Putin's Spies in America

[American Patriot]

Guess we're going to give up those spies.

[American Patriot]

Russian Spy Investigation
The spy next door? |The Suspects | The Complaint |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...070803476.html


10 Russian spy suspects plead guilty at N.Y. hearing


Gallery

Anna Chapman, alleged Russian spy, posts photos online
Alleged Russian spy Anna Chapman became an instant Web sensation following the release of photos posted on the Russian social-networking Web site "Odnoklassniki," or Classmates.
» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

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By Jerry Markon, Walter Pincus and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 8, 2010; 3:58 PM

All 10 of the accused Russian spies held in the United States pleaded guilty Thursday at a hearing in Manhattan, a key step in a reported deal under negotiation with Russia for the largest swap of espionage detainees since the Cold War.
This Story

• 10 Russian spy suspects to plead guilty, prosecutor says
• 10 defendants plead guilty in Russian spy case
• Jailed researcher becomes Russia's bargaining chip
• U.S., Russia negotiating swap of spy suspects
• Notable Cold War spy swaps
• Russian claims spy swap in works with U.S.
• Mother: My daughter is no 'Mata Hari'
• Q&A, Transcript: Russian spies in court today: CIA official analyzes
• In spy case, arrests vs. knowledge
• Q&A, Transcript: Russian Spies: FBI arrests 10 alleged spies
• Three accused spies appear in federal court
• Poll: Should we trade spies?

View All Items in This Story
View Only Top Items in This Story


Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz said at the start of the hearing in federal court that the 10 defendants wanted to enter guilty pleas. An 11th person indicted in the case is a fugitive.
Prosecutors agreed to allow the 10 to plead guilty to one charge each of secretly conspiring to act as agents of the Russian government, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years. Nine of the 11 defendants in the case were also originally charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Earlier, a source said the defendants could be sent to Russia as early as Thursday, apparently as part of a prisoner exchange involving a prominent Russian scientist, and possibly others, held in Russia on charges of spying for the West.
" Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed on a sentence of time served for those who pleaded guilty, sources said. The federal judge in the case, Kimba M. Wood of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, would have to accept that sentence.
A U.S. official confirmed Wednesday that talks between the two governments on a swap began last week shortly after the June 27 arrest of the suspects.
The diplomatic discussions depended on lawyers reaching a plea arrangement in federal court in New York. Three arrested in Northern Virginia and two arrested in the Boston area were transferred to New York on Wednesday, joining the five others.
In Moscow, an attorney for Igor Sutyagin, a Russian arms researcher who has spent 11 years in prison on espionage charges, said her client was unexpectedly brought to the capital from a remote penal colony and told that he was being included in the exchange. Sutyagin, who has maintained his innocence, was also issued a passport.
According to the attorney, Anna Stavitskaya, Sutyagin told relatives that he was shown a list of 11 imprisoned Russians to be swapped for the spy suspects in the United States. Dmitry Sutyagin said his brother remembered one other person on the list, Sergei Skripal, a Russian army colonel who was sentenced in 2006 to 13 years on charges of spying for Britain. Russian news media named two other convicts as candidates for the exchange. But there has been no confirmation from relatives or other sources that the three were involved in the swap negotiations, and it remained unclear whether Russian authorities were making preparations to release anyone other than Sutyagin.
Asked Thursday whether the U.S. government considers Sutyagin an American spy, State Department spokesman Mark C. Toner said, "We deny that he's a spy."
The legal negotiations over a guilty plea for the suspects were conducted separately from discussions between the State Department and Russia over a possible swap. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns, the department's third-ranking official, met Wednesday with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States.
The arrests, announced just days after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the White House, have been an unwelcome interruption in the Obama administration's efforts to keep relations with Russia on a steadily improving trajectory.

[American Patriot]

Russia spies case rushes to a close. Why the hurry?

Quick resolution of the Russia spies case indicates that US-Russia negotiations over the matter have been fairly amicable. During the cold war, spy swaps occurred only after convictions and prison time.

• 

In this July 1 file artist rendering, three northern Virginia residents, accused spies for Russia, from left, Patricia Mills, Michael Zottoli, and Mikhail Semenko, standing, appear in federal court in Alexandria, Va.
Dana Verkouteren/AP Photo/File

Enlarge

---

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / July 8, 2010
Washington The Russian spy ring drama appears to be ending in a rush. On Thursday an intricate Russia-US swap of prisoners appeared to be under way – one that would send Anna Chapman and other accused spies in US hands back to their apparent motherland.
Skip to next paragraph Related Stories

• The cold war is over, so why the fascination with Russian spies?
• Russian spies: Three remaining mysteries
• Russian spies: Top 5 old-school espionage technologies that still work

In return, the US appears to have won the freedom of Igor Sutyagin, a Russian arms-control analyst serving a 14-year sentence for spying for the US. In the past, Mr. Sutyagin has proclaimed his innocence, and family members say he signed a confession and agreed to the swap only as a means to escape imprisonment.
It was not immediately apparent how many other Russian convicts might be freed along with Sutyagin in the swap. One other name mentioned in Russian media is Sergei Skripal, a Russian colonel in military intelligence sentenced in 2006 to 16 years imprisonment on charges of spying for Britain.


IN PICTURES: Top notorious spies


Sutyagin reportedly was seen walking off an airplane in Vienna on Thursday. Meanwhile, the 10 alleged spies in US hands were scheduled to appear at a midafternoon federal court hearing in New York.


The quick end to the spy case raises a number of interesting questions.


What does this say about US-Russia relations? The ease with which the swap appears to have been arranged appears to indicate that negotiations were relatively amicable. During the cold war, swaps generally did not take place until all the people involved had been convicted and incarcerated for some length of time.
US officials insisted all along that the case would not derail their attempt to reset relations with a nation that is no longer a direct adversary.


It is possible that political opponents will accuse the Obama administration of having caved in too soon, or gotten too little in return for the spectacular arrests. The FBI followed the suspects for a decade, after all, and now they may be gone within days, or hours.


The forum for such criticism is likely to be Senate debate of the new START arms control treaty struck in April by Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Some Republicans, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, have charged that this deal will prevent the US from erecting missile defenses against such rogues as North Korea, among other things.


