Illegals Program
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The Illegals Program (so named by the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
) was a network of Russian
sleeper agent A sleeper agent, also called sleeper cell, is a spy who is placed in a target country or organization not to undertake an immediate mission but to act as a potential asset if activated. Even if unactivated, the "sleeper agent" is still an asset ...
s under unofficial cover. An investigation by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) culminated in the arrest of ten agents on June 27, 2010, and a
prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conventions Under the Geneva Convent ...
between
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and the United States on July 9, 2010. The arrested spies were Russian nationals who had been planted in the U.S. by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (known by its
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
abbreviation, ''SVR''), most of them using false identity. Posing as ordinary American citizens, they tried to build contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to intelligence. They were the target of a multi-year investigation by the FBI. The investigation, called Operation Ghost Stories, culminated at the end of June 2010 with the arrest of ten people in the U.S. and an eleventh in
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
. The ten sleeper agents were charged with "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation."Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case
' (October 31, 2011). Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The suspect arrested in Cyprus skipped bail the day after his arrest. A twelfth person, a Russian national who worked for
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, was also apprehended about the same time and
deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
on July 13, 2010. Moscow court documents made public on June 27, 2011, revealed that another two Russian agents, who Russia alleges were known to the FBI, managed to flee the U.S. without being arrested. Ten of the agents were flown to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
on July 9, 2010, soon after pleading guilty to charges of failing to register as representatives of a foreign government. The same day, the agents were exchanged for four Russian nationals, three of whom had been convicted and imprisoned by Russia on espionage (
high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
) on behalf of the US and UK. On October 31, 2011, the FBI publicly released several dozen still images, clips from
surveillance video Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
, and documents related to its investigation in response to
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...
requests.


