US authorities have detained 10 alleged Russian spies accused of infiltrating government policy-making circles to gather intelligence for Moscow.
The suspects, who appeared in a court in New York on Monday, face charges of conspiring to act as an agent for a foreign government.
However, the accused have not been charged with espionage.
In an interview, Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, a former British Intelligence Officer and editor-in-chief of the World Intelligence Review, spoke to Al Jazeera about the significance of the arrests and charges.
[June 29, 2010]