What will happen to Anna Chapman? This is easy: Ms. Chapman is likely to be as big a celebrity in Russia as she has become in the US. More generally, all the Russian suspects are likely to be lionized back home, at least for a while. Spies under deep cover – “illegals” – have long been promoted as heroes in Russian and Soviet culture. They occupy roughly the same role in movies and television shows as James Bond and other suave agents do in the West.


Some ex-illegals eventually tire of the adulation, points out Washington Post espionage expert Jeff Stein on his SpyTalk blog. But in the short run, it is likely that the 10 may even be honored on Russian stamps.


Are there more Russian spies out there? Did the FBI get all the illegals serving Russia remaining in the United States? That will be an open question even after the current spy ring case has been closed.


The 10 accused spies in US custody are not a “ring,” in a classic espionage sense, after all. They are mostly husband-and-wife pairs who were not aware of their fellows. That suggests that they were turned in by a turncoat or mole within the Russian intelligence agency, or some piece of information produced at a relatively high level. Perhaps the FBI indeed has rounded up all the Russian illegals in the US.
But don’t bet on it. Compartmentalization is second nature to intelligence agencies. It is possible that there is a whole other population of deep cover agents still out there, unknown to or unmentioned by the FBI’s original source of information.
Some of them might even be as glamorous as Ms. Chapman.

[American Patriot]

On Tarmac in Vienna, U.S. and Russia Swap Prisoners

Dieter Nagl/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An American Vision Airlines jet believed to be carrying the Russian agents parked near a Russian plane at a Vienna airport on Friday.

BAKER[/URL] AND ELLEN BARRY[/B]

Published: July 9, 2010





VIENNA — In a seeming flashback to the cold war, Russian and American officials traded prisoners in the bright sunlight on the tarmac of Vienna’s international airport on Friday, bringing to a quick end an episode that had threatened to disrupt relations between the two countries.



Enlarge This Image

Associated Press

Igor V. Sutyagin, a former arms control researcher, in a Moscow courtroom in 2004. He denies being guilty of espionage.




Planes carrying 10 convicted Russian sleeper agents and 4 men accused by Moscow of spying for the West swooped into the Austrian capital, once a hub of clandestine East-West maneuvering, and the men and women were transferred, according to an American official. The planes soon took off again, presumably heading back to Russia and the United States in a coda fitting of an espionage novel.


The first sign that the exchange — one of the biggest in over two decades — was under way came as an American Vision Airlines jet carrying the Russian agents deported from the United States touched down and taxied to park only a matter of yards from the Russian plane from Moscow’s Emergencies Ministry. For a while the only sound of movement was an unidentified emissary shuttling between the airplanes.

Then, more than an hour later, with little fanfare and no formal announcement from either side, the Russian-flagged plane took off into clear blue skies, closely followed by the American airplane.

The swap was among the biggest since the Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky — who as Natan Sharansky became a political figure in Israel — was released along with eight imprisoned spies in a classic cold war exchange in 1986. But that exchange took place in a wintry Berlin across the snow-dusted Glienicke Bridge in Berlin at a time when the Iron Curtain cut Europe into rival ideological camps and this city provided one of few avowedly neutral havens.

The swift conclusion to the case just 12 days after the arrest of the Russian agents evoked memories of that time, but it also underscored the new-era relationship between Washington and Moscow. President Obama has made the “reset” of Russian-American relations a top foreign policy priority, and the quiet collaboration over the spy scandal indicates that the Kremlin likewise values the warmer ties.

Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, told the PBS program “NewsHour” that the president was fully briefed on the decision and that the case showed that the United States was still watchful even as relations improved. The 10 sleeper agents had pleaded guilty to conspiracy before a federal judge in Manhattan after revealing their true identities. All 10 were sentenced to time served and ordered deported.

A lawyer for one of four prisoners freed by the Russian government called it “a historic moment” and said she believed her client, a former Russian intelligence agent named Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, would be reunited with members of his family, who live in the United States.

Within hours of the New York court hearing, the Kremlin announced that President Dmitri A. Medvedev had signed pardons for the four men Russia considered spies after each of them signed statements admitting guilt.

The Kremlin identified them as Igor V. Sutyagin, an arms control researcher held for 11 years; Sergei Skripal, a colonel in Russia’s military intelligence service sentenced in 2006 to 13 years for spying for Britain; Mr. Zaporozhsky, a former agent with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service who has served 7 years of an 18-year sentence; and Gennadi Vasilenko, a former K.G.B. major who was arrested in 1998 for contacts with a

C.I.A. officer but eventually released only to be arrested again in 2005 and later convicted on illegal weapons charges.

Yelena P. Lebedeva-Romanova, a lawyer for Mr. Skripal, 59, said she was very pleased that he had received an amnesty, in part because he suffers from diabetes and she worried about the effects of prison camp life on his health.

Mr. Zaporozhsky’s lawyer, Maria A. Veselova, said attorney-client privilege prevented her from revealing details of the negotiations that led to his release, but said she had long detected signs that he might be freed.

“For the last couple of years I was absolutely sure it was going to happen,” said Ms. Veselova, who represented him in the 2003 espionage trial where he was sentenced to 18 years. “It has to do with the relations between the two countries, and with political games going on at the top. It is always connected with these chess games.”

But for the second day, Mr. Sutyagin’s family, who live in the scientific community of Obninsk about 60 miles outside Moscow, were relying on media reports to track his whereabouts.

“I will only believe it when my son calls me,” said his mother, Svetlana Y. Sutyagina, a chemical engineer who spent most of the day working. “We are waiting and waiting for his call. That’s all we can do, is wait.”

She said they had no idea where he will live after his release, or even where his final destination is on Friday. She said she didn’t know whether his wife or daughters would ultimately join him there.

“We will only know his plans when we hear his voice,” she said. “Then we can think about what’s next. Now we have only one thought — when will he call. Nothing else matters.”

The sensational case — complete with invisible ink, buried cash and a red-haired beauty whose romantic exploits have been excavated in the tabloids — came to a dramatic denouement in court.

The 10 defendants sat in the jury box, while their lawyers and prosecutors filled the well of the packed courtroom. Some of the Russian agents wore jail garb over orange T-shirts, while others wore civilian clothes. Natalia Pereverzeva, for example, known as Patricia Mills, sat in jeans with a dark sweater.

Few of the defendants conversed with one another. Some looked grim. One, Vicky Peláez, appeared to be weeping as she gestured to her sons at the close of the hearing.

