Report: Russian official denies spying on US

A Washington-based Russian cultural exchange official suspected as denying that he is a spy, a Russian news agency reported Thursday. A source in Washington has told The Associated Press that the FBI is looking into whether Yury Zaitsev, the head of a Russian government-run cultural exchange program, tried to recruit young Americans as intelligence assets.

Zaitsev dismissed the accusations as an attempt to hurt ties between Moscow and Washington. "It's a shame that echoes of the Cold War are heard in Russian-American relations from time to time," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. (AP)