FSB releases tapes of 'CIA agent' talking to officer he wanted to recruit (VIDEO)

A phone conversation between alleged CIA spy Ryan Fogle and an FSB officer, in which he details the reward for providing classified information, has been released by the Federal Security Service of Russia.

“We should meet today. It’ll be impossible to do it tomorrow, we can meet only today,” Fogle told the ‘recruitee’ FSB officer minutes before the arranged meeting in Moscow’s Vorontsovsky park.

The FSB recorded two phone calls of the alleged spy, with the first one being of particular interest to the counterintelligence agency. In it, the alleged CIA spy promises a million dollar reward in return for the officer's services.

“You can earn up to 1 million dollars per year and I’ll give 100 thousand up front - but only if we meet right now. Yes or No?” the US diplomat can be heard saying on the tape.

According to the FSB, the conversation was recorded close to midnight Moscow time, as Fogle was walking towards the park through the city’s southern dormitory district.

The agents had reportedly been given orders not to arrest Fogle until he met with ‘the subject’ at the agreed spot. Right before the arrest, he allegedly made another call, describing the place the FSB officer should be waiting.

“There’s got to be a staircase in front of you, at the park entrance. Wait, I can see you, I’ll be right there,” the diplomat says on the recording of the brief second call.

‘The subject’ that Fogle was allegedly meeting to recruit, took a direct role in the suspected spy’s arrest, the FSB later said.

Another CIA spy exposed and expelled

The FSB has disclosed Fogle is not the first American spy caught this year while on a recruiting mission. 

“There was another attempt at recruiting a Russian intelligence service officer in January. We did not make the story public that time. Back then we demanded that the CIA agent who was on that mission leave Russia, which he did,” an FSB agent, whose name is not disclosed for security reasons told Rossiya 1 TV channel.

The channel identifies the caught spy as CIA officer Benjamin Dillon, who was, like Fogle, working under the cover of the US embassy as a third secretary.

The US is not commenting on the news.

“We’ve seen those media reports, but I have nothing for you on a January case at all,” said Patrick Ventrell, deputy spokesperson for US State Department at a Wednesday briefing.

The FSB officials meanwhile conclude that the US intelligence has stepped up its game in Russia.

“The number of CIA officers, carrying out activity against our country, has not decreased since the end of the Cold War. Moreover, CIA stations functioning in former Soviet republics, are also hostile to us,” the unnamed FSB agent states.