A former U.S. Army Green Beret has been accused of being a spy for the Russian government. Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins was charged with one count of conspiracy to gather or deliver defense information to aid a foreign government and faces life in prison if convicted.
Federal prosecutors claim that Debbins began working with Russian intelligence agents for the GRU in 1996 before joining the Army. Debbins was given the code name "Ikar Lesnikov" and signed a document affirming his desire to serve the Russian government.
He enlisted in the Army in 1998 and was assigned to a chemical unity in South Korea. He also spent time deployed in Azerbaijan and Georgia with the Green Berets. He was honorably discharged from the military in 2005 but continued to provide information to Russian agents until 2011. Debbins allegedly supplied details about his time as a Green Beret, including information on his team members and their missions.
"As a member of the U.S. Armed Forces, the American people and his fellow servicemen and women should have been able to trust Debbins with secrets and information," said Alan E. Kohler, FBI assistant director of the counterintelligence division, in a statement. "Debbins allegedly fell very short of that and exploited his role in the military and his fellow service members to benefit one of our top adversaries for years."
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