Police were hunting yesterday for a key suspect in the Russia-US spy scandal who vanished in Cyprus, as 10 other alleged Kremlin spies were due to appear before US courts to request bail.
In a stunning twist to a Cold War-style espionage saga that has threatened to upset efforts to reset US-Russia ties, Christopher Metsos, said to be in his mid-50s, disappeared after a Cypriot court released him on bail.
The alleged spy ring was cracked earlier this week as FBI agents finally pounced on 10 alleged Russian agents in Boston, New York and the Washington area after more than a decade of exhaustive surveillance operations.
After initially reacting with fury, Russia has since been at pains to prevent the scandal spiraling into a major diplomatic crisis and said it does not expect the incident to harm relations.
But the Russian press has been highly skeptical, questioning if the suspects were really spies and blaming the scandal on elements in the US opposed to US President Barack Obama’s policy of reconciliation with Russia.
“It’s as if James Bond finally opens his super briefcase — and all you find inside are some socks and some chicken wrapped in foil,” wrote the pro-Kremlin mass circulation daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.
Metsos, who purports to be a Canadian citizen, is accused of being the paymaster for a “deep cover” cell of spies in the US, furnishing them with money and swapping bags covertly with other Russian operatives.
He was arrested early on Tuesday at Cyprus’ Larnaca airport as he tried to board a flight to Budapest. But was not deemed enough of a flight risk to be kept behind bars until he could be extradited to the US.
There was no sign of the suspected secret agent when Cypriot police rushed to his hotel room on Wednesday after he failed to sign in at a Larnaca police station between 6pm and 8pm, breaking the terms of his bail.
Cypriot police yesterday said all exit points from the island were being monitored as was the line dividing the Turkish-held north from the Greek Cypriot south.
The remaining 10 spy suspects were scheduled to have their bail requests heard in three separate hearings yesterday in federal courts in Boston, New York and Alexandria, Virginia.
The case of the 11 alleged “deep cover” agents who are suspected of trying to infiltrate US policymaking circles harks back to Cold War hostilities, with the use of false identities and tales of buried money and hidden video cameras.
Much attention has been paid to Russian suspect Anna Chapman, 28, described as a flame-haired femme fatale in the tabloids and accused of using elaborate communication rituals to pass information to her Russian handler.
Russian media have reported that Chapman is a young businesswoman who moved in the highest sections of society, the daughter of a former Russian ambassador and the ex-wife of a British executive of a French supermarket firm.
“Everyone who knows Anna Chapman well are sure: She was a businesswoman and that was all. Developing new ideas, her own business was all that interested her in life,” wrote popular news site lifenews.ru.
The White House said Obama knew the FBI was closing in on the spies when he hosted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a summit three days before the arrests, although it appears he failed to mention it in their meetings.
Medvedev has yet to comment on the scandal although Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has criticized US law enforcement authorities “for letting themselves go” while also hoping the scandal will not harm ties.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS