A U.S. company owned by a former U.S. serviceman accused of spying for Russia was on track to be involved in a U.S.-Armenian military cooperation program. U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy, however, recently told Hetq that has no information about such a program.

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, a former U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) soldier, was arrested by police on August 21 at his home in Gainesville, Virginia. The East Virginia District Attorney's Office says Debbins is accused of spying for Russia and faces up to life in prison.

According to the BBC, the indictment mentions that Debbins offered his services to the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) in 1996, declaring that he considered himself a "son of Russia" and was ready to serve the latter.

"Debbins was convinced that the United States has a very dominant position in the world and its influence should be limited," the prosecutor's office said. The cooperation lasted until 2011.

The Washington Post quoted prosecutors as saying that Debbins had pleaded guilty in 2019 as part of an investigation, but that prosecutors were not in a hurry to arrest him because it was necessary to verify the confession of the former soldier.

According to the indictment, Debbins has been in contact with the Russian representatives since 1996, when he was a student at the University of Minnesota, as well as a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps studying abroad in Chelyabinsk, Russia. It was here that he met his future wife, whose father was a colonel in the Russian Air Force.

In 1997, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Debbins signed a contract with Russian military intelligence under the pseudonym “Ikar Lesnikov”.

Peter Debbins

Peter Debbins was on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1998 to 2005. He first served as a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear officer (serving in South Korea), and then joined the Green Berets serving in countries which included Azerbaijan and Georgia. He did not take part in any combat.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the former Green Beret provided Russia with information about the staff of its special unit and its activities in the former Soviet Union, the names of U.S. counterintelligence officers, and the name of a fellow serviceman, thinking that Russia would hire him.

According to the prosecutor's office, Debbins initially refused to take money from the Russians for the service, but later agreed to a small salary of $1,000, a bottle of brandy and a Russian military uniform. Debbins says the Russians also offered him prostitutes, but he refused.

His access to the U.S. security system was suspended due to a violation during an assignment in Azerbaijan in 2004. After leaving the army, he continued his career in the private sector, which, however, according to the indictment, was opposed by the Russian. They wanted Debins to remain in the U.S. government sector. Although the Americans was concerned about the veteran because of the incident in Azerbaijan, business ties with Russia and having a father-in-law from the Russian army, the former Green Beret again gained access to top-secret information in 2010 through U.S. military intelligence.

The U.S. Army veteran also taught at the Academy for Defense Intelligence at Fort Meade and worked as an instructor in the U.S. European Command and NATO.

The Washington Post writes that Debbins “has traveled in the same circles as members of the Trump administration and other prominent Republicans”.  The paper lists him as a graduate of the Institute of World Politics, a national security graduate school in Washington founded by a Reagan administration Soviet specialist. 

There is no mention of the connection between Peter Debbins and the Russians since 2011 in the indictment at the American prosecutor's office. Instead, it was noted that in 2012, the Russian GRU contacted Debbins’ colonel father-in-law about the Debbins affair.

What has Debbins got to do with Armenia?

In 2013, Peter Debbins and his partner, U.S. Marine Intelligence veteran Michael P. Hansen, founded the Horizon Leadership Group (HLG), which provides a variety of services to partners, including a variety of training courses in the field of intelligence: analytical thinking, cyber operations, intelligence, hybrid wars.

One of HLG's partners, Concordia Ukrainian-American University in Kiev, noting its cooperation with the American company and the general activities of HLG on its website, mentions that one of its upcoming projects is the founding of the Strategic Training Center in Armenia, part of the partnership program between the Kansas National Guard and the Armed Forces of Armenia.

The Kansas National Guard and the Armenian Armed Forces have been cooperating since 2003. As part of this, as former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills stated in 2018, the U.S. has helped its Armenian counterparts improve the capabilities of the Armenian Sergeant Corps, strengthen military medical and peacekeeping operations, and develop mobile hospital, disaster response, and humanitarian assistance capabilities.

However, the information that the company founded by the former U.S. military accused of espionage should be involved in the plan to establish a strategic training center in Armenia is a cause for concern.

While in Azerbaijan, Debbins had been gathered information for Russia about the activities of the U.S. military in the former Soviet Union.

It should be noted that the website of Concordia University is not the only one where the possible connection between the Debbins’ American company and Armenia can be seen. Although the Horizon Leadership Group's website lists the company’s address as Sioux Falls, South Dakota, other sites include Arlington, Virginia, not far from Peter Debbins’ Gainsville residence.

One of Virginia's State Procurement websites lists HLG’s sales/service area as Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine.

www.virginiabids.us

In other words, even if we accept that HLG has not had any actual relations with Armenia so far, we can say that Armenia is in its sphere of interest.

U.S. Ambassador Tracy. "We have no information about such a program"

Hetq wrote to U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy posing several questions about the plan to establish a strategic training center in Armenia with HLG involvement. 

Lynne Tracy (Photolure)

Hetq - What information, if any, does the U.S. Embassy in Armenia have about HLG's plan to establish a Strategic Training Center in Armenia? Has the center already been established? If yes, please indicate where it is located and when it was opened.

We do not have any information about any such project. There is no strategic training center in Armenia that we are aware of, nor are we aware of any plans to establish one. 

Hetq - How does the embassy explain the fact that a company, whose cofounder has been charged in the U.S. of transferring information regarding U.S. Army units and their representatives abroad to third countries, was involved, or will be involved in the framework of cooperation that has existed between the Kansas National Guard and the Armed Forces of Armenia?

We have no record or knowledge of HLG having a relationship with the KSNG or with DOD to conduct any security cooperation programs in Armenia. 

The Embassy of the United States is proud of its continued, positive cooperation with the Armenian Armed Forces, particularly our Kansas National Guard State Partnership Program. Over the past seventeen years, the KSNG has conducted innumerable mutual military cooperation activities with Armenia in the realms of military medical assistance, Non-Commissioned Officer corps development, international peacekeeping, military education, institutional development, and more. 

Hetq - What effect can the criminal case against Debbins have on the cooperation between the Kansas National Guard and the Armenian Armed Forces?

As we do not have a record of a relationship between any of the mentioned entities and the KSNG, these charges have no relation to our fruitful cooperation with the Armenian Armed Forces.