At one point, Judge Kimba M. Wood asked the 10 to disclose their true names.

The first to rise was the man known as Richard Murphy, who lived with his wife and two children in Montclair, N.J. He said his name was Vladimir Guryev.

Then his wife rose. “My true name is Lydia Guryev,” she said.

All but three — Anna Chapman, Mikhail Semenko and Ms. Peláez — had assumed false names in the United States.

The 10 each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without properly registering; the government said it would drop the more serious count of conspiracy to launder money, which eight of the defendants also faced. They had not been charged with espionage, apparently because they did not obtain classified information.

All of them agreed never to return to the United States without permission from the attorney general. They also agreed to turn over any money made from publication of their stories as agents, according to their plea agreements with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. Several also agreed to forfeit assets, including real estate, in the United States.

The defendants included several married couples with children. American officials said after the court hearing that the children would be free to leave the United States with their parents.

Perhaps the most recognizable of the agents was Ms. Chapman, who ran her own real estate firm and who had attained a degree of notoriety after tabloid newspapers worldwide chronicled her sex life and reprinted photographs of her in skimpy attire.

Administration officials who insisted on the condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate decision would not say who initially proposed a swap but added that they considered it a fruitful idea because they saw “no significant national security benefits from their continued incarceration,” as one put it. Some of the four Russians to be freed are in ill health, the official added.

Another American official, who was not authorized to speak about the case, said officials of the intelligence agencies were the channel for most of the negotiations, particularly Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., and Mikhail Y. Fradkov, director of the S.V.R., Russia’s foreign intelligence agency.

The official said the American side decided “we could trade these agents — who really had nothing to tell us that we didn’t already know — for people who had never stopped fighting for their freedom in Russia.”

The spy ring case further fueled debate in Washington about Mr. Obama’s outreach to Russia even as he tries to persuade the Senate to ratify the New Start arms control pact he signed this spring with Mr. Medvedev.

“The lesson here is this administration may be trying to reset the relationship, but I don’t have any confidence that the Russians are,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “They got caught.”

[vector7]

Russian spy applied for jobs at think tanks with links to Obama

Mikhail Semenko, one of 11 Russian "illegals" accused of spying for Moscow against the United States, targeted leading Washington think tanks in an apparent effort to get close to policy makers in the American government.

By Toby Harnden and Michele Walk in Arlington
Published: 9:26PM BST 08 Jul 2010


Mikhail Semenko targeted leading Washington think tanks in an apparent effort to get close to policy makers in the American government. Photo: AP

Semenko, 28, who speaks fluent English, Spanish and Mandarin, is understood to have sought work at the New America Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment, both influential centrist think tanks with close ties to the Obama administration.

He was part of an alleged network of spies arrested on June 27 and 28 in northern Virginia, New York, Boston, New Jersey and Cyprus.

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A "spy swap" between the Russian and American governments appeared to be in motion on Thursday, with one convicted Russian spy reportedly plucked from a Moscow prison and flown to Vienna.

The FBI alleges that Semenko discussed clandestine computer communications with an undercover agent posing as a Russian official, took $5,000 from him and then followed instructions to leave it at a "Dead Drop" location in Arlington, Virginia.

Semenko attended numerous think tank events and was an assiduous networker even for a Washingtonian. Although he arrived in the Washington area last November to work for the Travel All Russia travel agency, he appeared determined to secure employment closer to the heart of the US government.

Steve Clemons, a foreign policy fellow with the New America Foundation and blogger who has deep connections inside the Obama administration, recalled meeting Semenko at one of the think tank's events.

"He was an awkward, nice guy who was kind of shy for someone who was working the town so much. His shyness was memorable. He said he was a China and Russia expert and we were going to meet for lunch, in part because I was going to China this month."

Semenko - known as Misha - lived in a shabby flat in Arlington. The flat had been arranged for him by Mark Grueter, a former Peace Corps volunteer who had taught him English at Amur State University in Blagoveschensk in the Russian Far East in 2001 and 2002.

"Unlike many of the Russian students, he had a generally favourable attitude toward America," Mr Grueter recalled. "He didn't carry any of the xenophobia or anti-American baggage that many of them had. He wasn't really interested in politics.

"He was just interested in learning, in soaking up knowledge. When I saw him in America, he seemed happy and he seemed to really like it here. I was impressed by how much his English had improved."

It was also well placed for the nearby Cafe Assorti, a Russian and Central Asian restaurant that is a favourite of Russian government officials and Ray's Hell Burger, where President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev went for a meal the week before Semenko was arrested.

Semenko first arrived in the US on a student visa to study International Relations and Asia Studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, close to New York City and just 12 miles away from the home of a couple calling themselves Richard and Cynthia Murphy who have also been charged with being members of the spy ring.

The FBI swooped on apartment last month, leading him out in handcuffs and with a T-shirt pulled over his head. He was arrested almost twelve hours before the other nine alleged spies taken into custody in the US. An eleventh suspect was arrested in Cyprus the following day and later jumped bail.

A US Justice Department spokesman confirmed that the arrests were ordered when one of the spies arranged to fly out of the country Sunday, suggesting that it was Semenko who was attempting to leave.

The FBI returned early the next morning after Semenko's arrest to clear his flat. When a neighbour, Carla Gonzales, asked what was happening, one of the agents, carrying a large box, responded: "Someone's moving".

Semenko, who moved to Arlington after Travel All Russia relocated its operations there from New York, lived in the flat with a girlfriend from Ecuador.

Mr Grueter also worked for a period at Travel All Russia and described it as " a pretty straightforward deal - they arrange a variety of travel packages for mostly Americans going to Russia".

Parts of the 2007 movie Breach, about Robert Hansen, an FBI agent who was spying for Russia, were filmed outside the building where Travel All Russia is now located.

James Wheatley, a fellow student at Seton Hall, remembered Semenko as "just an average guy, on the nerdy side", who was "goofy" and "awkward around girls" who stood out most because of his formidable language skills.

Semenko appeared to be "not particularly proud of his Russian heritage but didn't hide it" and "the kind of guy you really wouldn't want as your wingman at a party because he would screw it up".

Mr Wheatley initially thought it was a prank when he heard Semenko had
been arrested for espionage. "An accountant, yes. But not a spy."

[vector7]

This spy story is a distraction to the real one below...

