NYC Russian spy ring busted

In one conversation, Podobnyy talked about his technique for recruiting sources, which included “cheating, promising favors, and then discarding the intelligence source once the relevant information was obtained by the SVR,” according to authorities.

In another discussion, he complained to Sporyshev about how unexciting his everyday job was, saying it was “not even close” to James Bond movies.

“Of course, I wouldn’t fly helicopters, but pretend to be somebody else at a minimum,” he said.

Sporyshev concurred, lamenting, “I also thought that at least I would go abroad with a different passport.”

CNN notes that the two men also chatted about the 2010 unmasking of a Russian spy ring in the United States.

In that case, eleven Russian intelligence agents formed a “sleeper” cell in the United States. They  were arrested and later allowed to return to Moscow as part of a spy swap.

The complaint unsealed on Monday notes that Podobnyy suggested those agents “couldn’t do anything.”

“They studied some people, worked out some exits, but they didn’t get any materials,” he said.

The FBI investigation of Buryakov, Sporyshev, and Podobnyy began “within a few months” of the guilty pleas in the 2010 case, according to the FBI.

An FBI agent met with Buryakov in the summer of 2014, pretending to be a representative of a wealthy individual interested in investing in the casino business in Russia. During the meetings, Buryakov “demonstrated his strong desire to obtain information about subjects far outside the scope of his work as a bank employee,” U.S. authorities said.

He also accepted documents that the FBI agent claimed had come from a U.S. government agency and “purportedly contained information potentially useful to Russia, including information about United States sanctions against Russia,” according to the U.S. law enforcement statement.

Buryakov, Sporyshev, and Podobnyy were charged on two counts. The first is taking part in a conspiracy for Buryakov to act in the United States as an agency of a foreign government without first notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The second count charges that Buryakov was acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without first notifying the Attorney General, while Sporyshev and Podobnyy are charged with aiding and abetting that offense. The maximum sentence for that count is ten years imprisonment.

The charges and Buryakov’s arrest “make clear that — more than two decades after the presumptive end of the cold war — Russian spies continue to seek to operate in our midst under cover of secrecy,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Monday ordered that Buryakov be detained because he was considered a flight risk, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.