sentiment, or distract them from some other matter. he s an officer who took down fbi agent robert hansen. o neil said the tactic of planteding material on a spy is a trademark of vladimir putin, himself a former kgb officer. o neil said the u.s. tej agencies have much better disguise training than what was displayed in moscow. they said to depart only slightly from your own look. maybe a ball cap on backwards and sunglasses. o neill said if the russians really believed foegel was recruiting a double agent, rounding up fogel was a mistake. they want to pick up the person he s recruiting. he s irrelevant. actually, it s better for them to keep him in place because they know that he is potentially a spy and they can watch him in order to catch the russian.
o neill said all the russians have done by detaining this man who they call fogel is ruin his career. the russians have deemed him to have to return to the u.s. it s unlikely he ll ever be able to work undercover again, even in another country. o neill said different security agencies are all now going to know what his face looks like. there supposedly was a very strange letter that the russians released that fogel apparently it. another part of the russians display there in moscow, written in russian, translated, starts with the phrase, dear friend, this is a down payment from someone impressed with your professionalism and would greatly appreciate your cooperation in the future. the letter offers about $100,000 up front, $1 million a year for what it calls long-term cooperation. o neill kind of spotted this type of language in the letter and he said, that s the kind of letter is the way robert hansen and the russians used to write
not commenting. the cia s not commenting. the state department confirms someone at its embassy was briefly held, but otherwise we have no further comment at this time. reporter: russia s foreign minister said, quote, such provocative action does not build mutual trust. and they also displayed items they say fogel was carrying, wigs, a knife, dark glasses, envelopes. when we showed eric o neil the pictures in the video, he said the man i.d. d as foegel said this is not spy craft, this is stage craft. i doubt a highly trained cia operative is going to be walking the streets of moscow wearing a really bad blond wig. it looks like a setup to me. reporter: o neil believes the russians likely planted the material for dramatic effect, maybe to stir up anti-american