Wake up, America: Democrats aren’t Democrats Anymore, They’re Communists

By Fred Dardick Wednesday, May 5, 2010

So-called “moderate Democrats” are merely socialists

And the so-called “moderate Democrats” are merely socialists.

It wasn’t so long ago that much loved Democrat President John F. Kennedy told the nation in his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, implying a sense of self sacrifice was needed by all Americans to keep the torch of freedom burning bright in a world filled with tyranny.

An idea most could relate to regardless of political affiliation.

But times have changed and modern liberal philosophy has become almost unrecognizable to previous generations. It can be more accurately described as: “Forget personal sacrifice, keep sitting on your behind, and let the government rob your neighbor for you.”

Democrat political aims no longer share the fundamental ideals that have served this nation so well for so long. Rather than put their trust in the righteousness of the American individual, their intention is to transfer as much power as possible to the collective, as represented by the federal government.

President Barack Obama outlined his openly communist thinking at a University of Michigan commencement address this past weekend when he said “When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.”

What is he talking about?

First off, you have to be out of your mind to not be at least a little skeptical of an entity that can force you from your home, take away your money, incarcerate you, and ship you off to war … all for sometimes less than perfect reasons.

That’s an awful lot of power just begging to be misused by unscrupulous politicians, and a community organizer should know it. I seem to recall Obama having a real big problem with government not so long ago when we invaded Iraq.

Our founding fathers were right to be fearful of centralized government. They knew from their experiences with the kings of Europe that a small number of people with unchecked power could not be trusted. It wasn’t necessarily unheard of for the ruling class to turn on the common folk and start nailing people to trees.

Obama’s statement “government is us” is likewise absurd.

Government isn’t we the people … I know it sure isn’t me. There’s a whole lot of what the government is up to that doesn’t exactly meet with my approval and I highly doubt Democrats will be contacting me anytime soon for my input.

Obama’s much beloved “government is us” is a collection of few elected officials and a whole lot of overly paid unionized bureaucrats, most of whom willing to do almost anything to keep their jobs.

It’s a representative government and it tends to work best when people of character inhabit the halls of power. Unfortunately it also leaves a lot of room for unethical politicians to stick it to the nation.

Take the healthcare bill for instance. Never has been a more egregious example of political corruption than that obscenity: abuse of power, against the people’s wishes, dire economic consequences for the country … ObamaCare has it all.

Karl Marx himself would be proud.

In the old way of doing things, the House and Senate would pass their bills. Both versions would go to committee where differences were hashed out. Then back to the House and Senate for a final vote.

Pretty standard stuff that has served the nation well for the past couple hundred years … then something happened in January 2010.

Scott Brown, a Republican, was elected to Edward Kennedy’s old Senate seat, and just like that the Democrats no longer had the votes needed to pass their freedom-killing legislation.

That should have been the end of the story, but Democrat politicians, like the communists of old, aren’t so concerned about the rules. As long as the state grows stronger and the individual grows weaker, they don’t much care how it gets done.

So they dug up a procedure called reconciliation and used it in a way that had never been intended, producing a bill that no one understood, or studied, or even had time to read before voting on it.

Obama signed the bill into law and so long democracy … ObamaCare is passed.

Only one month later and the Johnny Come Lately media is filled with reports about Medicare provisions that are “unsustainable” and economic provisions that are “unsustainable”.

Pretty much everything about the bill, including the medical profession as a whole, is “unsustainable”, and yet that piece of liberal fantasy is now law of the land.

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag explained the true purpose of ObamaCare when he said the “Independent Payment Advisory Board has the power and the responsibility to put forward proposals to hit a pretty aggressive set of targets over the long term, and furthermore, the proposals take effect automatically.”

First of all, government proposals that take effect automatically aren’t proposals, they’re laws.

And secondly, what Orszag really means is that a group of unelected bureaucrats in Washington will be given total control of our multi-trillion dollar healthcare system. You can forget about decisions being just between you and you doctor … whatever these people decide will be the last word in American healthcare. Period.

Obama somehow neglected to mention this particular aspect of the legislation during his 100 or so healthcare related speeches and press conferences. But then again, diehard communists never tell you the full story, they only tell you what you want to hear.

And if you’re not buying their nonsense, then you can stuff it because you’re a racist.

Lacking the votes to get any additional power grabs past the Senate, Democrat politicians are now pursuing even worse unconstitutional methods to force their state-first agenda upon the nation.

Rather than pursue Cap and Trade legislation, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has declared that CO2 is a greenhouse gas and will start unilaterally imposing limits on static source emitters (power plants, factories, homes, etc…) starting in Jan 2010.

Obama appointee Craig Becker, also known as the Walking Card Check, was named to the National Labor Relations Board and given free reign to steal influence away from employers and hand it over to the unions.

The FCC is pursuing a takeover of the internet with their net neutrality regulations.

All without a single vote in Congress.

Each and every Democrat political priority can be broken down to a simple concept: they are all designed to take money and power away from individuals, families, communities, businesses, charities, and states and transfer it directly to the federal government.

Centralized government control of vital national resources, which pretty much means everything when you break it all down, is practically the definition of communism.

For those who would parse words and say that Obama and his Democrat cohorts are socialist, let me remind you, the Soviet Union was a constitutionally socialist nation, and look what happened to them.

The only difference between socialism and communism … is time.

[Ryan Ruck]

So this is why they pulled off the swap as quickly as they did...

Spy Swap Puts Halt To Fact Finding

Public trial of 10 Russian agents could have led to revelations

July 13, 2010
Bill Gertz

The Obama administration's rapid release of 10 Russian intelligence officers removed the prospect of a public trial revealing embarrassing facts about Russian influence operations, like the targeting of a key Democratic Party financier close to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Current and former national security officials critical of the speedy exchange with Moscow also said trading the 10 spies for four Russians less than two weeks after their arrest also limited U.S. counterspies from learning important details of Russian espionage and influence operations.

Questions about the handling of the case were raised Tuesday during a closed-door briefing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, questioned the unprecedented speed used by the administration in moving the spies out of the country.

"We gave up the opportunity," he said. "Now that these people are out of the country, it's game off, not game on. We will get no additional insights or information from them."

Mr. Hoekstra said the House intelligence oversight panel will be briefed on the case this week and "tough questions" will be raised about the swap. "Right now, it looks like this is one time the government should have been a little more deliberate and taken its time before acting in haste," he said.

