Russian intelligence operatives attempted to assassinate a former high-ranking Russian intelligence officer who became an informant for the United States living in Miami, The New York Times reported.
Three former U.S. intelligence officers, who spoke to the Times under the condition of anonymity, said the target was Aleksandr Poteyev, who helped the FBI uncover 11 spies living on the East Coast. Ten of those spies were arrested and sent back to Russia in exchange for four Russian prisoners.
The Times notes that the plot to assassinate Poteyev was first revealed in the British edition of "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West," which will be released June 29 in Great Britain, having already been published in the U.S.
The book, by Harvard University national security and intelligence scholar Calder Walton, says a Kremlin official referenced that a "Mercader" would likely find Poteyev. Mercader was the name of the assassin who killed early Soviet leader Leon Trotsky on the orders of Joseph Stalin.
In 2019, Russian operatives reportedly forced Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a Mexican scientist who studied in Russia and still had family living in the country, to help find and identify Poteyev. He was asked to rent a condo near Poteyev and to obtain the license plate number of his car as well as its location.
Fuentes was eventually stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while trying to fly to Mexico, and told investigators that he believed he had been meeting with a Russian official from the country's internal security service, the FSB.
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos told the Times: "The red lines are long gone for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He wants all these guys dead."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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