Woman accused as Russian spy 'has UK passport'

• A court sketch shows five of the ten Russian spying suspects being charged in a New York courtroom yesterday. Picture: Shirley Shepard/AFP/Getty

Tracey Lee Ann Foley was one of ten people arrested in the United States by the FBI for allegedly serving for years as secret agents of Russia's intelligence service, the SVR, with the goal of penetrating US government policymaking circles.

The alleged spy ring were involved in long term "deep cover" assignments, the US government has said.

US Department of Justice papers said Foley travelled on a "fraudulent British passport prepared for her by the SVR". She was arrested in Boston on Monday.

Yesterday the Foreign Office said: "We are aware that the indictments state that one of the accused has travelled on a UK passport.

"We will be investigating this fully with the US. We are establishing the facts, so it would be wrong to comment further at this stage.

"We remain confident that the British passport is one of the most secure documents of its kind — fully meeting rigorous international standards."

The case echoes revelations earlier this year in which forged British passports were allegedly used by Israeli agents in the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Russia's foreign minister said Moscow was waiting for a US explanation about the arrests of the alleged Russian spies.

The ten arrested are accused of conspiracy to act as unlawful agents of a foreign government.

Eight of them also face a charge of conspiracy to launder money.

An 11th suspect named "Christopher R Metsos" was arrested yesterday in Cyprus.

It also emerged that one of the ten was in contact with a subsidiary group of Oxford University. Donald Howard Heathfield was in regular professional contact with Rafael Ramirez from the Oxford Futures Forum.

Heathfield sold internet security and strategy programmes. He was also arrested in Boston on Monday.

Mr Ramirez said he had never suspected Heathfield of spying.

He said: "He came across as an American entrepreneur, quite an aggressive American entrepreneur, trying to work internationally.

"I'm either very, very bad at second-guessing who is a Russian spy or he hid it very well.

"I certainly never thought of that possibility until somebody told me this morning he had been uncovered as an alleged Russian spy."

Officials in Dublin were investigating claims that a false Irish passport was also to be used by a member of the spy ring.

The Irish government said officials had been warned about a link to the so-called "deep cover" operation.

Court papers claimed that one of the defendants, Richard Murphy, was told by his handlers to travel from the US to Rome, where he would be given the forged Irish documents.

The papers lift the lid on spying techniques, such as a new hi-tech spy-to-spy communications system used by the defendants; short-range wireless communications between laptop computers — a modern supplement to the old-style "dead drop" in a remote area — and high-speed burst radio transmission.

The arrests came following efforts to thaw American-Russian diplomatic relations.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said: "They haven't explained to us what this is about. I hope they will. The only thing I can say today is that the moment for doing that has been chosen with special elegance."

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin reacted angrily, accusing the American police who made the arrests of being "out of control".

"I hope that all the positive gains that have been achieved in our relationship will not be damaged by the recent event," Mr Putin told former US president Bill Clinton, who is visiting Moscow.

The US Department of Justice said that defendants Richard Murphy and Cynthia Murphy were arrested on Monday at their home in Montclair, New Jersey.

Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro were arrested at their home in Yonkers, New York, while

Anna Chapman was arrested in Manhattan, both also on Monday.

Defendants Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills were arrested on Monday at their home in Arlington, Virginia. Defendant Mikhail Semenko was also arrested at his home in Arlington, and Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley were arrested in Boston, also on Monday.

A senior US official yesterday said the push to reset ties

with Moscow would not be undermined by "vestiges" of Cold War espionage.

"We have made significant progress in the 18 months that we have been pursuing this different relationship with Russia. We think we have something to show for it," Philip Gordon,

assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said.

Despite angry Russian denunciation of the arrests, Mr Gordon

said they would not undercut new co-operation on a range of issues including disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation and Afghanistan.

"We're moving towards a more trusting relationship. We're beyond the Cold War," Mr Gordon said. "I think our relations absolutely demonstrate that.

"But as I say, I don't think anyone was hugely shocked to know that some vestiges of old attempts to use intelligence are still there."

Mr Gordon said that the State Department was in touch with the Russian government both in Washington and in Moscow about the case, but declined to provide further detail.

News of the alleged spy ring broke days after US president Barack Obama welcomed the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, to Washington on visit which ended with an American vow of support for Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation.

Mr Gordon said that the US Justice Department determined its own timing for the spy ring announcement and this had no connection with the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

"We have from the start focused on the reason for the reset

in the relations and the common interest, and I think we will continue to do so," he said.