MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The circumstances in which suspected double agent Col. Alexander Poteyev, a former deputy head of the U.S. section of the "S" directorate within the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), which deals with deep-cover agents' work abroad, are being looked into both as an internal inquiry and a criminal investigation, a Russian intelligence source told Interfax.
"As far as I know, a criminal case has been opened into Poteyev's treachery and it perhaps concerns high treason, a crime with which Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code deals. Investigators are working," the source said.
Such cases are usually investigated by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The suspected double agent, who was at first reported as Col. Shcherbakov, allegedly betrayed 11 Russian spies to the U.S. which ended in a spy swap deal between the two nations earlier this year. Sources have told Interfax that Col Shcherbakov was indeed a traitor, but he had defected a long time ago and is unlikely to be related to the arrest of the Russian spies in June.
"Investigations into such cases are usually closed, and some information could be made public only after a court ruling takes legal effect," the source said.
"The sentence is likely to be handed down in absentia," he said.
He recalled that the Moscow City Court had found Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general who settled in the U.S., guilty of high treason and sentenced him to 15 years in prison in absentia in 2002.
Earlier several intelligence sources from various agencies told Interfax that it was Col. Alexander Poteyev who leaked information to the U.S. about the 11 Russian spies, including Anna Chapman.
"He left Russia several days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Washington in June and is currently in the U.S.," a source told Interfax.
"Poteyev's daughter and son left for the U.S. under various pretexts several days before his flight. His wife had lived in the U.S. for a long time. The circumstances surrounding the traitor's flight no doubt aggravate the mad mistake made by our special services," the source said.
Another source told Interfax that "Poteyev, who was a top official of the U.S. section that directed the work of illegal intelligence officers [deep-cover agents] in the U.S. of course had access to virtually all information about them due to his position."
"Shcherbakov left several years ago. He did not work for the 'S' directorate as some media have reported. He was deputy head of the 'K' directorate, which is in charge of general counterintelligence support for intelligence. For this reason, it is highly unlikely that he knew personal information or some of the details of the illegal intelligence officers' work. This information is accessible to a very limited range of top illegal intelligence officials, who work with them directly," a law enforcement source familiar with the situation told Interfax.
Gennady Gudkov, a deputy head of the Russian State Duma security committee representing the parliamentary group of the A Just Russia party and a retired FSB colonel, suggested that the public should focus its attention not on the defector's real name but on the fact he allegedly committed treason.
"I have said already that I had known about a high-ranking SVR officer's treachery long before the first article dealing with this appeared," Gudkov told Interfax.
It is insignificant and irrelevant to try to divert the public's attention from the essence of the affair to the traitor's name, he said.
"What matters is not the name but the very fact of treachery. We need to do all we can today to identify the reasons that made possible the very fact of treachery, which has caused very significant damage to the Foreign Intelligence Service and probably its most secret directorate, which deals with the training and implanting of deep-cover agents," Gudkov said.