FBI arrests and criminal charges

Using forged documents, some of the spies assumed stolen identities of Americans, enrolled at American universities, and joined professional organizations as a means of further infiltrating government circles. Two of the individuals used the names of Richard and Cynthia Murphy and resided in
Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
, in the mid-1990s, before purchasing a nearby home in suburban Montclair. Another couple named in court documents were journalist
Vicky Peláez Virginia "Vicky" Peláez Ocampo (born 1956 in Cuzco, Peru) is a Peruvian journalist and columnist, currently for ''The Moscow News'' newspaper. She is known for pleading guilty on 8 July 2010 for working in the United States as an unregistered ...
and Mikhail Vasenkov (using the alias Juan Lazaro) in
Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
. The court filings allege that couples were arranged in Russia to "co-habit in the country to which they are assigned," going as far as having children together to help maintain their deep covert status.Savage, Charles
"U.S. Charges 11 With Acting as Agents for Russia"
''The New York Times'', June 28, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
The criminal complaints later filed in various federal district courts allege that the Russian agents in the U.S. passed information back to the SVR by messages hidden inside digital photographs, written in disappearing ink, ad hoc wireless networks, and shortwave radio transmissions, as well as by agents swapping identical bags while passing each other in the stairwell of a train station. Messages and materials were passed in such places as
Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
and
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
. The Russian agents were tasked by "Moscow centre" to report about U.S. policy in Central America, U.S. interpretation of Russian foreign policy, problems with U.S. military policy, and "United States policy with regard to the use of the Internet by terrorists". According to the media reports, planning by the FBI to have the "illegals" arrested began in mid-June 2010, but the action was hastened reportedly by some members of the group intending to travel outside the US as well as by Anna Chapman's growing concern about having been exposed. Vladimir Guriyev was planning to travel to France and possibly Russia, Bezrukov was planning to travel outside the US with his son, and Chapman, in a telephone call to her father the day before the arrest, said she suspected that she may have been discovered and planned to leave for Moscow in mid-July 2010. U.S. authorities arrested ten of the agents involved on June 27, 2010, in a series of raids in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Montclair (New Jersey), Yonkers, and
Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...
. They charged the individuals with
money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
and failing to register as agents of a foreign government. No charges were made that the individuals involved gained access to classified material, though contacts were made with a former intelligence official and with a scientist involved in developing
bunker buster A bunker buster is a type of munition that is designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground, such as military bunkers. Armor piercing shells Germany Röchling shells were bunker-busting artillery shells, developed by ...
bombs.Staff
"Ten arrested in US on charges of spying for Russia"
BBC News, June 29, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
One of the suspects using the name of Christopher R. Metsos was detained on June 29, 2010, while attempting to depart from Cyprus for
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, but was released on bail and then disappeared. There was no evidence that the convicted agents knew each other beyond their respective spouses; military analyst
Pavel Felgenhauer Pavel Eugenievich Felgenhauer (; born 6 December 1951) is a Russian military analyst known for his publications about Russia's political and military leadership. Biography Felgenhauer was born in 1951 in Moscow, the Soviet Union and graduated ...
believed that they consequently did not constitute a "spy ring". Shortly after the arrests, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' commented: "The FBI operation represents the biggest penetration of SVR communications in recent memory. The FBI read their emails, decrypted their intel, read the embedded coded texts on images posted on the net, bugged their mobile phones, videotaped the passing of bags of cash and messages in invisible ink from one agent to another, and hacked into their bogus expenses claims. ..The tradecraft used by the alleged SVR ring was amateurish, and will send shivers down the spine of the rival intelligence organisations in Russia. This was bungling on a truly epic scale. No secrets about bunker-busting bombs were actually obtained, but the network was betrayed. ..To have a spy ring uncovered before they could actually do any serious spying is doubly embarrassing." Coinciding with the day of the prisoners' swap, the death of the prominent Russian defector Sergei Tretyakov, who died in the US on June 13, 2010, was reported on July 9, 2010. A Florida medical examiner's report, released on September 20, 2010, cited an accident and a tumour as the cause of death. In response to allegations in the media that he might have tipped off the US authorities about some of the "illegals", Tretyakov's co-author
Pete Earley Pete Earley (born September 5, 1951) is an American journalist and author who has written non-fiction books and novels. Career Born in Douglas, Arizona, Earley became a ''Washington Post'' reporter and also wrote books about the Aldrich Ames ...
, citing anonymous "well-informed" sources, said in July 2010 that Tretyakov had not been privy to the case of Russian "illegals". The November 11, 2010, issue of ''
Kommersant ''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...
,'' Russia's broadsheet, carried an article that, with reference to unnamed Russian government sources, contained allegations that the "illegals" were fingered by a senior SVR officer named "Colonel Shcherbakov" (according to an unnamed ex-CIA source, his full name may be , '). The latter, according to the newspaper's sources, headed the "American" unit of the SVR department in charge of "illegals" and left Russia for the U.S. "three days prior to
Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
's June visit to the U.S." According to other media outlets' sources, the name "Shcherbakov" was fictitious, and a number of experts and commentators judged many allegations in the article to be dubious or improbable. Felgenhauer, Pavel
Чекисты против шпионов
, ''
Novaya Gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...
'', November 15, 2010.
Nevertheless, some comments made the following day by Russian president Medvedev were interpreted as an indirect confirmation of a high-level defection in the Russian intelligence apparatus.Медведев ответил на разоблачение предателя, сдавшего десятку русских шпионов в США
NEWSru NEWSru.com was a Russian online news site, based in Moscow, which had a government-critical orientation. History NEWSru.com was originally launched in 2000 at the address ntv.ru. When the government took over the NTV network in 2000, with the n ...
, November 12, 2010.
On November 15, 2010, ''
Interfax Interfax (russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency. The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow. History As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic informatio ...
'' cited unnamed sources within Russian intelligence as alleging that the real name of the defector who was primarily responsible for uncovering the ten convicted agents was Aleksandr Poteyev (reportedly, his full name is , '), who was a colonel in the SVR and was deputy head of the American department within Directorate "S" of SVR ("S" oversees illegals).Потеевы шпионили всей семьей
Rosbalt.ru, November 16, 2010.
According to ''Interfax''s unnamed source, a person called Shcherbakov had indeed held a senior position in the SVR and "defected about two years ago."


