http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/26/russian-spy-ring/22363347/
WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities announced charges Monday against three Russian nationals, accused of spying on behalf of their government and attempting to recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources in the U.S.
One of the three, Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested in the Bronx and was scheduled to appear in a New York federal court late Monday.
The two others, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy, are believed to be no longer in the country.
Buryakov, an accused agent of the Russian intelligence service known as the SVR, had been posing as a representative of a Russian bank in Manhattan. Sporyshev and Podobnyy, meanwhile, had been operating in the U.S. for years posing as "official representatives'' of the Russian government.
As early as November 2010, the alleged spy ring had been operating with Sporyshev and Podobnyy heading up the New York recruiting effort, while Buryakov attempted to gather intelligence on, among other things, potential U.S. sanctions against Russian banks and U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources.
Not since the U.S. expelled a group of Russian spies nearly five years ago posing as American citizens, has the U.S. moved in such a major way in a espionage case involving Russia.
"These charges demonstrate our firm commitment to combating attempts by covert agents to illegally gather intelligence and recruit spies within the United States,'' Attorney General Eric Holder said.
