‘Former Russian spies want same for their kids’
28 July 2012 3:24 PM IST
A ring of Russian sleeper spies – which included glamorous redhead Anna Chapman – that was broken up in the US in 2010 intended to turn their children into intelligence agents, the Wall Street Journal reported.
However, according to RIA Novosti, Russian security analysts have said the spies may have simply wanted to ensure that Moscow continued to finance their children’s education.
At least one of the children agreed to join the spy operation, the American newspaper reported.
The FBI swooped down on the ring, after investigators became concerned it had infiltrated a well-connected consulting firm operating in New York and Washington.
The Wall Street Journal said Tim Foley, the son of spies who went by the names Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley, was one of the children most extensively groomed for a future intelligence career.
Foley, who was 20 when his parents were arrested, had just finished his sophomore year at George Washington University in Washington DC.
Mobilising kids to do Russia’s bidding was a clever strategy since people raised in America would likely raise fewer suspicions and would more easily pass security checks when they began operating as spies as adults, analysts said. Heathfield and Foley had lived with their son in the US for more than a decade. The boy ultimately agreed to his parents’ request to join the family business, and to travel to Russia for espionage training, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
However, according to RIA Novosti, Russian security analysts have said the spies may have simply wanted to ensure that Moscow continued to finance their children’s education.
At least one of the children agreed to join the spy operation, the American newspaper reported.
The FBI swooped down on the ring, after investigators became concerned it had infiltrated a well-connected consulting firm operating in New York and Washington.
The Wall Street Journal said Tim Foley, the son of spies who went by the names Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley, was one of the children most extensively groomed for a future intelligence career.
Foley, who was 20 when his parents were arrested, had just finished his sophomore year at George Washington University in Washington DC.
Mobilising kids to do Russia’s bidding was a clever strategy since people raised in America would likely raise fewer suspicions and would more easily pass security checks when they began operating as spies as adults, analysts said. Heathfield and Foley had lived with their son in the US for more than a decade. The boy ultimately agreed to his parents’ request to join the family business, and to travel to Russia for espionage training, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
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