FBI arrests alleged Russian spy in New York

NEW YORK

Federal agents on Monday arrested an alleged Russian spy in New York accused of trying to recruit sources and collect economic intelligence while working as a Manhattan banker, officials said.

US prosecutors named the alleged covert intelligence agent as Evgeny Buryakov, 39.

He appeared before Judge Sarah Netburn in a Manhattan federal court on Monday, a court official said.

Prosecutors said he was assisted in covert espionage by Russian spies Igor Sporyshev, 40, and Victor Podobnyy, 27, who had been attached to the Russian trade and UN missions in New York.

Sporyshev and Podobnyy were protected by diplomatic immunity and have since left the United States and so have not been arrested. They are charged in absentia, officials said.

Buryakov's detention is likely to rock already deeply strained relations between Moscow and Washington, which have been at their lowest ebb in years over the crisis in Ukraine and the war in Syria.

US prosecutors allege Buryakov started working as an undercover agent for Moscow's SVR foreign intelligence agency in New York in 2012 while posing as a banker at a Russian bank in Manhattan.

It is the first such case since 10 deep-cover agents, including Anna Chapman, were arrested in the New York area in 2010. They pleaded guilty and were part of a prisoner swap with Moscow.

The FBI said it opened the investigation into the alleged spy ring within months of those guilty pleas.

Attorney-General Eric Holder said America was committed "to combating attempts by covert agents to illegally gather intelligence and recruit spies within the United States".