Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday criticized the arrests of suspects in an alleged Russian spy ring, saying U.S. law-enforcement authorities “went out of control.” He voiced hope that the scandal would not harm relations between the two countries.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that some of the suspects are Russian citizens. It called on American authorities to give them access to lawyers and Russian consular officials, and to take into account the “positive character” of U.S.-Russian ties in treating the case.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday announced the arrests of 10 alleged deep-cover Russian agents, saying it had tracked them for years. They are accused of attempting to infiltrate U.S. policy-making circles while posing as ordinary citizens.
An 11th person allegedly involved in the Russian spy ring was arrested Tuesday in Cyprus.
Russian officials called the arrests an unjustified throwback to the Cold War, but their restrained reaction appeared to be an attempt to limit the diplomatic fallout. “They haven’t explained to us what this is about,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Israel. “I hope they will.”
“The only thing I can say today is that the moment for [the arrests] has been chosen with special elegance,” he added.
The arrests Sunday came three days after President Obama met at the White House with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, calling him a “solid and reliable partner,” and a year after the Obama administration launched what it called a “reset” of U.S.-Russia relations after years of strain.
Many Russian officials and analysts said they presumed that hawkish elements within the U.S. government had engineered and timed the arrests to embarrass President Obama and undermine the “reset.” Putin echoed that concern during a meeting at his residence outside Moscow with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
“Back at your home, the police went out of control [and] are throwing people in jail,” Putin said. “I hope that all the positive gains that have been achieved in our relationship will not be damaged by the recent event.”
A spokesman for the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Ivanov, said the agency wouldn’t comment.
Mikhail Lyubimov, a retired KGB foreign-intelligence agent and writer, ridiculed the U.S. assertion that a group of 11 deep-cover spies, known as “illegals,” had worked together in a ring.
“Illegals are individuals,” he said. “They work [individually] with other agents, but never in a group of illegals.”
“It shows that someone wants to spoil the positive impression from the Medvedev visit,” he added.
“They want to show Obama that he should not get too carried away with building ties with Russia, that the Russians are all spies and it’s just like the Cold War.”