Russia said yesterday it had caught a US diplomat red-handed in the act of spying with a collection of James Bond-style gadgets, but hoped the incident would not harm its already strained ties with the US. The announcement was the latest in what have become surprisingly common tit-for-tat spy allegations 10 years after the end of the Cold War, with Russia's ties with the West at their lowest ebb since the Soviet Union collapsed.
The FSB domestic security service said it had briefly detained a second secretary at the US embassy after catching her in Moscow trying to obtain state military secrets from a Russian citizen.
An FSB spokesman, Mr Alexander Zdanovich, said she was caught with a collection of exotic spy equipment, including a gadget he said was designed to reveal and thwart attempts to monitor her conversations, invisible ink tablets "and so forth".
Mr Zdanovich displayed a black-and-white photo of the diplomat and another photo of a black electronic device apparently found on her person. He said she also had a map showing the location of a rendezvous with her source.
"As the matter concerned an employee of the American embassy attempting to receive state secrets about our military-strategic plans and military-strategic complex, I think there is no doubt that our actions bore what I would call a pre-emptive character, to prevent the leak of information," he told NTV television.
The diplomat was held in the presence of a US consul and then turned over to the embassy, the FSB said.
Itar-Tass news agency named her as Ms Cheri Leberknight. The US embassy confirmed that an employee by that name worked in the political section, but declined further comment.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, said Russia hoped the incident would not harm ties still further, but made clear it would hardly help.
"We hope and expect that this should not interfere with relations between the United States and Russia, but certainly, such episodes do not help improve the climate and atmosphere," he said. The announcement was issued a day after US military officials said they had charged US Navy code breaker, Mr Daniel King, with passing secrets to Moscow in 1994, an offence that could carry the death penalty.
However, Mr Zdanovich made a point of saying there was no link between the two events. The Russian operation to detain the US diplomat had been previously planned, and the timing alongside the King charges was "a coincidence", he said.
Russia expelled a US diplomat in July, and later that month the then Russian prime minister, Mr Sergei Stepashin, made the unusual admission that he had discussed spying allegations in a Washington meeting with the US Vice President, Mr Al Gore.