Agents apprehended by FBI on June 27, 2010


Anna Chapman

Anna Chapman—maiden name ( rus, Анна Васильевна Кущенко)—was arrested with nine others in 2010. According to U.S. authorities, her former name is Anya Kushchenko, and she is a
Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...
native. (According to some reports, she was born in Ukraine.) Her father was employed in the
Russian embassy This is a list of diplomatic missions of Russia. These missions are subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russian Federation has one of the largest networks of embassies and consulates of any country. Russia has significant ...
in
Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows throug ...
. She received her master's in economics degree from the
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (russian: Российский университет дружбы народов), also known as RUDN University and, until 1992, Patrice Lumumba University in honor of the hero Patrice Lumumba, is a ...
in Moscow. She later worked in London at
NetJets NetJets Inc. is an American company that sells fractional ownership shares in private business jets. Founded as Executive Jet Airways in 1964, it was later renamed Executive Jet Aviation. NetJets became the first private business jet chart ...
,
Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...
, and other companies. On July 5, 2010,
One India Oneindia.com is an Indian website established in January 2006 by BG Mahesh. The website provides news updates, information on sports, events, travel, entertainment, business, lifestyle, videos, and classifieds in seven different Indian language ...
reported that Chapman may have been recruited to become an agent when she was in the United Kingdom, citing Oleg Gordievsky and Alex Chapman as sources, and that an urgent probe was underway in the UK to ascertain whether Chapman organized sleeper cells in the United Kingdom. Her
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
social networking site profile said she was CEO of PropertyFinder Ltd, a website selling
real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
internationally. Chapman posted photos of herself on the
Odnoklassniki Odnoklassniki ( rus, Одноклассники, t=Classmates) is a social network service used mainly in Russia and former Soviet Republics. The site was developed by Albert Popkov and launched on March 4, 2006. The website currently has more ...
("Classmates") social networking website in Russia where she stated "Russia, Moscow. My favorite place on earth, my native capital!" She also posted photos and profiles on the
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and LinkedIn social networking websites. Chapman's prior meetings with her Russian handlers were on Wednesdays; not face to face; solely to pass information via encrypted private computer networks at
Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
or at
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...
.Belenkaya, Veronika; Sgobbo, Robert; and Gendar, Alison
"Friends shocked Anna Chapman, accused Russian spy, threw away life of luxury"
, ''
Daily News (New York) The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', June 30, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
Thus her suspicion was aroused when an FBI informant, posing as a Russian consular officer named "Roman", on Saturday, June 26 asked her to come to New York from Connecticut, where she was spending the weekend. Her suspicions increased when "Roman" turned out to be a man she didn't know who asked her to deliver a fake United States passport to another sleeper agent in a face-to-face meeting. The task of transferring a fake US passport to another Russian agent in a face-to-face meeting was beyond anything that the Moscow Center had previously assigned to her. After the meeting with "Roman," Chapman bought a new cell phone and two telephone cards. She called her father in Moscow and another individual in New York, both advising her not to transfer the passport. The FBI monitored the calls. Chapman turned in the passport to the 1st Precinct police station in New York but was questioned by the FBI and arrested. According to her American lawyer, Robert Baum, while in the US jail, she feared she would be deported. When her deportation became imminent, she said she would go to live in London on her UK passport, but it was subsequently revoked. After her deportation to Russia, in July 2010, Robert Baum reiterated that his client wished to stay in the U.S. He also said that she was "particularly upset" by the revocation of her UK citizenship and exclusion from the country. On August 8, 2010, the United Kingdom's tabloid ''
Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'' cited an unidentified "source close to
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
" as saying, "There was a deal on the table just before she caught her connecting flight to Moscow. The secret service intercepted her on her flight back from America to Vienna, where her plane landed to refuel. MI6 were keen to know about other ‘illegals’—Russian spy cells—hiding in the United Kingdom, so they made her an offer. In return they offered to give her back British citizenship and allow her to settle in London. Anna was having none of it though and told them in no uncertain terms that she wished to return to Russia." In September 2010, German magazine ' reported that Chapman said the SVR had forbidden her from saying anything about her activities in the US.


