A Secretary in the Political section of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was arrested and held for at time in that city on charges that he attempted to recruit a member of the Russian Intelligence Services on Monday.

After his detention on Monday, Ryan C. Fogle was released on Tuesday but is being expelled from Russia for attempting to pay off the Russian Intelligence worker detailed with anti-terrorism duties. He had offered the intelligence member $130,000 for his cooperation.

Fogle was arrested on Monday night at about 11:30 pm. Fogle, described by the Russian Federal Security Service as a CIA operative, was taken into custody after he was picked up at a Moscow park wearing a wig, and carrying special technical equipment, as well as other materials for a disguise, and a large sum of cash.

In a statement released after the detention of Fogle, the Russian FSB said “Recently American intelligence has made multiple attempts to recruit employees of Russian law enforcement organs and special agencies, which have been detected and monitored by Russian FSB counterintelligence.”

The State Department and the CIA had no comment on the arrest of Fogle or the allegations against him.

Although there is never a good time for something such as this to surface, it is a particularly awkward time as Secretary of State Kerry is set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovv at a session of the Arctic Council in Sweden. That meeting will among other things discuss a possible solution to the conflict in Syria.