FBI Wary Of Possible Russian Spies Lurking In U.S. Tech Sector

(RFE/RL) . . . .But a surge of Russian cash into the U.S. tech sector in recent years has prompted federal authorities to alert start-ups in a key American innovation cradle about potential espionage via Russian venture capital firms financing their operations.

The Boston division of the FBI is taking this warning to U.S. tech firms with Russian funding, and to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a partner of Russia’s Skolkovo initiative, which was launched in 2010 to create a Russian version of Silicon Valley.

Lucia Ziobro, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, specifically cited Skolkovo’s relationship with Russian truckmaker KamAZ, which supplies armored vehicles to the Russian military, as possibly worrying. 

“As far as the Skolkovo institute is concerned, you have foreign defense contractors in the same sort of area of business that could potentially result in U.S. technology being acquired by that Russian defense firm, and then being given to the government,” Ziobro said. . . . (read more)