Russia says the US spying agency CIA ‘crossed a red line’ by ignoring Moscow’s warning against its recruiting Russian security service employees as spies

Russia says the US spying agency CIA ‘crossed a red line’ by ignoring Moscow’s warning against its recruiting Russian security service employees as spies.

The spokesman for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikolai Zakharov, said Thursday that in October 2011 the FSB officially warned the CIA station chief in the country that “if provocative recruitment efforts aimed at Russian security service employees continued, the FSB would take ‘mirror’ measures.”

“The CIA crossed a red line and we were forced to react,” Zakharov stated.

On May 14, Russian authorities detained a US diplomat, identified as Ryan Fogle who was attempting to recruit a Russian national to spy for the CIA.

Zakharov said in December 2012 another US diplomat, who was a third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow, had been caught red-handed when he was trying to recruit a Russian agent.

 “In the hope that the CIA leadership would draw the necessary conclusions, we did not make this case public. But apparently the adherence by the FSB to the principles of professional ethics was not properly appreciated,” Zakharov said.