Just a few days after being buddy-buddy with the newly-Twittering Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the Obama Administration has rolled up what the FBI alleges to be a nationwide network of Russian sleeper spies. Time to add the River Phoenix classic, Little Nikita, to your Netflix queue.
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According to the criminal complaints, which, as Ben Smith points out, read like le Carre, the undercover agents received messages hidden in pictures, and one decoded message that read:
You were sent to the USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc. — all thses serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels [intelligence reports] to C [enter].
Ten are under arrest. Eleven are charged. For more details, read Laura Rozen’s summary. For the charging documents, click here and here.