A police officer in St. Petersburg stands accused of being an American spy, and there is some curious photographic evidence to support the allegations, the Fontanka news site reported on Thursday.
Sergey Kulakov came to the attention of the Federal Security Service (FSB) while acting as a handler in a sting operation targeting a company owned by businessman Igor Khotin. Kulakov worked the case, despite it being outside his jurisdiction as a criminal investigator for the city's Vasileostrovsky district.
To thank him for the trouble, Khotin then accused Kulakov of being an American spy. If this wasn't humilation enough, FSB investigators next turned up old photographs on Kulakov's defunct but still operating MySpace page.
In the pictures, a man resembling Kulakov appears dressed in the uniform of the 519th Military Intelligence
Battalion, Fontanka reported. This military group is primarily engaged in the interrogation of prisoners, counterintelligence
operations, and electronic warfare.
Other photos on the MySpace account show the same man wearing the uniform of the St. Petersburg riot police.
Kulakov says the photos were doctored, claiming that he's never even set foot in the United States. Eager to maintain his credibility as a 21st-century Internet user, not to mention his standing as a Russian patriot, he also says the MySpace account isn't his.
Law enforcement officers have yet to make any formal charges.
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