Russia sought to assassinate defector in Florida: report

The U.S. in early 2020 disrupted a plot by Russian President Vladimir Putin to assassinate a former high-ranking Russian spy turned CIA-informant in Miami.

The episode, reported Monday by The New York Times, illustrates another example of Putin’s hard-line toward perceived enemies that have played out in assassination efforts that take place inside Russia and across the world.

Putin’s target was Aleksandr Poteyev, a former Russian intelligence official who in 2010 reportedly helped the FBI identify a network of Russian spies living in suburbs and cities along the East Coast, who were living under deep cover with false names and working ordinary jobs in an attempt to establish a larger and more ingrained intelligence network in the U.S.

Poteyev became a target for assassination, The New York Times reported, verifying an account that is set to publish in the book “Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West,” by Calder Walton to be released at the end of the month.

Read more: The Hill