The Kremlin says it had nothing to do with an alleged spy ring in the United States involving smuggled high-technology military equipment to Russia.

U.S. authorities have arrested 11 people, including suspects from Russia and other former Soviet states.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said Thursday the charges are of a criminal nature and not intelligence. A Foreign Ministry spokesman also says the Kremlin is trying to get at the bottom of what happened.

The U.S. Justice Department alleged Wednesday that between 2008 and this year, the suspects working with a Houston, Texas-based electronics firm used fake documents to avoid export controls to smuggle advanced equipment to Russia.

The suspects include a U.S. citizen born in Kazakhstan.