Diplomatic «game changer». Putin wants to kill Russian defectors in the US

2023-06-23 00:00:58

In Miami Beach, Florida, US authorities caught a Mexican man spying on a defector for Russia.

EPA

Alexander Poteyev leaked spicy Russian secrets as a US double agent for 11 years before fleeing to the US in 2010. Vladimir Putin has sworn revenge – and apparently tried to implement it.

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On February 16, 2020, the United States arrested Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes and his wife in Miami on suspicion of espionage. The Mexican couple was supposed to gather information about the defector Alexander Potayev. Potayev worked as a double agent for eleven years before fleeing to the United States in 2010. Vladimir Putin has sworn revenge because Potayev busted a ring of Russian sleepers in the US, which included Anna Chapman, in 2020. This brings back memories of the Skripal case, when a Russian ex-agent was poisoned in the UK a “game changer” and warn that defectors should be better protected.

It’s a story that Hollywood could film: In 2020, a Mexican man is arrested in Miami, Florida. The authorities accuse him of spying.

“As I’m sure you know, there are always spy stories in Miami,” a CBS reporter said at the time. “Here’s the next one: According to the federal police, this guy worked for the Russians. He was caught trying to leave town.”

Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes was tasked with stalking a Miami resident “who provided information to the United States.” The then 35-year-old was supposed to track down the target’s car and note the license plate number. It is now clear who Moscow has targeted through the Mexican: the Kremlin apparently tried to kill a Russian in the United States.

The process brings back memories of 2018, when Moscow in the UK wanted to murder defector Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent. “It’s a game changer,” says Rebekah Koffler, who once worked for the US secret service and wrote the book “Putin’s Playbook”. «Fox News». “This is a very alarming development. We’re just realizing that none of these [Informanten] safer, and that’s very disturbing.”

Ex-KGB agent Putin vows revenge

First has the «New York Times» (NYT) reported on the case, citing Calder Walton’s book Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West, out June 29. The intelligence expert from Harvard University writes that the target of the action was Alexander Potayev, who has lived in the United States since 2010.

Potayev worked from 2000 to 2010 as deputy head of the illegal agents department at the Russian foreign intelligence service, but was recruited by the CIA as early as 1999. Shortly before the Russian spy Anna Chapman and nine other agents are busted in the USA in 2010, Potayev fled Russia.

Because Vladimir Putin swears personally that the person who betrayed the Russians will be punished. In 2011, charges were brought against Potayev in Moscow – and the 71-year-old was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison. The double agent has not only exposed the largest Russian espionage ring in recent decades, but also Andreas and Heidrun stop exposedwho spied for Moscow in Marburg, Germany.

Moscow blackmails Mexican who becomes his henchman

So Putin has a score to settle with Potayev that the president wants to see paid — in blood. But the double agent cannot be tracked down at first. In 2016, Russian media reported that Potayev was dead – possibly to reassure the man who was staying in Miami with his family.

These are the ten Russian agents that Potayev exposed in the summer of 2010. Top center: Anna Chapman. Shortly thereafter, they were exchanged for four people in Vienna.

AP

Perhaps that’s why Potayev was so careless in 2016 that he entered the electoral roll under his real name and also applied for a fishing license. Two years later, according to the NYT, it became public that Potayev lives in Miami. And the Kremlin hatches a plan to take revenge.

The ID card issued to KGB man Vladimir Putin by the GDR State Ministry for Security in Dresden in 1985.

public domain

In 2019, Moscow finds a poor fellow for Russian intelligence to use. Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes is actually anything but an agent. The Mexican studied microbiology in Kazan, Russia, and did his doctorate at the University of Giessen in Germany. “He was a source of pride for his family,” writes the NYT, “with a history of charity work and no criminal record.”

“We can help each other”

But Fuentes has a dark secret: he has a wife in Mexico, but is also in a relationship with a Russian woman in Germany who has two daughters. This trio will visit Russia in 2019 but will not be allowed to leave the country afterwards. In May 2019, Fuentes was traveling to Eastern Europe when he was approached by an agent: “We can help each other,” the man is said to have said.

A few months later, the Mexican is instructed to take an apartment north of Miami Beach, where Potayev also lives. Fuentes gives a middleman $20,000 not to rent the apartment under his own name. In February 2020, the agent travels to Moscow against his will to get instructions: He is supposed to find Potayev’s car, write down the license plate number and pass on the location – but without taking any photos.

But Fuentes screwed it up. On February 14, 2020, he got into the garage by getting behind an incoming car. This is noticed by a security guard who is questioning him. Meanwhile, his Mexican wife takes photos of Potayev’s license plate, which security cameras pick up. The two are then expelled from the place.

That’s why Biden called Putin a “killer”

Two days later, the couple wants to fly to Mexico, but the border guards search his cell phone and find photos of Potayev’s license plate. After his arrest, he confides in the investigators. The authorities assume that he was unaware of Potayev’s importance and was supposed to be collecting information for an attack.

“We believe
he was being used unwittingly,
that he was an unwitting dupe,”
said Ronald Gainor,
Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes’s
Miami-based attorney.

“I don’t believe
he knew he was dealing w
Russian intelligence.” pic.twitter.com/3Iow1O3yKV

— Call Paul’s Boutique (@modernhomesla) April 14, 2020

Because of the incident, the United States will expel ten Russian diplomats in April 2021. “We cannot allow a foreign power to intervene in our democratic processes with impunity,” said Joe Biden at the time – without going into detail about the case, of course. His interview from March 2021 now appears in a different light: At that time, the US President said he believed that Putin was “a killer”.

Fuentes cooperates with the US authorities – and remains in the focus of the Russian President and former KGB spy. “Putin crossed the red lines a long time ago,” former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos tells the NYT. “He wants all these guys dead.”

“If they try to kill this guy, they’re going to try to kill our other people that we have here,” warns Rebekah Koffler on Fox News. “It’s a very alarming development.” The expert believes that the US intelligence services must remain vigilant. “The case demonstrated that Russian defectors should not be given a false sense of security just because they are in the US. Putin has an extensive network.”