When asked if the American staff member of the embassy in Moscow who was detained Monday morning is a spy the State Department would not clarify what the man's role was in Russia.
"All I can confirm to you is that a member of our mission was briefly detained and released," the State Department's acting spokesperson, Patrick Ventrell, said during Tuesday's press briefing.
Russian officials claimed Tuesday they had detained an American spy who was trying to recruit a Russian counterterrorism officer.
According to the New York Times, Ryan Christopher Fogle, who was working as a diplomat at the embassy, was taken into Russian custody while in possession of "brown and blond wigs, several pairs of dark glasses, several stacks of 500-euro notes, a compass, a map of Moscow and an embassy card identifying him as Ryan C. Fogle."
Fogle has been released to the American embassy and ordered to leave the country.