Moscow spy chief under fire after double agent's identity revealed
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Russia鈥檚 top spy, Mikhail Fradkov, may find his career on the line following the revelation that a double agent turned over the names and files of 10 spies working deep undercover in the United States this summer.
Russian legislators and other officials want to see Mr. Fradkov, the head of Russia鈥檚 Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), removed from office for not discovering the mole. The double agent is seen as an embarrassment to the Russian intelligence community and a sign of as intelligence chief, reports The Moscow Times.
鈥淚f these rumors have started circulating, and knowing Fradkov's business skills, I think there are grounds to fire him,鈥� a former senior intelligence officer who asked to remain anonymous told The Moscow Times. 鈥淏etrayal is just a pretext.鈥�
On Thursday, Kommersant, a respected Russian newspaper, reported that a man identified as for outing the 10 Russian agents. Shcherbakov worked in the SVR and was responsible for planting agents deep undercover. A few days before the Russian agents were arrested, he fled to the US.
The BBC described the incident as the 鈥渂iggest US-Russian spy scandal since the end of the cold war.鈥�
Gennadi Gudkov, a Russian legislator who works closely with security services, confirmed that the Kommersant article was correct in identifying Shcherbakov as a double agent.
鈥淲e can all reasonably say that Directorate S, whose US division was led by Shcherbakov, has never known such a failure,鈥� he said in an article in The New York Times. 鈥� in the intelligence business, and it works on producing deep-cover agents, whose training and legalization sometimes takes decades.鈥�
It remains unclear why Shcherbakov defected to the US, but the Daily Telegraph reports he had a number of family ties there. His daughter had been living in the US for years and his son also moved there shortly before his father outed the SVR agents. Intelligence officials have expressed frustration these and other warning signs were ignored. Most notably, Shcherbakov declined to take a promotion last year that would have required him to take a polygraph examination, .
As more news about Shcherbakov unfolds, Russia鈥檚 intelligence community, which has admitted to mistakes, is likely preparing to undergo a close examination by government officials.
鈥淚t means that things are really bad with the ,鈥� a retired senior SVR officer told Russia Profile, referencing the location of the intelligence agency鈥檚 headquarters just outside of Moscow. 鈥淭hey are probably keeping themselves busy with the wrong kind of things.鈥�
Several Russian officials have implied that has likely been dispatched to deal with Shcherbakov. 鈥淲e know who he is and where he is,鈥� a Kermlin official said in a Los Angeles Time article. In July, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also hinted that the 10 spies had been betrayed and he knew the traitor鈥檚 identity. He added that an unwelcome fate likely awaited the double agent.
