Good bye, due diligence! Hello, espionage!

Unmasking spies it is required to fill in some gaps. Of course, in the first place there should be a spy mysterious and individual nickname invented by his/her clandestine spymasters. So, that spy has that specific feature. His codename is “Zhenya”. What a success! But. obviously spycatchers do not aware of one tiny fact. In Russian “Zhenya” stands for Evgeny as a commonplace short name as Dan for Daniel.

Then, the American business culture introduced into Russian business practice compliance procedures including company checks, due diligence, competitive intelligence, business intelligence, etc. To my mind, all the Buryakov’s activities belonged to that category.  

For sure, there will be certain retaliation steps in Moscow. I am afraid, there could be caught the same “economic spies” conducting companies searches and due diligence procedures.

  HOW American sanctions might bite on Russian banks is a matter of great interest to the Kremlin. So Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, asked one of its undercover agents in New York to find out, prosecutors claim. Evgeny Buryakov was outwardly an executive at Vnesheconombank, a Russian state-owned financial agency. But in real life he was allegedly “Zhenya”—working closely with two Russian intelligence officers who were working undercover as diplomats, also in New York. 

Mr Buryakov’s mission involved collecting economic intelligence and spotting potential sources. It has ended in disaster. On January 26th news broke of his arrest by the FBI. He faces trial and, if found guilty, up to 15 years in prison. His alleged colleagues have left America.

Unearthing Moscow’s moles