Kremlin officials in early 2020 pressured a Mexican scientist to track down the former spy, Col. Alexander Poteyev, who had served for decades in Russia’s SVR intelligence service before he betrayed a ring of 10 Russian spies — including the notorious Anna Chapman — and defected to the US, the New York Times reported Monday.

But the scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, botched the assassination plot and was caught by US authorities with a picture of Poteyev’s license plate on his phone, which he planned to pass on to Russian intelligence.

The US retaliated by imposing sanctions and expelling 10 Russian diplomats from Washington, DC — including the top intelligence official stationed there.