By Steve Neavling
Russia sought to assassinate a defector-turned-CIA informant in Miami after he helped the FBI identify a network of spies living in the U.S., The New York Times reports.
The scheme to kill Aleksandr Poteyev, a former high-ranking Russia spy, “spiraled into tit-for-tat retaliation by the United States and Russia,” the newspaper reported.
Poteyev became an informant for the CIA, and his tips to the FBI led to the arrests of 11 Russian spies living in the U.S. in 2010.
After fleeing Russia to avoid imprisonment, Poteyev resettled in Miami under a secret CIA program to protect spies.
Russia learned about Poteyev’s whereabouts when he received a fishing license and registered to vote under his own name.
Russia enlisted Mexican scientist Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes to help assassinate Poteyev, but the plot went awry, and Fuentes explained his mission to U.S. authorities.
As a result, the U.S. imposed sanctions against Russia in 2021 and expelled 10 of the Russian diplomats. Russia responded by expelling 10 U.S. diplomats, including the CIA’s Moscow chief of station.