The swap of the 10 "illegals," or deep-cover agents, last week — 12 days after their arrest — also prevented trial disclosures of other potentially embarrassing details, like the identities of what an FBI criminal complaint described as a "former legislative counsel for the U.S. Congress" and "former high-ranking United States government national security official" both of whom provided information to two Boston-based Russians in the case. Both officials' names were omitted from the complaint.

The Russian SVR foreign intelligence service also asked its spies to provide information on the new strategic arms treaty, the war in Afghanistan and Iran's nuclear program, indications that Moscow is working covertly against U.S. efforts on those issues, despite efforts by President Obama and Mrs. Clinton to "reset" U.S.-Russia relations.

Law enforcement and intelligence officials close to the case said politics did not play a role in the decision to quickly swap the spies for the four Russians held on intelligence-related charges by Moscow. They also dismissed the idea that more information would have been gained from holding the spies longer. The exchange took place Saturday in Vienna, Austria.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano dismissed as a "bizarre notion" that there was an effort to "cover up Russian influence operations" in the case, something he said was "never part of the picture."

"You're positing some sort of conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact," he said. "Any insinuation that [CIA] Director [Leon E.] Panetta or anyone else was influenced here by the alleged interests of the Democratic Party is both absurd and insulting."

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the multiyear probe of the Russian illegals "fully exploited this network from a counterintelligence perspective."

"The notion that there was some sort of conspiracy to limit our counterintelligence efforts in this case is baffling and misplaced. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said.

Widespread news reports over the past week, quoting anonymous U.S. officials, uncritically described the handling of the spy case as an unqualified success.

Several former intelligence and national security officials, however, challenged that perception.

For example, the ring's presumed spymaster, Christopher R. Metsos, escaped arrest in the U.S. either because he was overseas or was tipped off to the others' imminent arrests. Had Mr. Metsos been caught, the administration would have had more leverage on the Russians for a deal and might have obtained additional details on Russian intelligence networks, according to specialists.

"We have to do a damage assessment, and when you do a damage assessment, you want to have access to the individuals involved for an extended period of time so you can get new leads and ask questions," said Michelle Van Cleave, former national counterintelligence executive, a senior counterspy policymaking post.

"We lost all that. We lost a clear window into Russian espionage, and my question is: What was the rush?"

One of the figures to emerge from the case is Alan Patricof, director of the venture capital firm Graycroft LLC and a donor to Democratic candidates, including Mrs. Clinton when she was a senator from New York.

Mr. Patricof acknowledged in a statement that he was the person outlined in the FBI criminal complaint who met several times with one of the Russian spies and who was targeted by the SVR in their efforts to skew U.S. policies in favor of Moscow.

The Russians spies, according to the FBI complaint, were tasked with developing sources in government, the business community and academia who could provide secrets and other information useful to Moscow.

The criminal complaint stated that in February 2009 a New Jersey-based Russian, who posed as Cynthia Murphy and was later identified as SVR officer Lydia Guryev, met several times with a "prominent New York-based financier" who was active in politics and a "active fundraiser" for a "major political party, name omitted." He also was described as a "personal friend of [a current Cabinet official, name omitted]."

In response, the SVR wrote back to Guryev in a message intercepted by the FBI that the financier was checked in the Russian intelligence database and found to be "clean," or free from intelligence connections.

"Of course he is very interesting 'target,'" the SVR said. "Try to build up little by little relations with him moving beyond just [work] framework," the intercepted SVR message said. "Maybe he can provide [Murphy] with remarks re: US foreign policy 'rumors' [sic] about White House internal 'kitchen', invite her to venues (to major political party HQ in NYC, for instance). … In short, consider carefully all options in regard to [financier]."

In a statement issued June 30, Mr. Patricof said he met Guryev, whom he knew as "Cindy Murphy," after retaining a financial service to handle his personal bookkeeping, bill paying, accounting and tax services.

"During the course of that time, I met with her a limited number of times and spoke with her frequently on the phone on matters relating to my personal finances," Mr. Patricof said. "We never — not once — discussed any matter other than my finances and certainly she never inquired about, nor did we ever discuss, any matters relating to politics, the government, or world affairs."

Mr. Patricof said she had been employed by the company some 10 years before he became a client. "I highly doubt that I could have been an intended target by her."

Mr. Patricof, through a spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about whether the FBI investigated the intelligence targeting or whether other Russians or their agents may have been involved in seeking information from him.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, asked whether Mrs. Clinton was the Cabinet official mentioned in the complaint, said in an e-mail that "there is no reason to believe that the Secretary of State was a special target of this spy ring."

Ms. Van Cleave and other former counterintelligence and intelligence officials questioned whether the quick spy exchange hampered efforts to fully unravel Russian espionage and influence efforts in the United States, information that is needed for a damage assessment and other information needed for stopping other, unidentified spies.

"I am concerned that [the swap] happened so quickly and that we'll pay a price," said Ms. Van Cleave said.

Kenneth E. deGraffenreid, Ms. Van Cleave's former deputy at the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, also criticized the rapid spy exchange.

"Although many tried to make a celebrity joke out of the recent stunning spy case, the danger for American security from Russian and other 'illegals,' 'sleepers' and clandestine influence operations, remains real and strategic," he said, adding that the rush to complete a deal "may reflect far more than an attempt to kiss up to them in the name of detente reset."

Past difficulties with the FBI's Chinagate investigation of Beijing's U.S. political influence operation, and politically charged disclosures from the current trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagoevich "may have been primary reasons that the subject of influence operations was hustled off stage so quickly," Mr. deGraffenreid said.

Former CIA officer S. Eugene Poteat said that from his perspective outside government the spy investigation apparently was rolled up quickly for unknown reasons. As a result, a "political decision" likely was made by senior Obama administration officials to make a quick trade, he said.

"The intelligence community that I'm familiar with would never have gone along with dumping them so quick," said Mr. Poteat, now head of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.

Former Pentagon official Frank Gaffney said releasing the spies so quickly prevented full learning about Moscow's influence operations and its targets. "I was very troubled when the administration moved so swiftly to shut the whole thing down and send these people to where they could no longer be debriefed," he said.

