Russia strikes back after expelling alleged U.S. spy

Russia reportedly retaliated against the United States Friday after a U.S. Embassy official was expelled from the country amid allegations that he was spying for the CIA.

Capping a week of rising diplomatic tensions between the two nations, a spokesman for Russia's security service, known as the FSB, revealed the identity of the CIA's station chief in Moscow, Britain's The Telegraph newspaper reported Friday.

The Telegraph didn't identify the station chief, instead reporting that the official's name matches that of a counselor at the U.S. Embassy in an official directory and referring to the official by the Russians' term for the position, "rezident."

Russia's move comes after ordering the expulsion of U.S. diplomat Ryan Fogle from the country Tuesday, accusing him of trying to recruit a Russian agent. On Wednesday, Russian media broadcast images of Fogle wearing a blonde wig and of a "classic spy arsenal" he was allegedly carrying, which included a compass, dark glasses and euros.

Washington hasn't acknowledged whether Fogle was a spy, identifying him only as an embassy staffer.

• Is Moscow's American spy capture a setup?
• A look at how Russia, U.S. still spy on each other
• Text of alleged CIA letter in Russia spying case

The station chief's identity wasn't news to the Russian government because the two nations tend to share the names of their intelligence agencies' top officials in their embassies, the Telegraph reports.

However, revealing the official's name publicly marks a stark contrast to the cooperation between the two governments in the wake of the deadly Boston Marathon bombing a little more than a month ago.

FBI investigators worked inside the country after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was identified as a suspect to learn more about his 2012 trip to the Dagestan region. He died in a shootout with police days after the attack, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is in custody facing federal charges.