In later years, he provided details about activities of his Special Forces unit overseas and the names of fellow Special Forces members.ĭebbins entered active-duty Army service in 1998 and by then had already committed in writing to serve the Russians and had been assigned the code name "Ikar Lesnikov." It began when he was an ROTC student at the University of Minnesota and on a visit to Russia gave a handler there the names of four Catholic nuns he had visited after a Russian intelligence agent told him the nuns were involved in cult activity. Army Special Forces, a propaganda victory for Russia at the expense of the reputation of the Special Forces," prosecutors Thomas Traxler and James Trump wrote in their sentencing brief.ĭebbins' relationship with Russian intelligence dates to 1996 and spanned 15 years. "The world has now observed that Russia successfully placed an espionage recruit within the elite U.S. They said he's fabricated the excuse and that his original explanation of his motive is far more likely, that he was bitter about his time in the Army and that he considered himself a "loyal son of Russia."Īnd they said the very fact that a Special Forces soldier agreed to betray his country is just as damaging as any particular information he betrayed. Prosecutors, in seeking a 17-year term, said Debbins never told the FBI anything about being blackmailed during 20 hours of interviews. ![]() Ozan KOSE/AFP via Getty Imagesįor more reporting from the Associated Press, see below: Army Green Beret was sentenced for over 15 years in prison on espionage charges after he admitted to giving military secrets to Russia. A group of protesters hold placards reading "Yankee go Home - No way to USA", in Istanbul, on April 14, 2021, during a demonstration against the US decision to send two warships to sail through Turkey's Bosphorus to the Black Sea.
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