WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Russia sought to use spies to get more information about high-frequency trading in a potential bid to destabilize the market, according to a court document released by the U.S. government on Monday.

The U.S. government on Monday made one arrest and charged two other diplomats with spying on behalf of Russia.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says the trio sought information, and sought to set up a spy ring, to find out about a number of topics, including the impact of the economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Russia and an airplane manufacturing deal.

But one of the topics Russia wanted to know more about is a topic the U.S. government is also struggling to comprehend: high-frequency trading. Russia apparently wanted to use such trading to destabilize the market.

According to the FBI, a banker, Evgency Buryakov, was told to tell a Russian state-owned news outlet to get information on three specific questions. This was a conversation he had with the Russian trade representative, Igor Sporyshev, as translated by the FBI:

Buryakov: You can ask about ETF... E-T-F. E, exchange.

Sporyshev: Yes, got it.

Buryakov: How they are used, the mechanisms of use for destabilization of the markets.

Sporyshev: Mechanism — of — use — for —market — stabilization in modern conditions.

Buryakov: For destabilization.

Sporyshev: Aha.

Buryakov: Then you ask them what they think about limiting the use of trading robots... You can also ask about the potential interest of the participants of the exchange to the products tied to the Russian Federation.

A spokeswoman for the IntercontinentalExchange ICE, -0.75% , which owns the NYSE, declined to comment. An email to the Russian Embassy’s press office was not immediately returned.

High-frequency trading has been blamed by some for adding instability to markets.

In the book “Flash Boys,” author Michael Lewis says a surprisingly large number of the people pulled in by the big Wall Street banks to build the technology for high-frequency trading were Russians.

One, former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov, was convicted of stealing trade secrets, before his conviction was overturned.