A senior US Army soldier arrested on suspicion of spying for Moscow was working for a NATO unit charged with preparing a Russian attack on alliance territory.
The 41-year-old man, who has not been identified, was arrested near the British city of Gloucester on Tuesday for offenses under sections 1 and 3 of Britain’s national security law, police said. These sections concern the acquisition or disclosure of protected information and assistance to a foreign intelligence service.
A senior NATO military official said the serviceman was assigned to NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC). A NATO source said News week the soldier was based at Imjin Barracks, on the outskirts of Gloucester, which serves as ARRC headquarters.
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The source said the man was not a base intelligence officer.
The ARRC hosts the largest contingent of US Army troops in the United Kingdom. Just over 12,000 US military and civilian personnel are stationed in the UK, working mainly from British air bases.
The ARRC is one of two groups of troops that Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander in Europe, could send to the Baltic states or Poland if Russian forces cross the border into alliance soil.
ARRC soldiers have imagined how they would react to Moscow launching an armed attack on NATO members in the Baltics in the coming years, although Russia has dismissed claims that it is planning to attack the alliance as “absurd”.
But some assessments, notably those from American officials, indicate that the Kremlin could attempt a small-scale land grab or intensify its so-called hybrid attacks across Europe in the coming months.
Top NATO officials have warned in recent weeks that Moscow is expanding its hybrid program, referring to a wide range of activities beyond open combat, such as cyberattacks, targeting vulnerable infrastructure like power grids or espionage campaigns.
Russia has been named as the alleged perpetrator or suspected of involvement in a series of incidents across the continent.
In September, Germany blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport the previous month. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said evidence of Russia’s involvement “does not exist and cannot exist.”
That same month, General Grynkewich told the European Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee that there had been a “quantitative and qualitative increase” in Russian hybrid activities.
“This significant arrest involves allegations of espionage, which is of grave concern to the United States and our allies,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
Patel said the agency had made 167 arrests for counterintelligence and espionage reasons in the past 21 months, and said that was a 53 percent increase, without specifying the period.
British counter-terrorism police said they had worked closely with US authorities, including the Federal Intelligence Bureau (FBI) and the US military.
Authorities have raided two locations in the Gloucestershire area and the US serviceman is being held at a London police station.
“The alleged behavior of a high-ranking soldier entrusted with sensitive information reminds us that insider threats are real and persistent,” said Brigadier General Sean Stinchon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the UK’s senior national counter-terrorism policing co-ordinator, described the allegations as “serious” and said the investigation was ongoing.
Contact Newsweek editors about this story: Tobias Meyjes And Trevor Davies
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