Russian Turncoat Spy Sentenced To 25 Years in Prison

Alexander Poteyev

Russian spymaster was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years in prison for having betrayed deep-cover spy ring in the United States, which was a serious blow for the Russian intelligence operations overseas.

Alexander Poteyev, 59, was a colonel of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and was judged in absentia by a Russian military court.

The charge against him refers to the fact that he gave away 10 “sleeper” agents operating on the territory of the United States.

All ten were arrested last year and were deported to Russia in response to the conviction of four operatives spying for the Western nations on the Russian territory.

Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia

Those uncovered by Poteyev, including Anna Chapman, were operating on the American territory without diplomatic cover, with false identities.

Poteyev fled to the United States, where his family had been sent earlier, days before the Russian spies were arrested and deported.

His case is the most notorious of this sort since the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

His defection is considered to have damaged Russian Intelligence Service abroad very seriously, considering that he had access to the deepest secrets of the Russian intelligence related to the networks in the United States and Latin America.

The judge that passed the sentence said that Poteyev disclosed how Moscow was communicating with, and financing, its operatives in the field, and that it would take years to repair the damage.

Poteyev worked for the Directorate C of the Foreign Intelligence Service, responsible for the placing of deep under cover operatives in the field in the Western countries.

Some Russian analysts think that the way Poteyev was caught reflects the animosity between Russian intelligence services.