"Russia bans alleged CIA operative in espionage flap; Security officials say man aimed to recruit a spy" by David M. Herszenhorn and Ellen Barry | New York Times, May 15, 2013
MOSCOW — He arrived at the meeting with two wigs — the blond one on his head held in place by a baseball cap, a brown one in his knapsack, which also held a compass, a Moscow street atlas and $130,000 in cash. He was an operative for the CIA, Russian officials say, and his goal was to recruit a Russian security officer as a spy....
I thought we were friends?
On Tuesday, the American, identified as Ryan C. Fogle, who had been officially posted in Russia as the third secretary of the political department of the US Embassy, was ordered to leave the country by the Russian government, which officially declared him ‘‘persona non grata.’’
In a move that appeared as much stagecraft as spycraft, the Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, took the unusual step of releasing a video showing the arrest of Fogle, including him face down on a street as a Russian agent pinned his hands behind his back.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Stupid Spy Stories
My whole thing is stagecraft.
President Vladimir V. Putin has long expressed suspicions that Washington is working covertly to undermine him, and it was unclear if Tuesday’s incident would further damage an already fragile bilateral relationship....
Reveling in the chance to embarrass the United States in a seemingly amateurish act of espionage, the FSB also released photos of the wigs and other odd gear that Fogle had been carrying, and a second video showing three American officials, including the embassy’s chief political officer, Michael Klecheski, listening silently to a harangue by a Russian official.
The official said Fogle had tried to recruit a counterterrorism agent with expertise in the Caucasus, an area that has recently become of intense interest to the United States because the men accused in the bombings at the Boston Marathon had lived there.
The circumstances of Fogle’s unmasking seemed bizarre, even given the long, colorful history of spying by the Soviet Union, Russia and their rivals....
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Much discussion on Tuesday centered on the paradox of why the United States, a country that can kill terrorists with remote-controlled drones, would feel the need to send a man with a map and a compass to navigate the traffic-choked Russian capital.
“It seems to me quite odd,’’ said Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist who has written several books about the Russian intelligence services, and founded a website called Agentura.ru, which monitors the activities of intelligence agencies worldwide.
Soldatov said he suspected that the entire episode was a sting operation run by the Russians.
That's how you catch spies.
Yevgenia M. Albats, the author of a 1994 book on the KGB, the Soviet-era spy agency, had a similar reaction. ‘‘I’m just surprised that the guy was such an idiot,’’ she said....
Russia had provided the United States with robust cooperation after the Marathon bombings last month....
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"Russia appears ready to let spy affair rest" by Kathy Lally | Washington Post, May 16, 2013
MOSCOW — Russia’s capture of a purported US spy made the news for a second day here Wednesday, as the Foreign Ministry handed the US ambassador a formal protest over the affair but otherwise appeared to want to let the matter rest.
The sighting of the ambassador, Michael McFaul, fleeting as it was, provided an opportunity for Russian television to dwell at length on images of unkempt wigs, wads of euros, and a compass that officials said they found in the accused spy’s bag.
The coverage, and handouts of photos and information by the normally publicity-averse domestic Russian security service, set off speculation that the affair was a calculated attempt to cast Americans as meddling and treacherous....
McFaul and other US officials have been tight-lipped when asked whether Ryan Fogle, the alleged spy, was using his job as third political secretary at the US Embassy as cover for a CIA officer....
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"CIA officers serving overseas often use the State Department as their official “cover’’ to avoid revealing the true nature of their work"
A Diplomatic CIA
One must now go on the assumption that US embassies are CIA stations, and that businessmen, hikers, tourists, and others that make the intelligence agency operation known as a newspaper are part of the show.
Despite the lurid coverage at home, Russia appeared little inclined to use the incident to damage the broader relationship with the United States. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Sweden, told reporters he had not brought the matter up with Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who is also attending the meeting.
I'm tired of pot-hollering-kettle, crap media.
‘‘Kerry did not raise it,’’ Lavrov said, according to the Interfax news agency. ‘‘I also decided that probably it would be redundant to discuss it. Everything is public. I think everybody understands everything.’’
Also Wednesday, a Putin aide reiterated his boss’s desire for President Obama to visit Moscow before attending a G20 summit in St. Petersburg in September.
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Related:
"Russian security services announced Tuesday that Ryan Fogle, a 29-year-old third secretary in the US Embassy, had been caught trying to recruit a Russian counterterrorism officer. Fogle, who was accused of working for the CIA, was widely shown on Russian television wearing a blond wig. The US Embassy on Sunday again refused to comment on the case. The attention given to the Fogle case in Russia contrasts with recent moves by Washington and Moscow to develop closer cooperation on counterterrorism in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15."
Also see: Cold War revisited: Cloak, dagger, and wigs
