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Russian spy pleads guilty to espionage charges in the US

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Evgeny Buryakov, a Russian spy who posed as a banker in New York City has pleaded guilty to espionage-related charges after court documents revealed that the spy from Russia’s top intelligence service walked into a trap set by the FBI.

While delivering her judgment, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said “like a plotline from a Cold War-era movie,” Buryakov was arrested last year and accused of working as a “non-official cover” officer for Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as SVR, at a Russian bank in midtown Manhattan.

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A “non-official cover” agent generally refers to an espionage agent working in a foreign nation as a private citizen — without the protection of diplomatic immunity they would enjoy if they were hiding behind another government job.

As described by the Department of Justice, “SVR agents operating under such non-official cover — sometimes referred to as ‘NOCs’ — typically are subject to less scrutiny by the host government, and, in many cases, are never identified as intelligence agents by the host government. As a result, a NOC is an extremely valuable intelligence asset for the SVR.”

Revealing how it was able to fish-out Buryakov, along with two alleged accomplices, the FBI said it engaged an undercover agent of its own and allowed the Russians to “recruit” their spy, according to a release by the Department of Justice.

The “dangle,” as the agent is known in espionage parlance, had posed as an analyst for a “New York-based energy company.”

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