A military engineer from Russia asked for asylum in the United States: for this he revealed secret data to the FBI

In late December, a Russian military bomber engineer sought asylum on the US southwestern border and offered to reveal some of Russia's best-kept military secrets. Yahoo.

Photo: IStock

The man and his family arrived in an armored SUV and asked for permission to enter the United States because they feared persecution for participating in anti-Putin protests in support of imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. He then told CBP officials that he had information that would be of interest to the US government.

He said he was a design engineer and that “his previous activities included working from 2018 to 2021 in the production of a certain type of military aircraft at the Tupolev aircraft factory in the city of Kazan in west-central Russia,” according to an unclassified CBP report dated January 11.

"He described the type of aircraft as 'attack aircraft' and said it was 'called the White Swan-TU160, the largest military aircraft'," according to the report.
The CBP report is written to highlight new trends or notable developments for management. The agency added a comment in bold italics after the paragraph detailing the engineer's arrival and work, and explaining why his information could be valuable.

On the subject: State Department Asks Americans to Leave Russia Immediately 'Due to Unforeseen Consequences of Ukraine Invasion'

The White Swan-TU160, also known by the NATO reporting name Blackjack, is reportedly the most advanced strategic bomber in Russia's arsenal. It was also used for airstrikes in the war in Ukraine. According to open source reports, over the past few years, the Tupolev plant has begun a major new program to build an improved version of the aircraft, as well as a program to modernize existing aircraft, ”the report says.

Russian military expert Michael Kofman said he had no independent knowledge of this particular Russian engineer, but was generally talking about what information someone in his position could provide.

“A person working in a military-industrial enterprise, such as the Tupolev plant, may have access to a range of information about military-industrial production, specifications related to the Tu-160 bomber and its recently developed modernized version, and various production processes,” said Kofman, director of the Russian Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analysis.

According to a senior military intelligence official, details about this particular fighter jet, which was replicated and upgraded during the engineer's claimed job, would be valuable information in connection with the war in Ukraine.

“Can the site manager know if they have modified the bombers to fire hypersonic missiles? Maybe. And this would be very important if the White Swan were upgraded to fire hypersonic missiles. They are fast and launched from a much greater distance,” the official explained. “We don’t have anything that can protect against hypersonic missiles - that is, the Patriot systems and everything else that we supply to Ukraine are useless.”

Photo: IStock

The man's name and details of his arrival in the US were included in an unclassified daily news bulletin. It is highly unusual and perhaps unprecedented for this particular report to include the full name and details of the asylum seeker. Not to mention someone leaking military secrets to a foreign enemy who hunts down and poisons or otherwise kills their turncoats.

Everyone was surprised that the identity of this man and the detailed history of his work were included in an unclassified CBP report. Around the time the CBP report was circulated, several secret briefings were held that appeared to include information about the same individual, according to three U.S. government officials. Officials did not provide any further details, citing the highly classified nature of information from foreign military defectors.

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When someone shows up at a U.S. port of entry asking for security clearance and claims to have information of interest to the United States, CBP and the Department of Homeland Security are tasked with verifying the information provided. If the information is confirmed to be true and the person is considered trustworthy, they are turned over to the FBI.

“The deal with the asylum seeker is that his ID has to be checked and also his history checked – this can take some time,” one of the US intelligence officials explained.

"If and only if he is who he says he is and worked where he said he would, if that happens, then the FBI will take over and take him away, possibly to a safe location where he can be questioned," he said. .

For about a week and a half, CBP and DHS worked to identify the man and his previous job. By around January 11, he was found to be credible and potentially interesting to the US, and was handed over to the FBI for further questioning, according to two government officials.

It is assumed that the engineer is in the United States and is still being interrogated by US authorities. He is most likely being interrogated about the resumption of production of Blackjack, as well as updated or upgraded versions that he is assumed to have been working on.

He is also likely to be questioned about things unrelated to the bomber, which could include everything from the email system, software and personnel involved in the aircraft manufacturing plant. This information can be used to conduct targeted cyber attacks or to gather intelligence.

“Of course, we know the Russian bomber well. But the specs, the actual specs, the nuclear capabilities, there are definitely things we'd be interested in hearing about if this guy is trustworthy. The most important thing: has it been converted for hypersonic missiles?” - said the military official.

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“I'm not saying he knows the answer, and I'm not saying he doesn't know. I'm not even saying that we know whether he has such information or not. I'm just saying that if he had something about it, it would be important,” he said.

Retired CIA senior intelligence officer Daniel Hoffman said he didn't see the Russian engineer's case as anything out of the ordinary.

“The guy is here, so he will be processed. He'll go through our system and they'll talk to him and find out what he's done before and that's it. It's pretty simple," Hoffman said.

“This happens all the time,” he added.

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