Admitted spies Patricia Mills and Michael Zottoli want their two kids sent back to Russia
Saturday, July 3rd 2010, 4:00 AM
Send our babies back to Mother Russia.
That was the plea Friday from a Virginia couple as they appeared in federal court after they were charged with being key members of a Russian spy ring.
Patricia Mills and Michael Zottoli and their 3- and 1-year-old kids appeared to be a normal American family before the parents were unmasked and arrested this week.
Now they want the children - American citizens - to grow up in Russia.
In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Smith said Mills asked a family friend who has been caring for the children to contact Mills' sister and parents and arrange for the toddler and pre-schooler to live in Russia.
Federal Judge Theresa Buchanan and prosecutors did not say if the U.S. government backs the request.
Mills and Zottoli, who live in Arlington, Va., also outed themselves as spies and gave up what they said were their real names, the document revealed.
"Zottoli admitted to FBI agents that he is a Russian citizen whose true name is Mikhail Kutzik," the documents said.
Mills also copped to being a Russki and said her true name was Natalia Pereverzeva, the papers say.
Prosecutors made the revelations in an attempt to have Zottoli, Mills, and a third suspected spy, Mikhail Semenko, held without bail because they are flight risks.
Prosecutors said the couple had $100,000 in cash and phony passports and other damning documents stashed in safety deposit boxes. They said Semenko was in the U.S. on a work visa and recently leased computer gear "capable of being used for ... clandestine communications."
Buchanan refused to set bail.
Travelling in Ukraine, which only recently shook off the Russian yoke, Secretary of State Clinton punted when asked about the politically touchy spying scandal.
"I will underscore what President Obama said Friday, and that is, we are committed to building a new and positive relationship with Russia whenever and wherever we can," she said.
Zottoli and Mills went to New York at least four times to collect cash and computers from their contact, Richard Murphy, a married suburban dad who lives in Montclair, N.J., the papers reveal.
Murphy and his wife, Cynthia, have been charged with being part of the spy cabal. They have two grade-school age daughters.
In 2004, Zottoli met Murphy in Columbus Circle to collect cash while Mills "stood lookout," the papers state. Five years later, Murphy delivered a flash memory card and $150,000 to Zottoli.
Then in March, the couple made a second trip to the city to collect a new computer Murphy brought back from Moscow for the couple "to use in connection with their communications with Center," court papers say.
It between trips to the Big Apple, Zottoli and Mills drove to upstate Wurtsboro in 2006 to dig up money the ring's accused paymaster - Christopher Metsos - buried there.
With Robert Gearty and Richard Sisk
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RECENT COMMENTS FROM DAILY NEWS READERS
[Discussion guidelines]
10:23:10 AM
Jul 3, 2010
These kids are American Citizens and should not be sent to Russia.
10:24:55 AM
Jul 3, 2010
Good. Take a lesson from these sub-humans illegal aliens! You get the boot, take your kids with you!
10:49:51 AM
Jul 3, 2010
The Russian Mafia living in Brighton Beach should be the next subject of an FBI investigation.
10:50:00 AM
Jul 3, 2010
Shenanigans..they were low level "spotters" who would recommend people of influence to be targeted for recruitment by higher level agents, supposedly. I think we should have left them alone and they would have adopted our policies of how to ruin stock markets, banks and industries nationwide and then follow that up by stealing political tactics that enable us to get involved in unwinnable wars overseas.
10:50:07 AM
Jul 3, 2010
They are not conventional military spies. This is more like one multi-national corporation spying on another to gain profit
10:54:57 AM
Jul 3, 2010
This is proof that Sarah Palin should return to Alaska. Had she been manning her post, from which she says she watched when Putin reared his head aka entering US airspace, this would never have happened. She let her love of money, book deals, and fame distract her from her duty. It's 4th of July weekend Sarah! Go home and do your patriotic duty.
11:09:28 AM
Jul 3, 2010
These are no more than anchor babies and they should be gone.
11:56:00 AM
Jul 3, 2010
I keep reading about these spies. But what exactly were they spying on? Did they hold positions in the defense dept, or atomic energy commission or what? What info are they alleged to be sending back to mother Russia? Maybe they set up Paris Hilton in South Africa to embarrass the United States.
12:04:19 PM
Jul 3, 2010
Good promo for Angie's New movie Salt. Hot Russian spy.
12:49:58 PM
Jul 3, 2010
This entire "spy" ring is almost too stupid to believe.