There were CIA officers in the government in the 90s, but I cleaned them all out

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in the mid-1990s there were CIA personnel in the government of the Russian Federation, but by the early 2000s he had “cleaned them all out”. His words leads TASS.

“Look, mid-1990s – early 2000s. In the early 2000s, I cleaned everyone out there, but in the mid-1990s, we had, as it turned out, staff members of the US Central Intelligence Agency as advisers, official employees of the government of the Russian Federation, ”Putin said.

“They were later brought to trial in the United States for being CIA employees and working for us, they violated American law, participated in privatization,” he said.

Putin cited this story as “just one example” of attempts to interfere in the affairs of the Russian Federation. “In fact, there are many more of them,” he said.

In April 2013, Putin on a straight line statedthat in the era of privatization, CIA officers worked in the environment of Anatoly Chubais.

RIA Novosti reported then, that Putin could have been referring to Andrei Shleifer and Jonathan Hay, who were consultants to the Russian government on privatization issues. In the late 1990s, the United States accused them of illegal enrichment. Shleifer and Haye, in addition to consulting activities, were engaged in investments, which is prohibited by US corruption laws. In 2005, the court sentenced Shleifer to a fine of $ 28.5 million.