The administration was either trying to prevent damage to U.S.-Russia relations by making the swap, or the administration wanted to avoid disclosures about Russian influence targets and their ties to people like Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Gaffney said.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican who was in the Senate briefing, said he is satisfied with the administration's handling of the case. Without providing details, he said critical questions were answered.

"This is one of the best operations the CIA and FBI cooperated on," he said. "They've been monitoring these folks for a long time. They knew what was going on, they knew as much as the individuals did on their own."

[vector7]

Putin says he sang patriotic songs with Russian spies deported from United States

Topic: Spy scandal between Russia and the United States


Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

22:33 24/07/2010
© RIA Novosti

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he had met with Russian spies deported from the United States following Russia-U.S. spy scandal and sang patriotic songs with them.

"I met with them," Putin said, answering the journalists' questions whether he met with 10 Russian spies deported from the United States after Russian-U.S. spy scandal.

Ten people were arrested by U.S. law enforcement on June 29 on suspicion of being part of an espionage ring.

After the spy swap deal they were deported from the United States.

Putin, as a former KGB officer, said he had talked for life with the spies.

The premier said they sang songs accompanied by the live music. Among the others, they sang a famous patriotic Russian song "What Motherland starts from".

Commenting on the spies' future, Putin said "they will work".

"I am sure they will work in the decent places, I am sure they will have interesting and bright life," Putin said.

FOROS (Ukraine), July 24 (RIA Novosti)

[Ryan Ruck]

Plano Woman Accused of Smuggling Night Vision Scopes to Russia

July 28, 2010


A federal court affidavit filed in New York accuses 24-year-old Anna Fermanova of Plano of trying tried to move the scopes in March without the proper export licenses. Source: Anna Fermanova, Facebook

Just weeks after breaking up a Russian spy ring that included a 28-year-old woman, federal authorities have charged a Plano woman of a similar age with trying to smuggle three night-vision rifle sights to Russia.

A federal court affidavit filed in New York accuses 24-year-old Anna Fermanova of Plano of trying to move the scopes in March without the proper export licenses.

The devices were seized as Fermanova was boarding a plane for Moscow at JFK International Airport in New York, according to the document. She was allowed to complete the trip but was arrested after her return on a charge of attempting to export U.S. munitions. She was arrested at her parents' Plano home on July 15. She was released to home detention after posting $50,000 bond.

The case, first disclosed on the website thesmokinggun.com, offers a mix of glamor and international intrigue similar to that of Anna Chapman, who pleaded guilty July 8 to being a Russian spy. Like Chapman, Fermanova has a Facebook page that includes provocative photos of herself. Chapman lived in New York, where she appeared to work in real estate.

But Fermanova's attorney, Scott Palmer, said Fermanova's case does not involve spying. He said Fermanova bought the rifle sights online for a friend of her husband, who lives in Moscow, and that they were to be used for hunting.

"There's no terrorism, no spying, nothing that remotely touches these recent concerns," he said. "She's one woman who bought something on the Internet, put it in her luggage and this apparently violates federal law."

Palmer said Fermanova is a U.S. citizen who was born in Latvia and raised in the Dallas area. She splits her time between Dallas and Russia, where her husband has a job in the country's financial industry, he said.

The federal affidavit states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are investigating Fermanova and others for attempting to export U.S. military commodities to Russia without the proper licenses.

The affidavit details how agents found the scopes in Fermanova's luggage on March 1. Some identification markings on the devices were covered with black marker pen, according to the document.

Fermanova told the agents she covered the markings "so they would be less noticeable" when she tried to take them overseas without a license, the affidavit states.

Palmer said Fermanova has been studying to become a cosmetologist. She has a Texas cosmetologist's license that expires next year, according to the state's Department of Licensing and Regulation.

[American Patriot]

I know of people who used to buy Apple Computers and ship them to China, or carry them over in pieces during the Reagan administration.

She was a bleeding heart who felt bad for the people of China. Look at all the knockoffs they have now. I doubt anyone arrested the woman, which is too bad. They should have.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia 'Traitor' Revelation Due To Spy Turf War: Report

November 15, 2010

The shock revelation that a Russian double agent exposed 10 spies working for Moscow in the United States was a leak due to a turf war between Russia's secret services, a report said on Monday.

The Kommersant daily said last week that the 10 Russian spies, who included the glamorous "femme fatale" Anna Chapman, had been betrayed by a top Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) agent named as Colonel Shcherbakov.

Unusually, given the sensitive nature of the information, the revelation was top news on Russian state television and was later even confirmed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Pavel Felgenhauer, the expert of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta on defence and intelligence issues, said that the leak was due to a turf war between the SVR and the Federal Security Service (FSB) which looks after domestic security.

Both the SVR and the FSB emerged from the Soviet-era secret service the KGB after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Felgenhauer said the FSB was seeking to impose its influence over foreign intelligence.

"Under the [2000-2008] presidency of Vladimir Putin, the FSB regained control of the border guards and government communications," Felgenhauer wrote in the Novaya Gazeta.

"The huge failure, arrest and expulsion of the 10 sleeper agents in the United States is a chance for the FSB to launch a campaign to subdue the SVR," he said.

He said that according to the Novaya Gazeta's sources, "it is precisely the FSB, who is leading the enquiry over this failure, that has become the main source of leaked information about the treason of a certain Colonel Shcherbakov".

The aim of the leaks was to speed up decisions about a reorganisation of the SVR, either by merging it with the FSB or replacing its current leadership, Felgenhauer added.

Kommersant said that Shcherbakov fled Russia for the United States just days before the announcement of the arrests of 10 Russian spies in June and was already the target of a specially-assigned Moscow revenge hit squad.

But adding to the mystery, the Interfax news agency quoted security sources as saying the traitor was not called Shcherbakov but was another top SVR agent named as Colonel Poteyev.

Interfax's source said that Shcherbakov was also a traitor "but he had gone over several years ago" and had worked in counter-intelligence rather than operations planting illegals abroad.

[RememberCuba94]

Wouldn't this turf war be dangerous for their plans against us?

[American Patriot]

Yes it would.

And funny how when one of their spies turns over their people to us, we jail them and release.

When it happens in reverse people stay in prison for ever in Russia.

[RememberCuba94]

Yes it would.

And funny how when one of their spies turns over their people to us, we jail them and release.

When it happens in reverse people stay in prison for ever in Russia.

We're always the nicer guys, yet they always makes us out to be Satan.

