Russian embassy in the U.S. refrained from comments on reports on a yet another espionage scandal.
“We didn’t get official information /on the situation/ and as for the unofficial one, we don’t comment on it,” the ambassadorial press service said.
Diplomats on the embassy staff said, however, they were closely watching the developments through all the information channels available to them.
The suspects featured in the documents are identified as Yevgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Viktor Podobny. According to media reports Buryakov, 39, was arrested by the FBI in the Bronx on Monday, while Sporyshev, 40, and Podobny, 27, were said to have left the U.S.
Buryakov was expected to be taken to a courtroom in Manhattan within hours after arrest. Charges to the two other men were issued in absentia.
The statement from the attorney’s office claims the directives, which Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) sent out to the three men and other agents in the U.S., included queries about data on possible sanctions against Russian banks.
The complaint the attorneys filed with the court says Sporyshev worked on the staff of the Russian trade mission in New York before November 2014, while Podobny was an attach at the Russian mission at the UN.
Officials at the Russian mission at the UN, the trade mission and the Consulate General in New York refrained from comments on the issue.
“We don’t comment on this information,” the press secretary of the mission at UN, Alexei Zaitsev said.
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