Russia deported five suspects accused of being spies in the past four years.
Arrested spies in recent years have been brought onto the agenda again when Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has caught US citizen Ryan C. Fogle who works as the third secretary at the political affairs department in the US Embassy as he was trying to turn one of the Russian agents into a double agent.
Deported suspects have US, Chinese, Israeli Romanian and Georgian passports as well as being diplomats.
Fogle has recently been arrested for offering 1 million USD to recruit a Russian intelligence officer.
Russia's Foreign Ministry declared Fogle "persona non grata" and ordered him to leave the country.
Russian state-run news agency Ria-Novosti broadcast the details of Fogle's documents. Fogle had been carrying a gun, a large amount of cash and a letter written in Russian.
"We are ready to pay 100,000 USD to cooperate and share experiences. You can get paid up to one billion USD on condition that you agree to answer our question in detail," said the letter.
After questioning, Fogle was handed over to the US Embassy. The US Embassy has yet to make a statement.
Russia has arrested several spies in recent years and one of the spies was from China which is one of the biggest economic and political partners of Moscow.
Chinese spy Tun Sheniyun had been arrested while seeking sensitive information on an anti-aircraft system in 2010. Sheniyun was acting under the guise of a translator of official delegations. He had attempted to obtain technological and maintenance documents on the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system by offering them money.
Another spy FSB arrested and expelled was Israel's military attache Colonel Vadim Leiderman.
Leiderman had been caught receiving secret information about the military and technical cooperation between Russia and the Arab world, and detained over espionage suspicions. He was then questioned for a few hours, released, and subsequently deported.
Following the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Georgian spies in Russia had caused tension and mutual accusations.
Georgian spy Mamuki Maysuradze owned an internet cafe which helped him keep in contact with the Georgian intelligence in Sochi, Krasnador on the Black Sea coast. Among the intelligence he was collecting were the plans for the Olympic Games, which Sochi will host in 2014.
Gabriel Grecu, the first secretary of the political department of the Romanian Embassy, had been exposed as spy and expelled in 2010. This had caused a diplomatic crisis and Romania had deported the first secretary Anatoliy Akopov of Russian Embassy to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, in retaliation.
