The head of Moscow's deep cover spying operations in the United States was a double agent who had betrayed at least 10 compatriots in a major blow to Russian intelligence, a Russian newspaper said on Thursday.
Kommersant reported that Colonel Shcherbakov, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service's department for "illegal" spying operations in the United States, had been working for Washington.
The group included the flame-haired Anna Chapman, who skyrocketed to global fame after posting sultry pictures of herself on social media sites, posing provocatively for magazines and making public appearances in Russia.
U.S. officials deported the 10 Russian agents who had infiltrated suburban America in exchange for four people convicted in Russia of spying for the West. The spies received a hero's welcome in Russia, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin leading them in a patriotic singalong in July.
But Kommersant quoted an unidentified official in the Kremlin administration as saying, in a comment reminiscent of spying in the Cold War era, that a Russian hit squad was probably already planning to kill him.
