US ex-Green Beret charged with spying for Moscow

A former officer in the US Special Forces Green Berets was arrested Friday and charged with spying for Russia, the Justice Department said. 

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, is accused of sharing military secrets about his unit's activities in the former Soviet republics with Russian intelligence for more than a decade.  

According to an indictment released after his arrest, Debbins told Russian agents he considered himself a "son of Russia." 

Read more: Why are Russia and the West allowed to spy on each other?

Born in the US, Debbins was recruited by Russian intelligence in 1996 before he joined the army, the department said. He had taken several trips to Russia, his mother's native home, and allegedly met with Russian agents in the city of Chelyabinsk while he was a university student there. 

Debbins married the daughter of a Russian military officer in 1997. 

Prosecutors said the espionage lasted till 2011. 

''Debbins thought that the United States was too dominant in the world and needed to be cut down to size,'' the prosecutors alleged. 

Debbins wanted to leave the military a few years after joining, but the Russians asked him to remain and join the Green Berets.  

He joined the US Special Forces in 2001 and was made a captain two years later. During his service, he was based in Germany and later in Azerbaijan with a high-level security clearance. Debbins left the Green Berets in 2005 but remained in touch with the Russian intelligence, prosecutors said.  

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According to the indictment, Debbins' last contact with his Russian handlers was 2011. 

"The facts alleged in this case are a shocking betrayal by a former Army officer of his fellow soldiers and his country," FBI senior counterintelligence official Alan Kohler said in a statement. 

The indictment said Debbins was partly motivated to collaborate with Moscow because of bitterness over his Army career and a desire to establish business contacts in Russia. 

He has been charged under the Espionage Act and could face up to life in prison if found guilty. 

Earlier this week, a former US CIA official was also charged with spying for China.  

dvv/nm (AFP, AP)