Hitman pursuing Russian traitor in U.S.: report

The high-ranking Kremlin spy who sold out his compatriots, including Anna Chapman, above, to U.S. authorities is being hunted by a death squad, a Russian newspaper says.

The high-ranking Kremlin spy who sold out his compatriots to U.S. authorities is being hunted by a death squad, the Russian newspaper Kommersant has reported.

The cracking of the Russian spy ring leading quiet lives in American suburbia made international headlines in June. The 10 apparent spooks, including realtor and future Maxim model Anna Chapman, were arrested and subsequently deported.

Though the incident was widely perceived as a diplomatic embarrassment, the 10 were welcomed back to Russia as heroes by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

At the time of their repatriation, Putin darkly warned the person or persons who had uncovered them.

“This was the result of treason, and traitors always end badly,” he told reporters. “As a rule, their end comes from drink or drugs, lying in the gutter. And for what?”

Now Kommersant claims to have identified the man responsible. The paper says he is a Colonel Shcherbakov (no first name provided). He reportedly “ran” the 10 agents while they lived in the U.S. Shortly before the ring was cracked, he reportedly fled Russia and has been taken in by the Americans.

An unidentified Kremlin source told Kommersant that Shcherbakov is now being sought by a contract killer.

“We know who he is and where he is,” the source said. “You can have no doubt, a Mercader has already been sent after him.”

Ramón Mercader was the KGB-backed Spanish hitman sent to kill dissident Soviet icon, Leon Trotsky. Mercader managed the job with an ice pick.

Since the fall of Communism, Russia has been implicated in at least one high-profile political killing outside the country’s borders.

In 2006, outspoken Kremlin critic and British resident Alexander Litvinenko died after ingesting a huge amount of the rare radioactive material polonium-210. Before his slow end, Litvinenko claimed he had been poisoned during a meeting with an old friend in the security services.

After an investigation, U.K. authorities requested the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy, a businessman with long-standing connections to the KGB. Moscow rebuffed the request.