By Staff, Agencies

A former US army green beret living in northern Virginia was arrested and charged with divulging military secrets about his unit’s activities during more than a decade of contacts with Russian intelligence.

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, told Russian intelligence he considered himself a son of Russia, according to an indictment made public after his arrest on Friday.

Debbins thought that the United States was too dominant in the world and needed to be cut down to size, prosecutors alleged.

The indictment also stated that Debbins was motivated in part because of bitterness over his army career and a desire to establish business contacts in Russia.

The espionage took place from 1996 to 2011, prosecutors said.

“The facts alleged in this case are a shocking betrayal by a former army officer of his fellow soldiers and his country,” said FBI senior counterintelligence official Alan Kohler in a statement.