Ex-Green Beret Charged With Spying for Russia in Elaborate Scheme

The extraordinary level of detail in the indictment suggested that the Justice Department and F.B.I. might be relying on a cooperator or defector who had access to the sensitive, if dated, Russian information and was willing to testify. In a news release, the American authorities thanked Britain’s law enforcement officials and its domestic spy agency, MI-5, suggesting the country also played a role in making the case.

“The facts alleged in this case are a shocking betrayal by a former Army officer of his fellow soldiers and his country,” said Alan E. Kohler Jr., the assistant director of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division.

Mr. Debbins's mother was born in the former Soviet Union, partly prompting his interest in Russia, prosecutors said. He met his wife on one of his first trips there; her father was a Russian military officer.

He was first recruited by Russian intelligence in 1996 while studying in Russia, according to an indictment. He told the Russian operatives he was a “son of Russia” and planned to join the United States military. He later met with operatives at a military base in Russia, where, prosecutors said, he told his handlers he wanted to “serve Russia,” signing a statement saying so with a code name they gave him, Ikar Lesnikov.

Prosecutors said Mr. Debbins joined the Army in 1998 after graduating from the University of Minnesota. During a tour in South Korea a year later, he returned to Russia and met with operatives from its military intelligence agency, known as the G.R.U. Mr. Debbins told his handlers about military activities and said he wanted to leave the Army, but they encouraged him to remain.