Moscow condemns arrest of 'spy' Yevgeny Buryakov as 'anti-Russian move'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/moscow-condemns-arrest-yevgeny-buryakov-spy

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Moscow has condemned the arrest of a Russian man in New York on espionage charges as yet another instance of unfair persecution by the US.

Yevgeny Buryakov, an employee of state-owned VEB bank, was arrested on Monday and charged with gathering “economic intelligence” along with two other Russian men who had already left the United States.

Related: US charges Russian 'spies' suspected of trying to recruit New Yorkers

In remarks carried by Russia’s state-owned television channels, foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich accused the United States of detaining Russian citizens without presenting evidence and warned that this “anti-Russian campaign” would “undermine” cooperation between the Washington and Moscow.

“The American authorities have once again decided to resort to their favorite practice of drumming up spy passions,” Lukashevich said. “Russian-American relations are already undergoing a difficult period because of Washington’s hostile position. Apparently acting on the principle of ‘the worse it gets, the better,’ the United States has decided to launch the latest move in its anti-Russian campaign.”

“We insist on an end to the series of provocations that the US intelligence services have unleashed against Russian representatives, immediate consular access to Yevgeny Buryakov, the rigorous observation of the rights of this Russian citizen and his release,” Lukashevich added.

Konstantin Dolgov, the foreign ministry’s human rights ombudsman, said Russians were increasingly being persecuted in the United States and pledged to “work to end illegal actions against our citizens”.

“In general, the hunting of Russian citizens by US law enforcement is continuing, and it’s being done systematically,” Dolgov told state news channel Rossiya 24, adding that Russians “won’t get a fair trial in the United States”.

When reached by the Guardian by phone, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the arrest of the alleged spy, saying he didn’t know the details of the case.

MP Sergei Mironov, who heads the party A Just Russia, told reporters that the case against Buryakov was political, called the accusations of industrial espionage “just silly” and suggested Russia would respond by outing US spies on its own soil.

“It would be strange if they didn’t catch yet another spy in America. Because their logic is, ‘We adopted sanctions, they didn’t work … what next? We need to catch a spy,’” Mironov said.

“There’s a very good practice called ‘an eye for an eye,’” he added. “I think our intelligence services have members of the diplomatic corps who are obviously not entirely within the law.”

Analysts on state television similarly argued that the espionage charges were overblown and likely meant to improve the United States’ bargaining position in future negotiations with Russia.

“Americans working in Moscow meet every day with Russians to clarify one position or another, it’s normal diplomatic practice,” said Igor Korotchenko, editor of the journal National Defence.

Mikhail Lyubimov, a former Soviet KGB agent in London who later became a spy novelist, told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that the espionage accusations levelled against Buryakov were “not serious”.

“This was very likely fabricated, because usually in crisis situations such as the one that has recently arisen with the United States, espionage cases play into the hands of those who want to spark conflict and worsen relations,” Lyubimov said.

But whereas Lyubimov doubted there would be serious diplomatic fallout from the incident, another former Soviet spy, Yury Kobaladze, told the newspaper that “signs of the cold war are coming back”.

“When relations between countries are normal and well-meaning, all spy scandals, no matter how serious, are peacefully decided behind the scenes,” Kobaladze said.

Andrei Soldatov, an expert on the Russian intelligence services told the Guardian that like the 10 suspected Russian “sleeper agents” captured in the US in 2010 and later exchange for four Russian citizens accused of spying, the Buryakov spy scandal “raises big questions” about the efficacy of Russian intelligence gathering.

“The Americans couldn’t find anything they had gotten, they just talk about attempts to get information and to recruit at a very low level,” Soldatov said.

Unlike the latest spy fiasco, the 2010 scandal sparked a media furor in Russia. Each member of the “Illegals Program” was extensively covered, and after then-PM Putin said their capture was “the result of a betrayal, and betrayers always meet a bad end,” the Russian media debated who gave the agents up. Putin, a former intelligence agent himself, even met with the spies and said he had sung patriotic songs with them. One of the agents, Anna Chapman, was celebrated as a femme fatale both in Russia and the west and became a television host upon her return to her homeland.

“In 2010, there was political PR campaign to show that Russia still has the ability to send spies to America, there was a political message so it was covered a lot,” Soldatov said. “This time there isn’t such a political message.”