Aleksandr Poteyev

Colonel Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev (Александр Николаевич Потеев) is the former Deputy Head of Directorate "S" of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) from 2000–2010.

Aleksandr Poteyev
Born
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev

(1952-03-07) March 7, 1952
Brest Region, Belarus
OccupationFormer Deputy Head of Directorate "S"
SpouseMarina
Children2

Beginning around 1999, he began working secretly with the CIA, helping to reveal a hidden network of Russian spies operating within the United States, known as the Illegals Program.

In late June 2010, the CIA led a successful operation to extract Poteyev from Russia.

He is reported to be living in the United States under an assumed identity.[1]

Early life

Poteyev was born in the Brest Region of the Republic of Belarus.

His father, Nikolai Pavlovich Poteyev, had been declared a Hero of the USSR in 1944 for having destroyed nine enemy tanks.[2][3]

Career

1970s

Poteyev enlisted in the army during the 1970s.

Afterward, he entered the service of the KGB, working primarily in Minsk, and then later in Afghanistan as part of "Zenith", an elite special forces unit.[2]

1980s

In 1981, Poteyev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his participation in hostilities in Kabul as part of the special forces unit "Cascade".

After returning from Afghanistan, Poteyev graduated from the Academy of Foreign Intelligence, and then went on to work for the First Chief Directorate of the USSR.[4][5]

1990s

Working under official cover as a representative from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poteyev took around a dozen short trips to several western countries during the 1990s, including Mexico, Chile, and New York City in the United States.[2][4]

According to a Russian court, Poteyev had begun passing information to the CIA since around 1999.[3][6][7][8][9]

2000s

In 2000, Poteyev was appointed to Deputy Head of Directorate "S" of the SVR, where he was tasked with overseeing a network of spies living inside the United States.[2][8][10]

Around 2001, Poteyev reportedly "cashed in" on a contract with the CIA worth somewhere between $2 and $5 million.[11]

On January 25, 2003, Poteyev's wife, Marina, filed a police report claiming that three individuals disguised as law enforcement had broken into the Poteyevs' apartment in Moscow. Once inside, the individuals reportedly robbed and attacked members of the Poteyev family.[2][3]

2010s

In May 2010, Poteyev reportedly requested leave to visit a pregnant mistress of his in Odesa, but was denied by his superiors.[6][12]

In June 2010, aware that lie detector tests were being prepared to find a suspected high-ranking mole in the SVR, Poteyev instructed his son to leave for the United States, where Poteyev's wife and daughter were living.[2]

On June 24, 2010, without informing his superiors, Poteyev purchased a rail ticket from Moscow to Minsk. From there, he moved to obtain a false passport in Ivano-Frankivsk, then headed to Frankfurt, before finally arriving at CIA headquarters in the United States on June 26, 2010.[6][13][14] On the following day, the FBI had begun arresting the Russian spy ring.[15][16]

Post-career

On November 11, 2010, Kommersant reported that the person who had given the names of the Russian spies to U.S. authorities was Colonel Shcherbakov of the SVR. Four days later, RIA Novosti reported that it was not Shcherbakov, but Poteyev.[6][17][18][19]

On June 27, 2011, a Russian court found Poteyev guilty of high treason, sentencing him in absentia to 25 years in prison.[20]

In July 2013, Der Spiegel reported that Poteyev had been responsible for the October 2011 arrest of a German-based Russian spy couple who had been living under the names of Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag.[21][22]

Life in America

Around late 2013 or early 2014, a suspected Russian hit man on a valid U.S. visa had reportedly approached Poteyev's home in Florida, as well as the city of one of Poteyev's relatives.[23][24]

On July 7, 2016, the Russian news agency Interfax reported an unconfirmed rumor that Poteyev had died in the United States.[25]

In March 2017, journalists for BuzzFeed News reportedly found a person matching Poteyev's biography living in an apartment complex in Florida.[10][26][27]

