the CIA scuttled the plan to kill the Russian spy in the US

Now, the intelligence and national security expert Calder Walton collects in his book Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East And West some of the more lurid details about this secret plot. It is a extensive research in which the fans of the Russian president are portrayed, Vladimir Putinby chase down any deserter or opponent, whatever the cost.

As Walton explains, the target was Alexander Poteyeva 71-year-old Belarusian who had previously held a high position in one of the most secretive units of the Foreign International Service From Russia. While overseeing the department’s operations in New York, Poteyev was recruited by the FBI. Returning to Russia, he began working as a double agent and provided classified information on covert operations Russians to Americans. This information led to arrest of almost a dozen Russian spies in 2010 who were living clandestinely along the east coast of the United States.

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Subsequently, the cia helped Poteyev to escape from russia and start a new life in the United States under a different identitywhich made him the “public enemy number one of the Kremlin“. “The traitors will dietrust me,” Putin said in statements collected in Walton’s work. Also, a Kremlin spokesman told a Russian newspaper: “We know who he is and where he is. A hitman has already been sent after him“.

In February 2022, the US Department of Justice presented compelling evidence that Russia was planning to commit murder against Poteyev in us territory. According to the New York TimesRussian officers recruited Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a Mexican citizen who had studied in Russia, to help locate Poteyev. They took advantage of the immigration status of Fuentes’s Russian wife, who was seeking to return to her home in Germany, as a means to press him and get his cooperation.

Fuentes agreed and rented a condominium near Miami Beach where Poteyev resided. His contact in Russia gave him the description of Poteyev’s car and asked him to locate him and record his number and location. However, he plan failed. Security cameras at Poteyev’s home recorded how he and his wife photographed the car. Some days after, Fuentes was arrested and confessed his involvement in the conspiracy. Day by day, Poteyev is still alive.

this scandal got even worse relations between the United States and Russia. The plot, along with other Russian activities, triggered a strong response by the US government, according to the New York Times. In 2021, it imposed sanctions and expelled ten diplomats russians. At the same time, Russia responded expelling 10 US diplomats.

“He operational failure of the International Foreign Service of Russia and the public humiliation [de los operativos expuestos en 2010 y el asesinato fallido de Poteyev] may have contributed to Putin take even more blatant risks against the United States in the future,” says Walton.