The Trump administration is negotiating to bring more Russian diplomats back to the U.S. Some of them are likely spies.
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The Russian Embassy in Washington in 2023. Most of Russia's 220 diplomats in the United States work at the embassy, but dozens are also based in New York and Houston.
In an effort to transform U.S. relations with Russia, the Trump administration is negotiating with Moscow over the possible return of dozens of Russian diplomats to the United States after years of expulsion.
But experts and diplomats warn that this gesture of goodwill, which Moscow would reciprocate, could prove to be something of a Trojan horse, with the Kremlin likely to send spies posing as diplomats to restore its diminished espionage capabilities in the United States.
American and Russian officials met in Istanbul last month to discuss returning more diplomats to each other’s countries after years of mutual expulsions and diplomatic closures. The mid-level talks, part of a rapid rapprochement between the Kremlin and the Trump White House, took place at the U.S. consular residence.
Several days earlier in Riyadh, a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior Russian officials agreed to “ensure the functioning of our diplomatic missions,” Mr. Rubio told reporters.
Both sides say the move could pave the way for a broader peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
The agreement to normalize diplomatic operations could also allow the United States to conduct its own spying: Washington has long placed spies in U.S. embassies and consulates in Russia. But experts say that even if the agreement expands both diplomatic contingents by comparable numbers, any Russian spies would have the advantage of operating in a more open society in the United States.
The renewed access, coupled with Mr. Trump’s courtship of Russian President Vladimir Putin, could be an opportunity for the Kremlin’s spy apparatus at a time when Moscow’s operations against the West have become more brazen, according to intelligence experts and former officials.
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