A US Army soldier has been arrested in the United Kingdom on suspicion of engaging in espionage linked to Russia, British and US authorities announced Tuesday. The 41-year-old suspect was not identified, but a U.S. official told CBS News he is a high-ranking officer based at Imjin Barracks, headquarters of NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. He was arrested on Tuesday near Gloucester, about 100 miles west of London. The soldier is suspected of breaches of Section 1 and Section 3 of the UK National Security Act 2023 – obtaining or disclosing protected information and assisting a foreign intelligence service respectively. London’s Metropolitan Police said the suspicious activity linked to Russia and that the force was carrying out searches at two locations in Gloucestershire, the county where the base is located, related to the investigation. The suspect was in custody at a London police station as of Tuesday, according to Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command “The allegations are serious and our investigation is ongoing,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, national coordinator for the U.K.’s counterterrorism police force, said in a statement. “This activity demonstrates the strength of our national security and law enforcement partnerships in the UK and US, and I commend the work of all the teams involved. We will work together to take strong action against those we suspect of any criminal activity that could undermine our national security.” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that “this FBI does not tolerate anyone who breaks their oath to the United States and whose actions endanger our national security and that of our partners.” Speaking to reporters Wednesday in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had “nothing to do” with the detention of the American soldier. In an annual threat update last month, Sir Ken McCallum, head of Britain’s MI5 spy agency, accused Russia of “intensifying its hybrid warfare attempts”, calling them the “number one aggressor” when it comes to threats against the UK. The arrest came as the United States, Russia and Ukraine began a new round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the first such talks aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine in about nine months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the discussions “constructive and quite substantial,” although none of the participants appear to expect immediate progress, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected European demands for an immediate ceasefire. UK police said the arrest was not related to “any other ongoing counter-terrorism police investigations”, meaning it does not appear to be related to the recent suspected plot at RAF Fairford, which officials say is linked to Iran. Last month, the US military withdrew its bombers from that base after a security incident that led to the arrest of five Britons and a British-Iranian citizen in late September. American troops are stationed at RAF Fairford, a British Royal Air Force base. On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced that three people it accuses of being Iranian-backed agents were charged with planning a terrorist attack at RAF Fairford. One of the suspects is detained in New York. However, the other two are not in custody at this time, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Eleanor Watson contributed to this report. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