Mikhail Anatolyevich Vasenkov (Juan Lazaro) and Vicky Peláez

Vicky Peláez Virginia "Vicky" Peláez Ocampo (born 1956 in Cuzco, Peru) is a Peruvian journalist and columnist, currently for ''The Moscow News'' newspaper. She is known for pleading guilty on 8 July 2010 for working in the United States as an unregistered ...
, a
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...
vian national and US citizen, and ( rus, Михаил Анатольевич Васенков, alias Juan Lazaro), a Russian citizen, were arrested at their home in
Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
. Both admitted being Russian agents. The couple have a son together, and Peláez also has a son from a previous marriage. According to a report by ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' in early August 2010, the real Juan Lazaro died of respiratory failure in 1947 in
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
at age 3, with Vasenkov having presumably used the dead toddler's birth certificate to build a persona. According to a file kept by the Peruvian
Interior Ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...
that ''The Wall Street Journal'' cited, Vasenkov flew on March 13, 1976, from
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
to
Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
on a Uruguayan passport in the name of Juan Jose Lazaro Fuentes. He bore a letter on a Spanish tobacco company's stationery that said they had hired him for a market survey in Peru. Two years later, he submitted copies of the passport and a 1943 Uruguayan birth certificate with a letter asking Peru's military dictator
Francisco Morales Bermúdez Francisco Remigio Morales Bermúdez Cerruti (4 October 1921 – 14 July 2022) was a Peruvian politician and general who was the ''de facto'' President of Peru (2nd President of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces) between 1975 and ...
(the country was then run by a US-friendly junta) for Peruvian citizenship, which Peru granted in 1979. In 1983, "Juan Lazaro" married Vicky Peláez. Peláez was a television reporter in Peru, and a columnist at ' in New York City. In her writings, Peláez often criticized US policy in Latin America, and supported liberation movements in those countries. In 1985, Peláez and "Lazaro" moved to New York with her son from a previous relationship. "Juan Lazaro" wrote a 1990 article for a European publication that spoke "glowingly" of the
Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the gro ...
guerrilla movement. He was described as a "journalist and anthropologist" in the 1998 book ''Women and Revolution: Global Expression'', for which he was a contributing author. Vasenkov studied at the
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
and taught a class on Latin American and Caribbean Politics at
Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates und ...
for one semester during the 2008–2009 school year as an
adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...
. According to ''The New York Times'' June 29, 2010, report, Vasenkov was a vocal opponent of American foreign policy in class: "He maintained that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a money-making ploy for corporate America. He praised President
Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
of Venezuela and disparaged President
Álvaro Uribe Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
of Colombia as a pawn for paramilitary groups that have broad control over drug trafficking." At least one student complained about Vasenkov's teaching and he was let go at the end of the semester. The department chairman reported that Vasenkov's instruction was not up to standard resulting in his teaching for only one semester but that he recalled no controversy over any anti-American views. US officials reported that on June 27, 2010, Vasenkov confessed to being a spy and that "Juan Lazaro" was not his real name, though he declined to give his true identity. He additionally stated he was not born in Uruguay, and that Peláez delivered letters to Russian authorities on his behalf. It was later reported that Lazaro's real name is Mikhail Vasenkov. In November 2010, Russian broadsheet ''
Kommersant ''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...
'' published Russian anonymous sources' allegations that while in US custody, Vasenkov had three ribs and a leg broken by investigators trying to extract more information from him – a claim assessed by experts as highly improbable. The ''Kommersant'' article also cited unnamed RF government sources as saying that Vasenkov was presented with the SVR personal file on him obtained through a senior SVR defector ("Colonel Shcherbakov"), whereafter he was forced to own up to his real name. On August 7, 2010, ''The Wall Street Journal'' cited Vasenkov's American lawyer, Genesis Peduto, as saying that his client indicated to him on the phone that he wanted to leave Moscow for Peru: "He doesn't want to stay in Russia. He says he's Juan Lazaro and he's not from Russia and doesn't speak Russian. He wants to be where his wife is going, to her native country, where it will be easier for Juan Jr. to visit. His family comes first."


Andrey Bezrukov and Yelena Vavilova (Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley)

