With a dream of a bond

Vnesheconombank admitted that the detainee in the United States in connection with the accusation of espionage, Yevgeny Buryakov, is really an employee of the bank, deputy head of the representative office in New York. The exact information about the details of the incident, however, is not located in the bank.

Last night, another espionage scandal erupted between the United States and Russia. The Federal Bureau of Investigations announced the detention in the Bronx, one of the districts of New York, the 39-year-old Russian Yevgeny Buryakov (also known as Zhenya, clarifies the FBI), who, according to the Office of the General of the US Prosecutor, "entered the Economic intelligence collection network and recruited the residents of New York."

The detainee lived in New York with his wife and two children and before work in the United States, confident in the FBI, represented the interests of the Russian foreign intelligence service in another country.

Actually, three people are suspected of espionage - Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Victor like. The last two have had diplomatic immunity: Sporyshev worked in the Russian trade mission, and similar to the representative office of Russia at the UN, they have already left the territory of the United States.

Federal Bureau of Investigations

According to American law enforcement agencies, Yevgeny Buryakov, working in the New York office of Vnesheconombank, was actually an agent of foreign intelligence service. Officially, Buryakov was accused of illegal work for the Russian government in the United States and in conspiracy for this purpose. The detainee himself said in court that he completely denies all the accusations and would insist on his innocence. The court refused to release him on bail.

According to American laws, the interests of foreign governments without appropriate accreditation of the State Department cannot be represented in the country. This requirement was adopted for a long time and in modern conditions is fulfilled only formally: the American government often thus expresses its attitude to unfriendly countries.

Moreover, at first glance, the actions that are charged with Buryakov look absurd. He is accused of trying to find out the plans of the American government regarding the imposition of new sanctions against Russia, as well as its citizens and companies. Buryakov also allegedly collected data on American energy resources and the intricacies of the New York Stock Exchange.

According to the US authorities, Pororyshev was Buryakov’s liaison and passed him the tasks of the “center”, as well as both of them, along with the like, were engaged in the analysis of information before sending it to Moscow. Pororyshev and Buryakov, as Bloomberg writes, met in a “protected office” in the center of New York, that is, apparently, in the territory that was protected by Russian diplomatic immunity. Buryakov could not appear there, since he did not have the status of a diplomat, so he met his colleagues in public places.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations followed Buryakov for almost three years, since March 2012 - during which time he had been seen by the transmitting bag, magazine or just a piece of paper to his colleagues. The prosecutor's office also stated that she had records of how Sporyshev and similarly discussed the information received.

Judging by the press release, the FBI agents did not disdain provocations. In the summer of 2014, Buryakov met with an employee of this organization, who impersoned a representative of a businessman, whose plans include the opening of a casino in Russia. The FBI agent complained to Buryakov that the project could suffer because of the sanctions that the US government imposing on Russia, and said that he was discussing this topic with American officials. After these words, Buryakov expressed an interest in obtaining additional information about sanctions. A little later, the FBI agent handed Buryakov a list of Russians who could fall under sanctions in the future.

The FBI also has a record of a telephone conversation, during which Oboryshev asked Buryakov to ask the work of the New York Stock Exchange. Sporyshev and similar tried to recruit as sources of employees of large companies, as well as young women who have connections with one of the New York universities.

The American special services intercepted many conversations in which Russian intelligence officers complain about their own lives. A similar one told his colleagues that his work does not correspond to expectations - there is nothing in it that would be like films about James Bond. “Of course, I do not want to fly on helicopters, but you could at least be able to come into someone,” he said in one of the conversations.

The question remains open about why the foreign intelligence service needed to send its own employees to New York in order to get information there, which, in principle, is in the public domain, and if you need a more detailed analysis, you can always buy the last report on the necessary topic of one of a dozen large consulting agencies.

The previous spy scandal between Russia and the United States, we recall, was associated with the arrest of the Russians Anna Chapman and nine more people - they found themselves guilty of “illegal cooperation with Russia” and were expelled from the country for four Russian citizens who were accused of spying in the United States and the UK.