The Facts
A US Bureau of Prisons spokesperson has revealed that former FBI agent and convicted Soviet spy Robert Hanssen was found dead in his prison cell on Monday morning.
Hanssen, whose cause of death is yet unconfirmed, served in the FBI from 1976 until in arrest in 2001 and subsequent life sentence in 2002 for espionage. He received over $1.4M in cash, diamonds, and money paid into Russian accounts for sending classified material to Russia and the USSR.
The Spin
Pro-Russia narrative
The story of Hanssen explains less about Russian espionage than it does American incompetence. Now holding an abysmal espionage record in post-Soviet Russia, it's thanks to the likes of Hanssen that an entire portfolio of CIA and FBI spies were found and rounded up, with America never fully recovering from the blow to its credibility.
Anti-Russia narrative
A surprisingly devout and conservative family man, Hanssen's ruthlessly efficient espionage has been deemed by many as one of the worst intelligence disasters in US history. A story of shocking betrayal, becoming one of America's most notorious criminals, his death within the maximum-security complex is an inglorious end to a life of treachery.
