Former Green Beret Charged with Russian Espionage to Enter Plea – By Matthew Barakat (The Associated Press) / Nov 17 2020
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A former Army Green Beret charged with espionage activity on behalf of Russia is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges.
A plea hearing has been scheduled Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria for Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, of Gainesville, Virginia.
Court records do not spell out the specific charge to which he is expected to plead; when he was arrested in August, he was charged under the federal Espionage Act with divulging U.S. military secrets about his unit’s activities in former Soviet republics to Russian intelligence agents.
Debbins’ attorney did not return an email Monday seeking comment.
Debbins, a Minnesota native, had a 15-year relationship with Russian intelligence, according to the indictment issued earlier this year. It began in late 1996 when he was still an ROTC undergrad at the University of Minnesota and on a visit to Russia for an independent study program gave a Russian handler the names of four Catholic nuns he had visited.