References
  1. Barry, Ellen (October 1, 2018). "Spy Poisoned in Britain Fed MI6 Agents Secrets on a Putin Ally, New Book Claims". The New York Times. Mr. Urban does not settle on one theory as to why Mr. Skripal, a relatively obscure figure, was targeted for such a spectacular attack. But one theory in the intelligence world is that Russian hit men were unable to locate their first choice — Col. Aleksandr Poteyev, deputy head at the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service's American section, who in 2010 blew the cover of 10 Russian undercover spies living as Americans. [...] Mr. Urban suggests that Russian intelligence services may have had trouble finding Mr. Poteyev, who had been resettled under an assumed identity by the F.B.I., and then "moved down the list" to other former agents deemed traitors who were easier to find — like Mr. Skripal, who lived openly in Salisbury.
  2. Alexandrov, German (May 16, 2011). "Defector of the SVR Poteyev continues to betray Russia". Rosbalt.
  3. Moshkin, Mikhail; Baltacheva, Marina (July 7, 2016). "A Traitor Poteyev Could Go Deep Underground". RusNext. Alexander Poteyev is the son of a regular soldier Nikolai Pavlovich Poteyev, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944 for the destruction of nine Nazi tanks.
  4. Osborn, Andrew (November 18, 2010). "Ex-KGB soldier named as double agent who exposed Anna Chapman spy ring". The Daily Telegraph.
  5. "Information is being verified. In the US, the defector who "surrendered" Anna Chapman died?". Argumenty i Fakty. July 7, 2016. In the late 1970s, Poteyev was transferred to the central office of the KGB in Moscow. In 1979 he was sent to Afghanistan as part of the KGB special forces group "Zenith", and since 1981 - in the Kabul special forces group of the KGB "Cascade-2". For participation in hostilities on April 8, 1981 he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
  6. Weiss, Michael (July 9, 2016). "Is This American Spy Dead? Or Was He Ever Real?". The Daily Beast.
  7. Alexandrov, German (June 27, 2011). "SVR defector: I'm starting a new life". Rosbalt. According to the investigation, Alexander Poteyev began to cooperate with the CIA around 1999-2000. At the same time, he began to transfer the data of illegal immigrants, whose activities he oversaw in the SVR.
  8. Isachenkov, Vladimir (June 27, 2011). "Alexander Poteyev, Russian Intelligence Officer, Convicted Of Betraying U.S. Spy Ring Including Anna Chapman". HuffPost. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011.
  9. Urban, Mark (October 2, 2018). "The Skripal Files" (PDF). Secret Wars. p. 145. Retrieved June 8, 2019. Poteyev, it is clear, had been an extraordinary agent. At the subsequent 'in absentia' trial held in Moscow, it was claimed that he was recruited in 1999. Western intelligence people suggest that was about right.
  10. Campbell, Alex; Leopold, Jason; Blake, Heidi (October 3, 2018). "This Russian Double-Agent Is A Lot Less Dead Than He Seemed". BuzzFeed News.
  11. Russo, Gus; Dezenhall, Eric (October 2, 2018). Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group, Inc. p. 233. ISBN 978-1-5387-6131-1. LCCN 2017056747.
  12. "Of all the scouts, Anna Chapman was the first to feel the end". Moskovskij Komsomolets. June 27, 2011. In turn, Poteyev needed an excuse to be outside of Russia. He came to the authorities and stated that he had a mistress in Odesa who had given birth to a child for him, and he urgently needed to visit her. And he asked me to give him leave. But, as follows from the verdict, "he was categorically denied leave."
  13. Loiko, Sergei (June 28, 2011). "Former Russian spymaster convicted of treason". Los Angeles Times. According to the verdict issued Monday, Poteyev fled Russia in a hurry, leaving in the middle of a meeting at his agency. He traveled by train to Belarus on a false passport, then to Ukraine, where he met with a CIA agent who put him on a plane to the United States via Frankfurt, Germany, the verdict said.
  14. Walter, Pincus (July 6, 2022). "The Unraveling of Russian Spies". In early June 2010, according to one report, the SVR, believing a mole was within Division S, made plans to give lie detector tests to personnel within the organization. Aware of those plans, Poteyev, who had been born in Belarus, on June 24, 2010, left a business meeting and unexpectedly boarded a train to Minsk. From there, he went to Ukraine where he obtained a fake passport. [...] Russian press would later publish that the passport he obtained in Ukraine was in the name of Victor Dudochkin, a Russian citizen. When questioned, Dudochkin recalled that a year earlier he had turned his passport over to the US Embassy in Moscow when seeking a visa to visit the US. In a story, Russian officials speculated that CIA officers at the Embassy copied Dudochkin's passport and used it later to facilitate Poteyev's leaving the country.
  15. "Ten Alleged Secret Agents Arrested in the United States". United States Department of Justice. June 28, 2010.
  16. "FBI: 10 Russian Spies Arrested in U.S." CBS. June 28, 2010.
  17. Soloviev, Vladimir; Trifonov, Vladislav (November 11, 2010). "Fresh Betrayal". Kommersant. "We know who he is and where he is. He betrayed either for money, or he was simply caught on something. But you can be sure that Mercader has already been sent for him." (Ramon Mercader is an agent of the Soviet special services who inflicted a mortal wound with an ice pick on Leon Trotsky.) This is how one of the senior officials of the Kremlin administration answered the question of Kommersant and added: The fate of such a person is unenviable. He will carry this with him all his life and will be afraid of retribution every day." "He", as Kommersant found out, is Colonel Shcherbakov, who for a long time served in the SVR as the head of the American Department of Directorate "S", in charge of working with illegal immigrants.
