Russian Ex-Spy Chief Says U.S. Scandal Aimed at Obama (Update3)

From Bloomberg.


July 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S.-Russian espionage scandal that culminated in a Cold War-style spy exchange was an attempt by “hawks” in America to weaken President Barack Obama, the former head of Russia’s domestic security agency said.

“It was an attempt to interfere in Obama’s reset” of relations with Russia, “and to compromise Obama himself,” Nikolai Kovalyov said in an interview in Moscow today. “This was an attempt by the hawks to influence policy toward Russia,” said Kovalyov, who headed the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, from 1996 to 1998...