*sigh*

[vector7]

Inside the Ring: Counterspies hunt Russian mole inside National Security Agency

By Bill Gertz
-
The Washington Times
6:46 p.m., Wednesday, December 1, 2010


Gen. Hwang Eui-don, chief of the General Staff of the South Korean Army (right), patrols with soldiers along the fence of the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Korea Pool)

• View 2 Comment(s)

NSA mole hunt
The National Security Agency (NSA) is conducting a counterintelligence probe at its Fort Meade, Md., headquarters in a top-secret hunt for a Russian agent, according to a former intelligence official close to the agency.

The former official said the probe grew out of the case of 10 Russian "illegals," or deep-cover spies, who were uncovered last summer and sent back to Moscow after the defection of Col. Alexander Poteyev, a former SVR foreign intelligence officer who reportedly fled to the U.S. shortly before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited here in June.

Col. Poteyev is believed to be the source who disclosed the U.S.-based agent network.

NSA counterintelligence officials suspect that members of the illegals network were used by Russia's SVR spy agency to communicate with one or more agents inside the agency, which conducts electronic intelligence gathering and code-breaking.

One sign that the probe is fairly advanced is that FBI counterintelligence agents are involved in the search.

"They are looking for one or more Russian spies that NSA is convinced reside at Fort Meade and possibly other DoD intel offices, like DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency]," the former official said. "NSA is convinced that at least one is at NSA."

Some of the 10 illegals who were posing as U.S. citizens helped service Russian agents working inside the U.S. intelligence community, the former official said.

No other details of the investigation could be learned.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in e-mail: "I don't have any information to provide regarding your query."

An FBI spokesman had no immediate comment.

NSA has been the victim of several damaging spy cases dating back to the 1960s, when two officials defected to the Soviet Union.

In 1985, NSA analyst Ronald Pelton was caught spying for Moscow. He had provided the Soviets with extremely damaging secrets, including details of an underwater electronic eavesdropping program on Russian military cables called "Operation Ivy Bells."

China in Kyrgyzstan
A confidential State Department cable made public this week highlights China's role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

The U.S. ambassador in far-off Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, confronted China's ambassador about a covert attempt by Beijing to bribe the government there to shut down the strategic U.S. military transit base at Manas in exchange for $3 billion in cash.

The Feb. 13, 2009, cable signed by Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller revealed that Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Zhang Yannian "did not deny categorically" the covert cash offer to close the base, which is a major transit and refueling point for U.S. troops and supplies heading into northern Afghanistan.

"After opening pleasantries, the ambassador mentioned that Kyrgyz officials had told her that China had offered a $3 billion financial package to close Manas Air Base and asked for the ambassador's reaction to such an allegation," the cable stated.

"Visibly flustered, Zhang temporarily lost the ability to speak Russian and began spluttering in Chinese to the silent aide diligently taking notes right behind him. Once he had recovered the power of Russian speech, he inveighed against such a calumny, claiming that such an idea was impossible, China was a staunch opponent of terrorism, and China's attitude toward Kyrgyzstan's decision to close Manas was one of 'respect and understanding.' "

The cable highlights what observers say has been China's behind-the-scenes, anti-U.S. strategy of seeking to undermine U.S. global counterterrorism efforts.

Mr. Zhang insisted that China's interest in Kyrgyzstan, which shares a border with China's restive Xinjiang province, is purely commercial. He then said China rejected calls by "some Kyrgyz" for China to set up a military base there to counterbalance Russian and U.S. influence.

"We want no military or political advantage. Therefore, we wouldn't pay $3 billion for Manas," Mr. Zhang was quoted as saying.

Chinese intelligence personnel, however, are another story, according to U.S. officials who have said Beijing's intelligence presence is very large in the country.

Mr. Zhang advised the U.S. ambassador on how to keep the base. "Just give them $150 million in cash [per year, and] you will have the base," he said.

The Chinese official also said several times during the meeting that a "revolution in China" is possible if the economy failed to improve and millions remain unemployed.

"In our experience, talk of revolution at home is taboo for Chinese," the cable said.

However, observers have noted that Chinese diplomats used similar language in meetings with U.S. officials as scare tactics, warning of a coming Chinese collapse as a way to stave off political pressure for democratic change.

Braced for attack
Amid high tensions, U.S. and allied militaries are braced for another North Korean attack - more artillery shelling, missile test launches or possibly another underground nuclear blast.

The next incident is expected in coming days after U.S.-South Korean joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea that ended on Wednesday, said intelligence sources familiar with the region.

North Korean military forces remain on heightened alert, as do South Korean forces, and the sources said the South Korean military is set to counter any further artillery strikes.

One possible target being watched closely is the northernmost of South Korea's five northwest islands, called Baengnyeong Island, a major intelligence base that has been a safe harbor for North Korean defectors fleeing the communist state in the past.

South Korea's military is prepared to carry out aggressive counterattacks against any new strikes.

Intelligence analysis of the Nov. 23 artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people and wounded 17, indicates that the surprise bombardment is connected to the ongoing leadership succession of Kim Jong-il's third son, Kim Jong-un, as well as to the recent disclosure by the North Koreans of a covert uranium-enrichment program.

Kim Jong-un was recently promoted and has aligned himself with North Korean generals involved in artillery forces, according to the intelligence sources. Reports from North Korea indicated that both Kims visited the 4th Corps, whose unit carried out an artillery barrage before the Yeonpyeong attack.

Gay training
The Pentagon working group on open gays in the military sets out an ambitious training program to ensure that troops treat their colleagues, gay or straight, with dignity.

The group, led by Army Gen. Carter Ham and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson, appears to shy away from what some might call "sensitively training."

The report's implementation plan states that "service members are not expected to change their personal religious or moral beliefs; however, they are expected to treat all others with dignity and respect, consistent with the core values that already exist within each service."

But objections to homosexuality are not grounds to request a transfer, reports special correspondent Rowan Scarborough.

Says the report: Service "members do not have the right to refuse duty or duty assignments based on a moral objection to another's sexual orientation. Service members remain obligated to follow orders that involve interaction with others who are gay or lesbian, even if an unwillingness to do so is based on strong, sincerely held, moral or religious beliefs."

And it states that "harassment or abuse based on sexual orientation is unacceptable. All service members are to treat one another with dignity and respect regardless of sexual orientation."

