A former U.S. military official, Green Beret, was arrested on Friday on espionage charges, accused of providing classified information to the Russian intelligence service in a conspiracy that lasted more than a decade.
Prosecutors said that from 1996 to 2011, Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins collaborated with Russian citizens, who told him they were intelligence agents working for the country’s primary military intelligence agency, GRU. During this period he made repeated trips to Russia, where both his wife and his mother were born.
“Our military is tasked with the enormous responsibility of protecting our nation from its adversaries, and its counterparts are making incredible sacrifices in the service of that duty,” said Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “When service providers work together to provide classified information to our foreign adversaries, they are betraying the oath they swore to their country and its members of the service.”
Court documents show that Debbins, 45, was initially contacted by members of the Foreign Intelligence Service while he was a college student studying abroad in Russia in 1996. In meetings with the unidentified intelligence officers, Debbins revealed that he was in the ROTC program of his university and planned to join the college after joining the military, but declared that he was eventually a ‘son of Russia’.
After graduating, Debbins returned to Russia in 1997, where he was given the code name, “Ikar Lesnikov,” by Russian intelligence. He later signed a statement codenamed “Russia”.
After joining the US Service in 1998, Debbins went to South Korea to serve as a lieutenant in the 4th Chemical Company. While saying goodbye, he traveled to Russia and provided his contacts in the intelligence service with information on American defense, including the number of men in his platoon, their equipment and mission.
“During these times, Debbins sought to help Russia because he considered himself a pro-Russian and a faithful son of Russia,” court documents say. “Debbins thought the United States was too dominant in the world and should be cut to size.”
Debbins received gifts in exchange for the information he provided to Russian intelligence. In 2000, he received $ 1,000 “in gratitude for his assistance to the Russian Intelligence Service.” Prosecutors said that although Debbins initially declined the payment because “he really loved Russia,” he ended up taking it and signing it with his given code name. Later he was given a bottle of cognac and a Russian military uniform.
After leaving the army in 2008, Debbins returned to Russia, “angry and bitter” about his service in the US Special Forces, and was sure to start a business venture in Russia. He ended up working as part of a front made by a GRU officer, and then followed up with their information, including classified intelligence on the missions of his unit in Georgia and Azerbaijan. He even handed over the names of his team members to the Special Forces, knowing that the Russian officers would try to contact them “to see if they would cooperate with the Russian intelligence service.”
Debbins’ collaboration with GRU, also known as “Fancy Bear”, is important because that arm of the Russian intelligence service would later hack the Democratic National Committee’s emails in the 2016 election. The Democrats’ emails were distributed via DCLeaks and WikiLeaks and were further reinforced by a network of bot accounts on social media. Most recently, GRU has been linked to the hacking of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, was previously a board member.
Debbins’ arrest is the second arrested espionage-related arrest this week. On Tuesday, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer, was accused of selling top-secret information to China in a scheme that also lasted more than a decade. John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said, “Two arrests for espionage in the past week – Ma in Hawaii and now Debbins in Virginia – prove we need to keep on guard against spying on our two most vicious opponents – Russia and China. “
Debbins has been arrested and is being held at the Alexandria Detention Center. He is accused of one count of conspiracy to gather or provide information on defense to assist a foreign government, and if convicted, he could face life imprisonment.
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