Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian lawmaker is calling for a special investigation into a top intelligence official's alleged release of information on a Russian spy ring in the United States.
The deputy chairman of the Russian parliament's security committee wants a special commission to analyze how information on the Russian agent got out, said Alyona Zhukova, a spokeswoman for lawmaker Gennady Gudkov's office.
Zhukova said the lawmaker had confirmed a newspaper report identifying a colonel in Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service as the source who tipped off U.S. officials. And the lawmaker sees the information as a significant blow to the image of Russia's intelligence network, she said.
The article, published in the respected Russian newspaper Kommersant Thursday, said "the betrayer," known as "Colonel Shcherbakov," fled Russia three days before Russia's president arrived in the U.S. for meetings with President Barack Obama -- just days before ring was broken up.
Neither the U.S. State Department nor the Central Intelligence Agency would comment on the report.
The paper quotes a source who says the U.S., fearing that the Russian intelligence agency would pull its agents from the U.S., rounded them up and arrested them.
In July, 10 Russian agents were handed over by the United States in exchange for four Russian prisoners.
The article in Kommersant says Shcherbakov, who was identified only by last name, headed up the branch of the Foreign Intelligence Service that oversees agents working abroad undercover but without diplomatic credentials.
CNN
