Aleksandr Poteyev

Colonel Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev (Александр Николаевич Потеев) was the former Deputy Head of Directorate "S" of the Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) from 2000-2010.[1]

Aleksandr Poteyev
Born
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev

(1952-03-07) March 7, 1952
Brest Region, Belarus
OccupationFormer Deputy Head of Directorate "S"
Spouse(s)Marina
Children2

Beginning around 1999, he began working secretly with the CIA, helping to reveal a hidden network of Russian spies operating within the United States, known as the Illegals Program.

In late June 2010, a successful operation to extract Poteyev from Russia was executed with the assistance of the CIA.

He is currently living in the United States under an assumed identity.[2][3][4]

Early life

Poteyev was born in the Brest Region of the Republic of Belarus. His father, Nikolai Pavlovich Poteyev, had been declared a Hero of the USSR in 1944 for having destroyed nine enemy tanks.[5][6]

Career

1970s

Poteyev enlisted in the army during the 1970s. Afterward, he entered the service of the KGB, working primarily in Minsk. Soon thereafter, he travelled to Afghanistan as part of several elite Special Forces units, including "Zenith", "Cascade-1", and "Cascade-2".[7]

For his services in Afghanistan, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After returning from Afghanistan, Poteyev graduated from the Academy of Foreign Intelligence, and then went on to work for the First Chief Directorate of the USSR.[5]

1990s

Working under official cover as a representative from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poteyev took around a dozen short trips to several western countries during the 1990s, including Mexico, Chile, and New York City in the United States.[5][7]

According to a Russian court, Poteyev began passing information about Russian sleeper agents under his command to the CIA around 1999.[1][6][8][9]

2000s

In 2000, Poteyev was appointed to Deputy Head of Directorate "S" of the SVR, where he was tasked with overseeing a network of spies living inside the United States.[2][5]

Sometime around 2001, Poteyev is reported to have "cashed in" on a contract with the CIA that is said to have brought him somewhere between $2 and $5 million.[10]

On January 25, 2003, Poteyev's wife, Marina, filed a police report claiming that three individuals disguised as law enforcement had broken into the Poteyevs' apartment in Moscow. Once inside, the individuals were said to have robbed and attacked members of the Poteyev family.[5][6]

2010s

In the first half of 2010, the SVR began to suspect that a high-ranking mole was operating within their system. Plans were made to submit lie detector tests to personnel within the SVR. Having been made aware of this plan, Poteyev directed his son to travel to the United States in June 2010, where Poteyev's wife and daughter were already living.[5][11]

In May 2010, Poteyev reportedly asked permission from his superiors to travel to Odessa to visit a purported mistress of his, but the request was denied.[8]

On June 24, 2010, without having informed his superiors beforehand, Poteyev purchased a rail ticket from Moscow to Minsk. From there, he made his way to Ivano-Frankivsk, then on to Frankfurt, before finally arriving at CIA headquarters in the United States on June 26, 2010.[8] The following day, on June 27, 2010, the FBI began arresting the Russian spies who had been operating within the United States under Poteyev's direction.[12][13]

On June 27, 2011, a Russian court found Poteyev guilty of high treason, and had him sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.[14]

Life in America

On November 11, 2010, Kommersant reported that Colonel Alexandr Shcherbakov of the SVR was the person who had revealed the identities of the Russian spies to U.S. authorities. Five days later, Kommersant issued a correction to the story, noting that it was not Shcherbakov, but Poteyev.[8]

Around the autumn of 2014, a Russian assassin had reportedly tracked the whereabouts of Poteyev, as well as members of his family.[3][15]

On July 7, 2016, Russian news agencies reported unconfirmed rumors that Poteyev had died in the United States.[16][17]

References
  1. Isachenkov, Vladimir (June 27, 2011). "Alexander Poteyev, Russian Intelligence Officer, Convicted Of Betraying U.S. Spy Ring Including Anna Chapman". HuffPost. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011.
  2. Campbell, Alex; Leopold, Jason; Blake, Heidi (October 3, 2018). "This Russian Double-Agent Is A Lot Less Dead Than He Seemed". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on October 4, 2018.
  3. "The attempted assassination of a Russian spy defector". YouTube. Newsnight. October 2, 2018.
  4. "Spy Poisoned in Britain Fed MI6 Agents Secrets on a Putin Ally, New Book Claims". New York Times. October 1, 2018. Archived from the original on October 1, 2018.
  5. Alexandrov, German (May 16, 2011). "Defector of the SVR Poteyev continues to betray Russia". Rosbalt. Archived from the original on May 18, 2011.
  6. Moshkin, Mikhail; Baltacheva, Marina (July 7, 2016). "A Traitor Poteyev Could Go Deep Underground". RusNext. Archived from the original on July 10, 2016.
  7. Osborn, Andrew (November 18, 2010). "Ex-KGB soldier named as double agent who exposed Anna Chapman spy ring". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010.
  8. Weiss, Michael (July 9, 2016). "Is This American Spy Dead? Or Was He Ever Real?". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on July 10, 2017.
  9. Urban, Mark (October 2, 2018). "The Skripal Files" (PDF). Secret Wars. p. 145. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  10. Russo, Gus; Dezenhall, Eric (October 2, 2018). Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group, Inc. p. 233. ISBN 978-1-5387-6131-1. LCCN 2017056747.
  11. Soloviev, Vladimir; Trifonov, Vladislav (November 11, 2010). "Fresh Betrayal". Kommersant. Archived from the original on March 15, 2011.
  12. "Ten Alleged Secret Agents Arrested in the United States". United States Department of Justice. June 28, 2010. Archived from the original on December 30, 2014.
  13. {{ |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-10-russian-spies-arrested-in-us/ |title=FBI: 10 Russian Spies Arrested in U.S. |publisher=CBS |date=June 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220224432/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-10-russian-spies-arrested-in-us/ |archive-date=December 20, 2013 |url-status=live }}
  14. "Moscow military court sentences Russian mole to 25 years for treason". Sputnik (news agency). June 27, 2011. Archived from the original on February 5, 2017.
  15. "More of Kremlin's Opponents Are Ending Up Dead". New York Times. September 13, 2018. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018.
  16. "Russian Foreign Intelligence Service not commenting on Poteyev's possible death in U.S (Part 2)". Interfax. July 7, 2016. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019.
  17. "Russian Foreign Intelligence Mute on Reports of Ex-Employee Death in US". Sputnik. July 7, 2016. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017.
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