Translated material
Twelfth
US authorities expel another alleged Russian spy from the country
US authorities on Tuesday deported 23-year-old Russian citizen Alexei Karetnikov, who was suspected of having ties to a recently uncovered Russian spy ring in the US. Despite the fact that no charges were brought against the Russian, the intelligence services have no doubt that he was related to the ten “SVR agents” exposed and deported last week. At the same time, Mr. Karetnikov himself, who worked for about a year at Microsoft, in order to avoid further legal proceedings, voluntarily agreed to deportation under the pretext of “violating immigration laws.”Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security, announced the deportation to his homeland of the 12th person involved in the Russian-American spy scandal on Wednesday: “On July 12, 2010, the immigration judge, in accordance with the agreement reached, ordered the deportation of Alexei Karetnikov. As part of this agreement, Karetnikov admitted that he was in the United States in violation of immigration laws and voluntarily agreed to deportation in lieu of further legal proceedings.” Mr. Chandler provided no other details. According to American media reports, on Monday the Russian was taken from Seattle to New York and the very next day he flew unaccompanied to Russia.
The Komo News Seattle television channel reported before his deportation that he came to the United States in October 2009, lived in the city of Redmond, located near Seattle, and worked at the Microsoft headquarters located there. Representatives of the company confirmed this information, saying that Mr. Karetnikov worked for them as a software tester at the starting position for about a year.
The fact that the 23-year-old Russian is related to the investigation into the activities of a group of 11 “SVR agents” exposed at the end of June was announced on Tuesday by US Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd. He did not explain exactly how the 23-year-old programmer is connected to intelligence activities, but made it clear that his name surfaced during the investigation into the spy scandal. The Wall Street Journal, citing representatives of the intelligence services, reported in turn that the investigation found no evidence of his illegal activities.
An informed source from the CNN television company reported that the suspect was such an insignificant figure in the uncovered spy network that “if we considered everyone else to be small fish, then there would be no place for him at all in this aquarium.” At the same time, a source from The Washington Post reported that the Russian planned to begin reconnaissance in the United States. “He just opened his shop,” the source said, adding that the FBI had been monitoring the programmer since he entered the country and was confident that he had not obtained any important information.
The circumstances of Mr. Karetnikov’s detention remain unknown. According to the US Department of Justice, he was captured on June 26, that is, one day before the detention of ten Russian agents, while the American media claim that the detention occurred on June 28. According to authorities, the Russian's visa was canceled on June 26. It is possible that the revocation of the American visa and the subsequent “violation of immigration laws” served only as a formal pretext for the detention and deportation of the Russian citizen.
Little is known about Alexei Karetnikov himself. Journalists found his page on the social network Facebook, but there is little information there. The programmer only confirms that he lives in Redmond and works for Microsoft; in addition, the page contains information that he graduated from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in 2009. The St. Petersburg online publication Fontanka.ru reported that Mr. Karetnikov managed to work at the St. Petersburg LLC NeoBIT Company, where he also worked as a tester. The company’s website states that it is engaged in “the design and development of products and solutions that ensure information security and the creation of secure information systems,” and the FSB and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are among the company’s customers. In addition, the publication reports that the programmer’s father is most likely an FSB employee.
Let us recall that a loud spy scandal broke out between Russia and the United States shortly after the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev overseas. On June 27, FBI officers detained ten people in different parts of the country - Anna Chapman, Richard and Cynthia Murphy, Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez, Michael Zotolli, Patricia Mills, Mikhail Semenko, Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracy Lee Ann Foley. Another suspect, Robert Metsos, was soon detained in Cyprus, but the island authorities released him on bail, after which he fled. According to the FBI, all of them were employees of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and for many years acted in the United States as illegal intelligence officers. Despite many years of work, the investigation found that none of the detainees were able to obtain any classified information, so they were charged with “conspiracy to work as an agent of a foreign government” and “money laundering.”
The scandal ended within two weeks as quickly as it began. All the defendants admitted in court that they worked for intelligence and gave their real Russian names; in exchange, the charge of “money laundering,” which threatened with grave consequences, was dropped. The US and Russian intelligence services managed to agree on the exchange of ten members of the spy network for four Russian prisoners who were convicted in Russia of spying for American and British intelligence. The list compiled by the US authorities included former KGB-SVR officers Gennady Vasilenko and Alexander Zaporozhsky, GRU officer Sergei Skripal, as well as scientist Igor Sutyagin. Before the exchange, they were all forced to sign documents in which they admitted their guilt. After this, by decree of President Dmitry Medvedev, they were pardoned and given the formal opportunity to leave the country. The exchange of agents took place on Friday, July 9, at Vienna Airport. After this, Sutyagin and Skripal were sent to the UK, and Vasilenko and Zaporozhsky left for the USA.