The US and Russia swapped 14 spies with precision, but one piece of the puzzle remains: The alleged spy who disappeared after posting bail in Cyprus.
Did he flee on his own? Get away with help from the Russians? Trick local residents into unwittingly aiding an escape? The public doesn’t even know his true name.
The alleged paymaster of the Russian spy ring was arrested on June 29 in Cyprus on an Interpol warrant while trying to board a flight to Budapest, two days after his 10 alleged co-conspirators were arrested in the US. His companion, a beautiful younger woman, was allowed to fly out.
But the case dissolved into confusion hours later when the suspect, who called himself Christopher Metsos, vanished after handing over a Canadian passport and was released on bail. Police escorted him to a bank, where he took out 27,000 euros (US$33,000) to pay the bail. Late that afternoon, he returned to a hotel and was never seen again.
Metsos was “Defendant No. 1” in the criminal complaint that also named 10 Russian agents in the US, all of whom were deported to Russia in exchange for four prisoners accused of spying for the West.
The brisk exchange of spies on Friday at Vienna’s airport was the culmination of an idea hatched more than a month ago at the White House, weeks before the Russian sleeper agents were even arrested on June 27.
No evidence has emerged that events surrounding the Metsos mystery were linked to plans for a spy swap. US officials had said they were disappointed with his apparent escape. The Greek Cypriot government, in turn, said US officials were slow to provide documents that would have made clear the importance of the suspect in their grasp.
The Interpol warrant, based on information from the US, did not list espionage in the charges against him.
If Metsos fled Cyprus, the key question is to what extent, if any, he received assistance.
Canada said Metsos was using the identity of a dead Canadian boy, a fact that suggests he could have had access to other false documents enabling him to leave the country with ease.
Metsos is believed to have several aliases, and spoke English, Russian and Spanish, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media.
The alleged spy was last seen in a hotel in downtown Larnaca, where he placed the “Do not disturb” sign on the doorknob. Hotel staff said he took a shower but did not sleep in the bed, had two suitcases that disappeared with him, and no one saw him leave.
Cyprus is loaded with possible international exit routes. Those include the airport on the edge of Larnaca; another airport in Paphos, a coastal town 90 minutes’ drive to the west; Larnaca’s marina or several other ports along the Greek Cypriot southern coast, home to thousands of private boats and ferries to Greece and elsewhere.
One way to disappear would be to cross into the diplomatically isolated Turkish Cypriot north, whose airport only has direct air links with Turkey.
Unlike his alleged co-conspirators, Metsos did not live in the US, according to the FBI. Instead, he allegedly delivered cash to agents there, on one occasion, burying a package believed to contain money north of New York that was retrieved by another agent two years later.
Metsos flew into Cyprus from Vienna on June 17. Larnaca residents who met him described him as quiet and unremarkable, walking around the city in shorts with the woman with whom he planned to fly to Hungary. Hungarian police have said they have no information on her.
It is not known where he has been living recently — but experts widely believe Russia is his final destination.
“He’s got nowhere else to go,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst in Moscow. “Perhaps he’s here already.”
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