He is the man who double crossed Anna Chapman.

A Russian newspaper says the Moscow spy boss who oversaw undercover agents in the US worked as a double agent and has defected.   According to the newspaper Kommersant, the double agent identified only as Colonel Shcherbakov, flew to the US only days before red headed Anna Chapman and nine other Russia s spies were taken into custody

The paper says Colonel Shcherbakov who worked for the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, played a key role in getting one of the arrested spies to confess his true identity.  The accused spy who lived in Yonkers, New York, used the name Juan Lazaro and insisted he was Peruvian citizen.  According to the newspaper, Lazaro finally admitted to being a Russian agent after Colonel Shcherbakov confronted him in jail with a copy of his secret internal spy agency file.

The paper does not make clear what role Colonel Shcherbakov played in the spy ring’s capture. An unsealed criminal complaint reveals that the ten spies were under surveillance for almost a decade.  The complaint says “during 2002… law enforcement agents intercepted aural communications” at Lazaro’s home.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry and US law enforcement officials have declined to comment on the report, but a member of the security committee in Russia’s Parliament confirms the story. Gennady Gudkov said “Shcherbakov turned over our agents in the USA… I knew of this before the publication today.”

The paper, citing a high ranking Kremlin official says the former spy master is now targeted for assassination.   The unnamed source said “every day he will fear retribution.”