  18. "The culprit of the "spy scandal" was Colonel Poteyev". RIA Novosti. November 15, 2010. The culprit of the "spy scandal" that broke out this summer between the Russian Federation and the United States is Colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service Poteyev, who fled to the United States, and not Colonel Shcherbakov, whose name had previously appeared in the media, an informed source in one of the Russian special services told RIA Novosti on Monday.
  19. Rawnsley, Adam (November 19, 2010). "Did One of These Russian Colonels Sell Out The Sexy Spy?". Wired. It's hard to keep track of who's supposed to have outed spy babe Anna Chapman and her fellow Russian sleeper agents. If you believe the Russian press, a certain colonel named Alexander Poteyev is the newest culprit. But all this intrigue sounds like petty inter-spy bureaucracy -- or a way to conceal the far-less-sexy prospect that Russian spies aren't that good anymore.It wasn't long ago that the Russian media said a mysterious "Colonel Shcherbakov" in Russia's Foreign Security Service (SVR) was the one who compromised a spy ring that hid in the U.S. for years. But now there's reportedly a treason case open into Poteyev for selling out Anna and her comrades.
  20. Parfitt, tom (June 27, 2011). "Russian double agent sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison". The Guardian.
  21. Connolly, Kate (January 15, 2013). "Married pair alleged to be Russian 'cold war' type spies on trial in Germany". The Guardian. The neighbours had always considered their names odd – Mr and Mrs Anschlag, meaning "attack" – and the fact that she was often seen in the garden of their white-washed, detached, house making phone calls in the depths of winter, caused tongues to wag. But other than that, Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag hardly triggered the curiosity of any but the most avid curtain twitchers in the community of Marburg, west Germany, where they lived for years. That was before their spectacular arrest in October 2011 on suspicion of spying for Moscow, when a special forces commando stormed their house. [...] The court does not know their true identity, only that they were known to their spymasters in Moscow as Pit and Tina. Their real forenames are believed to be Sasha and Olga.
  22. "Moscow allegedly wants to bring spies back from Germany". Der Spiegel. July 15, 2013. The couple, who lived under the names Heidrun and Andreas Anschlag, were exposed after Russian intelligence agent Alexander Poteyev switched sides and betrayed a network of Russian agents in 2010.
  23. "More of Kremlin's Opponents Are Ending Up Dead". The New York Times. September 13, 2018. When a suspected hit man for Russian intelligence arrived in Florida about four years ago, F.B.I. surveillance teams were alarmed. The man approached the home of one of the C.I.A.'s most important informants, a fellow Russian, who had been secretly resettled along the sunny coast. The suspected hit man also traveled to another city where one of the informant's relatives lived, raising even more concerns that the Kremlin had authorized revenge on American soil. [...] In late 2013 or early 2014, the Russian operative who traveled to Florida entered the United States on a valid visa, and American intelligence agencies, which knew enough about his identity to be concerned that he had traveled to the country, began tracking him and discussed whether to stop and question him.
  24. "The attempted assassination of a Russian spy defector". Newsnight. October 2, 2018 – via YouTube. Last month, The New York Times revealed that a Russian hitman had been detected four years ago in Florida trying to target a defector. The paper did not name the target. However, Newsnight has established that it was indeed former Colonel Alexander Poteyev.
  25. "Russian Foreign Intelligence Service not commenting on Poteyev's possible death in U.S (Part 2)". Interfax. July 7, 2016. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Col. Alexander Poteyev, who fled to the United States and was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison for high treason, died, sources familiar with the situation told Interfax. "Some reports indicate that Poteyev died in the U.S. This information is now being verified," one of the sources said. Another source confirmed that such reports had been received from abroad and did not rule out that "this can be misinformation so that the traitor would be simply forgotten."
  26. Korelina, Olga (October 4, 2018). "The agent who handed over Anna Chapman and other illegal immigrants to the Americans was declared dead two years ago. He actually lives in the US: Buzzfeed". Meduza. Officially, no one has ever confirmed the information about the death of Poteyev. Buzzfeed claims that he is actually alive and does not even hide much, using his real name in the USA. [...] Journalists of the publication claim that they found the name of Alexander Poteyev in public databases. There is only one person in the US with that first and last name; his date of birth coincided with the alleged date of birth of the double agent, and the second name, Nick, echoed his middle name - Nikolaevich. Poteyev's name appeared in the databases in October 2010, that is, three months after the "spy scandal". For the next six years, he was able to live in Massachusetts, Arizona, and Virginia. Since 2016, there has been much more information about Poteyev. In particular, Buzzfeed journalists learned that in January 2016, Poteyev received a fine for speeding, in October - a license to fish, and in November he voted (in which elections, the publication does not specify).
  27. @textifire (June 5, 2017). ""Aleksandr" is 'dead', born 3 March 1952 (says Google); but FL guy is "Alexander", born 7 March 1952, living in Trump Tower III. Curious" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 1, 2020 – via Twitter.
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