in Moscow on suspicion of spying. The attaché, Vadim Leiderman, an air force colonel born in the Soviet Union, was arrested while sitting in a cafe with a Russian and was suspected of managing several local residents as informers. The Israeli Defense Ministry said it had conducted its own investigation and found the Russian accusations to be baseless. Russian officials have been expressing anxiety lately about what they see as Western attempts to undermine political stability in Russia. Mr. Putin has supported new laws to block Russian officials from depositing wealth overseas, saying that doing so leaves them dangerously exposed to pressure from foreign governments. Nongovernmental organizations working in Russia are accused of meddling and are forced to register as “foreign agents” if they receive financing from abroad.
Mr. Fogle’s arrest, given lavish attention on Russian television, fit neatly into that pattern, though some of the details, like the pile of wigs, left many in Moscow incredulous.
“There is nothing new about it — I’m just surprised that the guy was such an idiot,” said Yevgenia M. Albats, the author of a 1994 book on the K.G.B. “I am not interested so much in this Christopher Fogle as much as the person he was trying to recruit. And why did he have to do it in such an old-fashioned way? It sounds like the ‘70s.”
Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer who is now at the Brookings Institution, said it was difficult to determine from a single case whether the agency was increasing espionage activity inside Russia. But the Russian government’s decision to make the episode so public was telling, he said: “If they wanted to, they could have just quietly told the embassy that he was persona not grata and expelled him, and not put anything in the media.”
In 2010, American authorities arrested 10 people who were part of a Russian “sleeper” spy ring and had been living in the United States for a decade posing as Americans. They had not sent home any classified information and were not charged with espionage; instead, they were returned to Russia in exchange for the release of four people imprisoned there for spying.
At the time, the White House quickly made clear that it did not expect the episode to strain relations with Russia.
Similarly, it seemed unlikely that the arrest of Mr. Fogle would significantly affect bilateral relations, including plans for Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama to meet in Northern Ireland this month and in Russia later this year.
Espionage arrests, though not frequent, have long been an element of diplomatic life in Moscow. In May 2011, Russia arrested Israel’s military attaché in Moscow — an air force colonel who was born in the Soviet Union — as he sat in a cafe with a Russian; it expelled him on suspicion of using several local residents as informers. The Israeli Defense Ministry said it conducted its own investigation and found the Russian accusations to be baseless.
There have also been notable defections. In October 2000, Sergei Tretyakov, a colonel in the Russian spy service, defected to the United States with his wife and daughter. At the time, he held the title of first secretary of the Russian mission in New York and senior aide to the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Sergey V. Lavrov. Mr. Lavrov is now Russia’s foreign minister.There have also been notable defections. In October 2000, Sergei Tretyakov, a colonel in the Russian spy service, defected to the United States with his wife and daughter. At the time, he held the title of first secretary of the Russian mission in New York and senior aide to the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Sergey V. Lavrov. Mr. Lavrov is now Russia’s foreign minister.

David M. Herszenhorn, Andrew E. Kramer and Andrew Roth contributed reporting.