Last Updated on August 22, 2020, 11:33 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The US Department of Justice has said that a former US special forces captain has been arrested on charges of espionage.
Peter Debbins is alleged of passing classified information to the Russian military intelligence agency for over ten years.
A DoJ press release said that during several visits to Russia in the 2000s, Peter had contact with GRU agents, and they knew Peter by the code name Ikar Lesnikov.
45-year-old Capt Debbins faces life imprisonment if he stands convicted.
Capt Debbins belongs to Gainesville, Virginia, and he is charged with conspiring to provide the United States’ national defence information to agents of a foreign government.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers said that Debbins had betrayed the special forces, violated his oath as a US Army officer and endangered the national security of the US by revealing classified information to the GRU officers, identifying special forces team members for Russian intelligence and providing details of his unit to try to recruit as a spy.
He added that the US put its highest trust in this defendant, and he took that trust and weaponised it against the country.
The mother of Capt Debbins was born in the former USSR, and partly, for this reason, he had developed an interest in Russia.
He travelled there numerous times between 1994 and 2010.
He also married the daughter of a Russian military officer who he met in the city of Chelyabinsk in the 1990s.
The press release says he frequently expressed loyalty to Moscow to his Russian handlers and described himself as a “son of Russia”.
“The Russian intelligence agents allegedly encouraged him to join and pursue a career in the special forces, which he did,” the DoJ said.
Capt Debbins was on active duty in the US Army from 1998 to 2005, serving in chemical units including in South Korea before joining the special forces as a captain in Germany in 2003.
A year later he received top security clearance and was deployed to Azerbaijan, but was investigated for a security violation and removed from his command.
He received an honourable discharge in November 2005 and served in reserve until 2010.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
