U.S. Army Officer Arrested in England on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
A 41-year-old soldier based at the NATO corps headquarters at Imjin Barracks was detained near Gloucester; the Kremlin says it had nothing to do with the arrest.
A U.S. Army soldier was arrested in the United Kingdom on suspicion of espionage linked to Russia, British and American authorities announced Tuesday.
The 41-year-old suspect was not named. A U.S. official told CBS News he is a senior officer based at Imjin Barracks, which houses the headquarters of NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. He was arrested Tuesday near Gloucester, about 100 miles west of London, and was in custody at a London police station as of Tuesday.
The London Metropolitan Police said he is suspected of violations of Section 1 and Section 3 of Britain's National Security Act of 2023. Those sections cover obtaining or disclosing protected information and assisting a foreign intelligence service. Police said the suspected activity relates to Russia and that officers were carrying out searches at two locations in Gloucestershire, the county where the base is located.
"The allegations are serious and our investigation is very much ongoing," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing. She said the case "demonstrates the strength of our UK and US law enforcement and national security partnerships." Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, commanding general of U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command, also commented on the arrest.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau "has no tolerance for anyone who breaks their oath to the United States and whose actions endanger our national security and that of our partners."
In Moscow on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had "nothing to do with" the detention of the American soldier.
The arrest comes amid heightened concern in London about Russian covert activity. In an annual threat update last month, MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum accused Russia of "escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare" and called it "aggressor number one" among threats facing Britain.
The timing is notable. The arrest was announced as the United States, Russia and Ukraine began a new round of three-way talks in Abu Dhabi, the first aimed at ending the war in Ukraine in about nine months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the discussions "constructive and quite substantive," though none of the participants expected an immediate breakthrough. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected European demands for a ceasefire during the talks.
The suspect has not been charged. Under British law, police can hold a suspect in a national security case for a limited period before they must charge or release them, and officials have not said what information the soldier is suspected of passing on. The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps is a NATO command that plans and leads multinational military operations, which would make any leak from its headquarters of obvious interest to Moscow.
