Russian Spy in US Embassy?

A Russian national was employed at the US Embassy in Moscow for more than a decade. She was removed last year after she was suspected of being a spy working for Russia. The woman came under the suspicion during the US State Department’s regional security office routine security review in the year 2016, when it was found that the woman is in regular touch with Russian Intelligence Service, the FSB.

After the security review, the security office found some discrepancies and thus alerted the US embassy in Moscow, in the year 2017 and accordingly the woman was suspended after she was caught red-handed while doing one such act.

An official of the state department said, “We figure out that all of them are talking to the FSB, but she was giving them way more information than she should have. We knew it was happening and it was just a process of playing it out and giving her specific information that we saw her give back to the FSB”.

Amidst arguments, the US Secret Service denied the involvement of any woman in a position to obtain national secret. In a statement, the US Secret Service said, “At no time, in any US Secret Service office, have FSNs been provided or placed in a position to obtain national security information. The Secret Service recognizes that all Foreign Service Nationals (FSN) who provide services in furtherance of our mission, administrative or otherwise, can be subjected to foreign intelligence influence”. 

The United States stressed that they avail the services of foreign nationals in their foreign mission but never employed them for secret services, in the statement they said, “As such, all Foreign Service Nationals are managed accordingly, to ensure that Secret Service and United States Government interests are protected at all times. As a result, the duties are limited to translation, interpretation, cultural guidance, liaison and administrative support”.

The removal of the Russian spy from the US Embassy in Moscow took place before the series of expulsions of diplomats from the US missions by Russia after United States imposed a sanction on Russia, after a suspicious attack on an undercover agent and his daughter in the UK. Russia ordered the removal of more than 750 US diplomats from its 1200 diplomatic mission.

Experts believe that the removal of the spy came much later and the damage had already been done. So far, the senior management of the US Secret service has not conducted any internal investigation to identify the damage she might have done and also to verify whether she had recruited anyone in the US mission, who is still providing the information to the Russian Secret Service.