The rules of the international spy game have changed: Russia tried to kill a CIA agent on US soil

The 2020 attempt by Russian spies to assassinate a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent on US soil signals a major shift in how the US intelligence community views the threat faced by foreign whistle-blowers vital to US intelligence gathering. Writes about it Fox News.

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The New York Times recently reported on Moscow's unprecedented attempt to target Alexander Poteyev, a former high-ranking Russian intelligence officer turned CIA informant who lived in Miami, Florida.

According to information later published by Calder Walton, a national security and intelligence specialist at Harvard University, the operation was called "Modern Mercader" - a reference to Ramon Mercader, a secret agent of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, who killed Leon Trotsky in Mexico City in 1940.

Russia has a long and notorious reputation for harassing whistleblowers at home and abroad. In 2018, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England.

Rebecca Koffler, a Russian-born former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, believes Moscow's pursuit of American assets on American soil is a "game-changer."

“We employ many people who risk their lives in Russia by providing very confidential information. In some cases, we expel our agents if their lives are in danger when their cover is blown,” she said. “But this incident is a game changer.”

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The ex-officer explained that the US intelligence community is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of whistleblowers who are forced to leave their homeland and seek protection within US borders in exchange for their intelligence services.

“If they tried to kill this guy, then they will try to kill our other people who already in the US,” she explained.

Referring to an earlier assessment by the US intelligence community, Koffler said that although Moscow intimidated Russians who are helping Washington, the level of threat inside US borders was considered relatively low. Now the score has changed a bit.

“This is a very alarming event,” she stressed. “After it, we realized that none of these people were safe anymore, and that was very worrying.”

The plot to kill Poteev thwarted after a Kremlin agent botched a surveillance scheme, attracting the attention of a security guard who alerted the US intelligence community.

Russia attempted to obtain information about Poteev by forcibly recruiting a humble Mexican scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes.

It turned out that Fuentes had two wives: one Russian, living in Germany with two daughters, and the other in Mexico. Moscow took advantage of this.

The mother of two was detained and prevented from leaving Russia after they returned for a visit. This forced Fuentes to travel to Russia to see them.

There he was approached by a man who was apparently a Russian agent. He instructed to rent an apartment in Miami under a different name, not far from the place where Poteev was supposed to live.

Then he was told to conduct surveillance and find Poteev's car, copy the description of his parking place and find out the license plate.

Fuentes was reportedly ordered not to photograph the car.

But the scientist disrupted the operation when he tried to enter the territory of the complex, where Poteev's car was apparently located: he drove through the entrance gate after another car.

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Fuentes was then stopped by a security guard, after which his wife left the scene, found Poteev's car and photographed it - all this was filmed by a surveillance camera.

Koffler noted that the failure of the assassination attempt by Russia demonstrated that the security procedures that the US intelligence community uses to ensure the safety of defectors are working.

“We may need to invest more resources now that we know the Russians will be conducting covert operations on US soil, but so far what we have done has worked in terms of saving lives,” she said.

“Going forward, US intelligence will likely assess the risk to Russian defectors above the current baseline, which is already very high. We will probably strengthen our security procedures to keep them safe,” she shared of her plans. “This case demonstrates that Russian defectors should not be lulled into a false sense of security just because they are in the United States.”

“Putin has an extensive network of operatives. They must listen to their handler and strictly follow the instructions of the security service in order to be safe, ”summed up Koffler.

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