The Russian Cultural Center, which sits in a restored mansion on a quiet, leafy block in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, hosts language classes, lectures, and concerts with the stated goal of maintaining positive relations between Russians and Americans. For the second time in five years, it has also been tied to espionage.
Oleg Zhiganov, the center’s latest director, was among 60 Russian officials to receive an expulsion order from the Trump administration last week, a woman who identified herself as Zhiganov’s assistant told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The expulsions occurred in response to the alleged Russian poisoning of a former double agent on British soil—and all 60 of those booted from the U.S. were intelligence operatives hiding “behind a veneer of diplomatic immunity,” an administration official told reporters.
“The individuals who are being sent back to Russia are intelligence officers being cloaked by their diplomatic positions here in the U.S., and are considered to be aggressive collection personnel,” a Trump official said.
Russian officials have pushed back on any claims of espionage related to the cultural center, which is part of Russia’s foreign ministry. “Of course, it is an outrageous and unthinkable action since we have a cultural center. That’s it,” Eleonora Mitrofanova, who leads Rossotrudnichestvo, a government agency that promotes Russian culture abroad, told RIA Novosti.
Zhiganov himself has described the decision as “deeply regrettable.” Lloyd Costley, who is the chairman of an American nonprofit that has partnered with the RCC for over a decade, told TWS it was “totally wrong” that the administration included Zhiganov in the expulsions.
“If Oleg Zhiganov is a spy, the cow jumped over the moon,” he said. “He was just swept up in this, and it’s a real loss to us.”
Costley said three of his friends, including Zhiganov, had been expelled—and he said all of them were “definitely not intelligence officers.” He described Zhiganov as one of his “closest, lifelong friends” with whom he would play golf and have lunch. “He’s probably one of the leading experts on Russian culture,” he added.
But the intelligence community seems to be keeping a watchful eye on the center. Costley said the FBI has requested to meet with him four times in the last 20 years, including once within the last year or so. He described the most recent meeting as an introductory session during which he laid out the purpose of the center.
“It’s like they didn’t know anything about the cultural center, and they felt comfortable meeting with me rather than a Russian diplomat to explain it,” he said. Costley said he gave the officials tickets to an upcoming concert so they could see the center’s activities for themselves. They did not attend.
“I have never come in contact with any diplomat trying to pump me for information, or talking about anything but the arts,” Costley said. “Zero. Never.”
Joel Brenner, who served as inspector general of the National Security Agency, told TWS that as of 2007 the number of Russian intelligence agents in the U.S. had reached Cold War levels.
He hypothesized that the intelligence community may have set its sights on Zhiganov over activities related to recruiting, or “spotting talent.”
“A person like that would be spotting potential recruits—people who might be willing to compromise their own positions and ultimately, even become traitors,” Brenner said. “A guy who is in a position like that … builds influence and meets people in what look like benign circumstances in which he can turn people.”
Bolstering those suspicions are allegations that Zhiganov’s predecessor had engaged in spying activities.
Mother Jones reported in 2013 that the FBI had been investigating whether then-RCC director Yury Zaystev had sought to cultivate Americans as potential intelligence assets. Costley denied those allegations to TWS and said that Zaytsev and the Kremlin were so upset by those reports that Zaytsev remained in the U.S. for another unscheduled year, out of defiance.
At the time, FBI officials had interviewed a range of young professionals that participated in a Russian government cultural exchange program run by Zaytsev.
In an email obtained by Mother Jones, one participant said: “The FBI disclosed to me that Yury Zaytsev is a Russian Foreign Intelligence officer and a professional spy, acting as the Director of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. … only so that he can maintain a residence here in the United States. In fact, the FBI alleges that part of Mr. Zaytsev’s mission is sending young professionals from the United States to Russia as part of a cultural program wherein participants are evaluated and/or assessed for Russian counterintelligence purposes.”
A former intelligence official told TWS that using a cultural center as official cover is “very normal” in the spy realm.
“What you have to remember is that the use of that spot for spying has everything to do with diplomatic privileges and immunities, and nothing to do with the job role itself,” said Scott Olson, whose two decades at the FBI included running counterintelligence operations.
“The reality of it is, he would not be on the list of 60 that is being sent home if he had not been categorized as a known intelligence officer.”
