High-profile espionage scandals in 2005-2010
2010 year
In June, a group of people, most of whom are citizens of the Russian Federation, were arrested in the United States on suspicion of spying for Russia. The Southern District Court of New York charged them with conspiracy to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government. The Russians pleaded guilty and agreed to immediate deportation to their homeland. In early July, they were exchanged at a Vienna airport for four other Russians, previously convicted in the Russian Federation for espionage and now extradited to the West. Later it became known that the US authorities sent - on the basis of violation of immigration law - another alleged "agent" of the Russian Federation.
The situation was resolved at the highest level. According to a senior source in the Kremlin, it was possible to organize the return of Russian citizens to their homeland quickly, technologically and without complications "thanks to the new spirit of Russian-American relations, a high level of understanding and trust between the presidents of the two countries."
- In April, Indian law enforcement authorities arrested a senior official at the Indian Embassy in Islamabad on charges of spying for Pakistan. According to media reports, the second secretary of the Indian Embassy in Pakistan, Madhuri Gupta, was accused of collaborating with Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Gupta had been under surveillance for some time and was arrested after her suspicions were confirmed that she was transmitting “important information” to the other side.
- In April, the South Korean special services detained two people on charges of having been sent by Pyongyang to South Korea to eliminate a high-ranking defector from the DPRK, the former Secretary of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Korea, Hwang Dian Oba. It was reported that they were employees of the intelligence department of the DPRK Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, who in December moved through China under the guise of North Korean defectors to Thailand, from where they were deported to South Korea.
- In February, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Valentin Nalyvaichenko, announced the exposure of the “Russian espionage group”, which operated in the country. According to him, five “members of the group” were expelled from the country, and the alleged organizer is in custody.
2009
- In October, a citizen of Ukraine Ruslan Pilipenko was detained in the city of Tiraspol at a Russian military facility. According to the special services of the Russian Federation, Pilipenko, the famous FSB as an employee of the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, since 2006 has been actively engaged in activities to the detriment of the security interests of the Russian Armed Forces. A digital camera with an electronic copy of documents classified as “secret” and “top secret”, the contents of which is a state secret, was seized from a detainee. Pilipenko made a confession and stated his readiness to provide information on other intelligence actions and agents involved in work against Russia.
- In March, world agencies reported that a Romanian military man and a Bulgarian citizen were arrested in Bucharest on suspicion of espionage. The serviceman allegedly gave the Bulgarian classified information, maps, technical data, including those related to radars. The latter, in turn, transmitted all this to an employee of the Ukrainian embassy in Bucharest.
2008
- In December, former Pentagon employee Ben-Ami Kadish officially admitted to spying for Israel during his military service. Kadish, who worked at the Arms Development Center, located in New Jersey, in particular, provided the representative of the Israeli consulate with secret information regarding US missile defense. He took home secret documents, allowing the representative of the Israeli authorities, Yosi Yagur, to make photocopies from them. His espionage activities continued from 1980 to 1985.
- In September, Herman Simm, the former head of the Department for the Protection of State Secrets of the Ministry of Defense of Estonia, was arrested in Estonia on suspicion of treason and the transfer of secret data to representatives of a foreign state. His wife, who was suspected of aiding treason, was also detained. She worked as a lawyer in the police department. According to investigators, Simm, who headed the security department of the Estonian Ministry of Defense in 2000-2006, collected secret information from 1995 to 2008 for transmission to officers of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The Harju County Court in closed session on February 25, 2009 sentenced Simm to 12.5 years in prison for high treason and espionage in favor of the Russian Federation.
- On March 12, FSB officers of Russia detained two Russian citizens who also have US citizenship, Ilya Zaslavsky, head of the British Council Alumni Club project, Alexander Zaslavsky and his brother, an employee of TNK-BP Management. They were charged with industrial espionage. Zaslavsky were detained while trying to obtain classified information constituting a trade secret from a Russian citizen - an employee of one of the regime enterprises of the country's oil and gas complex. According to the FSB, the defendants collected classified information in the interests of a number of foreign oil and gas companies in order to gain advantages over Russian competitors, including in the markets of the CIS countries.
- In February, 72-year-old former engineer of the defense company Dongfang Chang was arrested at his home in the prestigious California district - Orange - on suspicion of spying for China. Chang, a native of China, worked for more than 30 years for the Rockwell International group of companies that was engaged in the development of space technology and military aircraft. Chang is suspected of passing secret documents related to the shuttle program, the C-17 military aircraft, and the Delta 4 rocket to the Chinese government.
At the same time, court documents were published according to which 51-year-old Pentagon analyst on weapons systems policy was charged with espionage in favor of China to Gregg William Bergersen. As part of his investigation, two Chinese immigrants from New Orleans (Louisiana) were also arrested. Both were accused of divulging information related to national security to a foreign government.
- In January there was a "spy scandal" related to the leak of information from the office of the Japanese government. Japan’s Main Police Department announced that Yasuo Fukuda, the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, handed over sensitive information to the Russian Embassy. In 2007, one of the civil servants of the Prime Minister’s office repeatedly met with an employee of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, who had already left Japan. According to the Main Police Directorate, the information transferred was not related to the country's defense, but contained information on changes in public opinion in Japan and reactions to Japanese domestic political events by foreign countries, as well as some recommendations of the department for the cabinet. All these materials were in written (printed) form, and not recorded on digital media.
2007
- In June 2007, the former security services officer Vyacheslav Zharko applied to the state security organs of the Russian Federation, who said that he was recruited by the British intelligence services and disclosed the names of four MI-6 agents.
2006
- In October 2006, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against senior officials of the Russian government’s apparatus, who illegally handed over to the representative of TNK-BP photocopies of documents with confidential information. According to the Prosecutor General, the materials were prepared for the government meeting and contained information constituting state secrets. As the Prosecutor General’s Office noted then, the disclosure of these materials could be used for purposes contrary to Russia's strategic interests in the energy field and negatively affect the prospects for its development, strengthening its position in the international market, and the country's energy and economic security.
- On February 15, the Swedish police detained a young scientist, citizen of the Russian Federation Andrei Zamyatnin, who worked under a contract at the Institute of Agriculture of the University of Uppsala. According to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, he was charged with espionage. Swedish media reported that the suspected Russian is an assistant at one of Sweden's agricultural universities and is researching viruses that infect plants. After a two-month stay of a Russian scientist in a pre-trial detention center, the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. The Swedish Chancellor of Justice decided to pay compensation to the Russian biologist Andrei Zamyatnin, accused of espionage, in the amount of 80 thousand crowns (about 11.4 thousand dollars).
- In January, the FSB identified four British intelligence agents who worked in Moscow under diplomatic cover and seized the latest British intelligence electronic disguised as a stone. The FSB detained a Russian citizen who tried using this device to establish radio communications with British services. The British Foreign Ministry then expressed surprise and concern at the suspicions against British diplomats of espionage against Russia.
2005
- In October, a representative of the Security Department of the main police department of Japan said that an employee of a subsidiary of the Toshiba concern handed over to the employee of the Russian trade mission secret documents on dual-use electronic devices used in the military industry. These devices are included in the design of submarines, missile guidance systems, fighter radars and other devices. According to him, the two participants in the espionage scandal met at one of the electronic appliance exhibitions, after which they met in Tokyo nine times between September last year and May this year, and 1 million yen (about 10 thousand dollars) was transferred to the Japanese employee as a reward for services. The trade representative returned to Russia in June 2005.
Source: RIA Novosti