Igor Sporyshev and Viktor Podobnyy were a case study in bumbling incompetence, according to the FBI and US prosecutors
U.S. prosecutors said the defendants were directed by Russia to gather sensitive economic intelligence on potential U.S. sanctions against Russian banks and U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources.
One of the defendants, identified as Yevgeny Buryakov, arrested Monday in New York, is officially employed by the Manhattan branch of Vnesheconombank, a Russian state bank that was hit by U.S. sanctions last year.
The other two defendants held diplomatic positions and are believed to have returned to Russia.
"No proof to back up the charges has been presented," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Tuesday, accusing the U.S. of deciding "to launch another round in its anti-Russian campaign."
"We insist on a stop to the string of provocations against Russian representatives unleashed by U.S. secret services, and on immediate consular access to Buryakov, on the strict observance of the Russian citizen's rights and on his release," Lukashevich was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS
We don't do evidence here in the West.
We are the law, we make the rules, we create reality, and what we say is the word of god.
Yes, that's right, we tell god what to do.
We are right even without evidence, and you are wrong even with evidence.
Facts don't matter. You don't matter.
Bringing reality into our empire is pointless.