Gay survey
While the Pentagon working group concluded the negative impact on the force would be "low" if gays serve openly, its survey results present a different story.

Republicans likely will cite some of these numbers in arguing in the Senate, where a vote on repeal is pending, that now is not the time to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, as two wars are being fought.

The most striking number is that nearly 60 percent of combat soldiers and Marines believe open gays will hurt unit readiness.

There are other similar findings, reports special correspondent Mr. Scarborough.

Of respondents who said they served under a leader they believed to be gay, 46 percent said it had a "mostly negative" effect on the unit's performance. Only 8 percent termed it "mostly positive."

Of all troops asked how repeal will affect their future, 23 percent said they will either leave the military sooner than planned or think about leaving. For Marines, the percentage was nearly 40 percent.

If the figures are accurate, repeal would result in a surge of troop departures and leave the military scrambling to fill the ranks.

A quarter of those surveyed also said they would shower at a different time if someone they believed to be gay were using the facility.

Gay-rights advocates cite the survey's most publicized result: Seventy percent of all troops - support and combat - say repeal will have a positive, mixed or no effect on the force.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russian Sleeper Agents Deported By U.S. Honored In Russia

October 19, 2010

Russian sleeper agents, arrested in the U.S. this summer and deported to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange, received top government honors from President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday.

"Intelligence agents who worked in the United States and returned to Russia in July" were among staff members from Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service to receive awards at a Kremlin ceremony, Natalya Timakova, the president's spokeswoman, told Russian media. She would not say which awards were given out or whether all 10 of those arrested this summer were among the recipients.

The agents, who were arrested in the suburbs of New York, Boston and northern Virginia, have been widely lampooned in the West as bumbling caricatures of a bygone era.

[vector7]

Medvedev, Obama to discuss easing visa regime for Russians visiting U.S.


President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. Archive.
© POOL

10:42 18/04/2011

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Multimedia

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The easing of visa restrictions for Russian citizens traveling to the United States will be a focus during talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in France's Deauville in May.

During a meeting with residents of Russia's Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, Medvedev said he had sent Obama a letter with the relevant request and "intended to discuss it seriously."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed abolishing visas for Russian and U.S. citizens during a meeting with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Moscow in March.
In mid-April, Michael McFaul, a top national security aide at the White House, said Washington hoped to conclude a new visa agreement with Russia and took the issue "seriously."

On Putin's proposal, McFaul said the prime minister "had joked" when he suggested that the visas could be scrapped. He said a new agreement would not include a visa-free regime, but would be an improvement from what exists between the two countries today.

Currently, the issuing of U.S. visas for Russian citizens is a long and complicated process, which many Russian tourists and businessmen have complained of.

Russia is also pushing the European Union on abolishing visas for Russians, but the talks have so far yielded no significant results.

IRKUTSK, April 18 (RIA Novosti)

[Phil Fiord]

Most if not all countries have an element of those employed as spies. Even with our current Executive Branch, I doubt their will be significant changes to any Visa requirements.

I contend that it is not most people in countries that are a problem, but those who are running countries who are corrupt. Not all who govern are corrupt, but the vast many seem to be in most places of the world.

[samizdat]

"I feel terrific about where I am in my life, when I look back at what I've accomplished," the former governor tells Lloyd Grove. "But I feel so sh*tty when I look at myself in the mirror."

...Arny S, somewhat after a concert duo w/ M. Gorbachov.

[Ryan Ruck]

Woman Sentenced in Effort to Smuggle Scopes to Russia

October 24, 2011

She would always be “the other Anna,” her alleged criminal misdeeds and her personal life not quite the measure of the Anna who came before her.

But Anna Fermanova would nonetheless be linked to Anna Chapman, for reasons beyond given names.

Ms. Chapman was one of 10 members of a Russian spy ring brought down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year. Her nights on the town and alluring photographs on Facebook enthralled the media and evoked a character out of a James Bond movie.

Ms. Fermanova was arrested in July 2010, shortly after Ms. Chapman was, for trying to smuggle night-vision weapon scopes to Russia. Ms. Fermanova, who had a similar predilection for posting stunning pictures on Facebook, became a news media darling herself, inspiring headlines like, “Anna Fermanova Is America’s New Sexy Russian Outlaw.”

But that is where the two cases diverge. Ms. Chapman and her comrades pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as unregistered agents and were returned to Russia less than two weeks after their arrest as part of a prisoner swap, the likes of which have not been seen since the cold war. They were hailed as heroes in Russia, where Ms. Chapman began hosting a weekly television program.

Ms. Fermanova, 25, also pleaded guilty, but the prosecution and her lawyers agreed that she was not a spy. Her defense lawyer, Scott H. Palmer, said that being foolish was more like it.

Ms. Fermanova was before a Federal District Court judge in Brooklyn on Monday, begging for leniency in a sentencing hearing.

Mr. Palmer said his client, with the help of her soon-to-be ex-husband, bought the scopes legally in the United States and tried to sell them illegally to men in Russia who, she believed, were hunters. Ms. Fermanova has pleaded guilty to the unlicensed export of an item on the United States Munitions List, military defense items subject to government control.

“I just wanted to say that I was truly sorry for what I did,” Ms. Fermanova said, wiping away tears. “I completely realize it was a really foolish act. It was a means to make a little extra cash.”

Mr. Palmer argued for a sentence of probation because, he said, Ms. Fermanova, who was born in Latvia but is a United States citizen living in Texas, did not know that the items could have slipped into the wrong hands. The recommended sentence in such a case is 46 months in prison.

“As far as she is concerned, the hunters that were buying them were rich,” Mr. Palmer said.

The judge, Carol Bagley Amon, seemed less than sympathetic to the argument. “The court recognizes that these items are not as dangerous as other items on the list,” she said. But, she said, “they could have easily gotten out of the hands of hunters into another stream of commerce.”

“It is the court’s view,” the judge added, “that deporting munitions, particularly something such as night vision goggles — this is a very serious offense. The sentence imposed has to promote a respect for the law.”

The prosecutor, Seth DuCharme, also recommended a shorter sentence, though not because the government believed the crime was not serious. Ms. Fermanova had cooperated with the government, Judge Amon said.

Judge Amon ordered a sentence of four months in federal prison followed by three years of probation, including four months of being subject to home arrest. She also ordered a $1,000 fine.

Ms. Fermanova must surrender by Dec. 5.