Russia's ambassador to Canada has denied a Russian man charged with espionage is a spy, saying he is more likely a mobster or drug dealer than one of his country's top spies.

Ambassador Georgiy Mamedov broke Russia's silence Thursday on the man's arrest for the first time, dismissing suggestions that the man known as Paul William Hampel, arrested by Canadian customs officers, is an agent of the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the Soviet KGB.

"I don't run a spy shop here," Mamedov said in an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), declaring he had not got "the foggiest idea of the true nature of this mystery forger in Montreal."

Mamedov said Hampel could be a mobster or an agent of "any kind of international group." He offered no evidence to support his assertions, but urged Canadian and Russian agencies to cooperate as much as possible.

Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), engineered the man's arrest at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

The CSIS said the man, allegedly a resident in Canada for more than a decade and now being detained by Canada Border Services Agency, is a danger to national security and has asked the court to deport him.

Source: Xinhua