Russia 'studying US statements' about alleged spies

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it is studying US statements about the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies.

Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov said the information given by US authorities looked “contradictory” but would not comment further.

The main Russian spy agency, the Foreign Intelligence Service, refused to comment today.

According to court papers unsealed yesterday, the FBI intercepted a message from the headquarters of Russia’s intelligence service, the SVR, in Moscow, to two of the defendants describing their main mission as “to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US”.

Intercepted messages showed they were asked to learn about a broad sweep of topics including nuclear weapons, US arms control positions, Iran, White House rumours, CIA leadership turnover, the last presidential election, the Congress and political parties.

There was no clue in initial court papers to how successful the agents had been, but they were alleged to have been long-term, deep-cover spies, some living as couples.

The secret US investigation took place over a number of years.