Corrected: CIA agent detention in Moscow was not discussed with Kerry - Lavrov
(headline adjusted in news item issued at 9.09 a.m. and 9.40 a.m.)
KIRUNA, Sweden. May 15 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry did not discuss the detention of a CIA agent in Moscow on suspicion of espionage on the sidelines of a meeting of the Arctic Council in Sweden.
"No, we did not discuss this subject. Kerry did not raise it. I also decided that probably it will be redundant to discuss it," Lavrov told journalists in the wake of the meeting with Kerry.
"Everything is public. I think everybody understands everything," he said.
It was reported earlier that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) detained Ryan Christopher Fogle, a CIA operative, in the act of recruiting an officer of a Russian special service.
According to the FSB's Public Relations Center, Fogle was working in Moscow as third secretary of the U.S. Embassy's Political Department.
Special technical devices, written instructions for the Russian citizen being recruited, a large sum of money in cash and appearance disguising means were discovered during the detention.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the detention of Fogle.
The Russian Foreign Ministry declared Fogle persona non grata and demands his soonest possible departure from the country on Tuesday night.
The ministry also said that Fogle's undercover activities in Moscow do not promote confidence between Russia and the United States. "While the presidents of our countries have reaffirmed the willingness to expand bilateral interaction, including between the special services in combating international terrorism, such provocative Cold War-style actions obviously do not promote mutual confidence," the ministry said in a statement.