Andrey Bezrukov ( rus, Андрей Безруков, alias Donald Howard Heathfield) and Yelena Vavilova ( rus, Елена Вавилова, alias Tracey Lee Ann Foley) admitted being both Russian citizens and Russian agents. The agents have two sons, Alexander and Timothy, who were, at the time of their parents' arrest, aged 16 and 20. The sons are adamant that they had no inkling of their parents' real identities;Walker, Shaun
"The day we discovered our parents were Russian spies: For years Donald Heathfield, Tracey Foley and their two children lived the American dream. Then an FBI raid revealed the truth: they were agents of Putin’s Russia,"
''The Guardian'' (7 May 2016).
unnamed US officials say, without providing evidence, that the parents had revealed their true identities to the elder son long before the arrest. Bezrukov and his cover wife Yelena Vavilova had a home in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. Heathfield earned an M.P.A. degree from the
John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he was described as a "joiner". Heathfield claimed to have been the son of a Canadian diplomat and to have studied at a school in the Czech Republic. A fellow graduate of the Kennedy School noted that Heathfield kept careful track of his nearly 200 classmates, who included President of Mexico
Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 1 December 2006 to 30 November 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 a ...
. The couple was arrested on June 27, 2010. On July 16, 2010, after his arrest and deportation, Harvard revoked Heathfield's degree on grounds of his misrepresentation of his identity on his application. Bezrukov was a professional member of the
World Future Society The World Future Society (WFS), founded in 1966, is an international community of futurists and future thinkers. History Prominent members and contributors have included Ray Kurzweil, Peter Drucker, Carl Sagan, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Leader ...
, described by the ''
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' as "a think tank on future technologies that holds conferences featuring top government scientists". Former
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
National Security Advisor
Leon Fuerth Leon Sigmund Fuerth (born 1939) is a former diplomat who served as national security adviser to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. He was succeeded in that capacity by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in January 2001. Fuerth now directs the Project on ...
spoke at the World Future Society 2008 conference in Washington, D.C., along with
George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...
professor William Halal. In a July 2, 2010, ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' article, Fuerth is quoted acknowledging he met Heathfield after a speech he gave. In the same article, Halal described his relationship to Heathfield as benign; "I would bump into him at meetings of Federal agencies, think tanks, and the World Future Society. I have no information that's of any security value ... Everything I gave Don was published widely and readily available on the Internet". Bezrukov was chief executive of Future Map, a consulting company involved in government and corporate preparedness systems. Bezrukov's cover wife, Yelena Vavilova, worked for
Redfin Redfin Corporation, based in Seattle, operates a residential real estate brokerage in 95 markets in the United States and Canada and in other markets via partner/referral agents. Its business model includes charging home sellers below-average fe ...
, a real estate firm in
Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81, ...
. She claimed she was from
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, but also traveled on a
British passport A British passport is a travel document issued by the United Kingdom or other British dependencies and territories to individuals holding any form of British nationality. It grants the bearer international passage in accordance with visa requ ...
. In July 2012, referring to "current and former U.S. officials," ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported that the couple had groomed their son, Tim Foley, for a future spy career. He was 20 when his parents were arrested, and had just finished his sophomore year at
George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...
in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
He and his younger brother traveled to Russia in July 2010 to meet their parents after their deportations. Both were unable to return to the US. The sons, while born in Canada and considering themselves Canadian, and not feeling at home in Moscow, were unable to regain their Canadian citizenship, have been denied visas for Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, and consequently been unable to take up university places they were offered. By 2018, both sons won court cases in the
Federal Court of Appeal The Federal Court of Appeal (french: Cour d'appel fédérale) is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters. History Section 101 of the Constitution Act, 1867 empowers the Parliament of Canada to establish "addit ...
to affirm their Canadian citizenship; the ruling was affirmed by the
Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
on December 19, 2019. The decision, ''
Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov ''Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov'', 2019 SCC 65, is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that clarified the determination and application of standard of review in Canadian administrative law. ''Vavilov'' ...
'', set an important
administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of Forms of government, government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are gener ...
precedent. In March 2018, Alexander (going by his mother's surname Vavilov) received a Canadian passport and moved back to Canada, while awaiting the Supreme Court verdict. The FBI lead agent against the spy couple was
Peter Strzok Peter Paul Strzok II (, like ''struck''; born March 7, 1970) is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. He was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division and led the investigation into R ...
. As of August 2019, the couple was living in Moscow; Bezrukov was teaching at a university and doing consulting work for an oil company while Vavilova "also has a consultancy role at a company", according to an article published by
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
.


Vladimir and Lidiya Guryev (Richard and Cynthia Murphy)

Vladimir Guryev ( rus, Владимир Гурьев, alias Richard Murphy) and Lidiya Guriyeva ( rus, Лидия Гурьева, alias Cynthia Murphy) were Russian agents in New Jersey. Lidiya Guriyeva attended school in the United States, receiving two undergraduate degrees from
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
and an
MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...
. In 2009, Cynthia Murphy developed contacts in New York City financial circles as a means to obtain details about the global gold market. Lidiya was trying to cultivate a relationship with
Alan Patricof Alan Patricof (born 22 October 1934) is an American investor, one of the early pioneers of the venture capital and private equity industries. He founded Apax Partners (based on a play on Patricof's name: Alan Patricof Associates Cross (x) Border) ...
, a venture capitalist who co-chaired
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's 2008 presidential bid, with her handlers telling her to "try to build up relations little by little." Lidiya Guriyeva was Vice President of Morea Financial Services in New York. Vladimir Guryev supplied money and equipment to Kutsik (see below) in a 2004 meeting in Columbus Circle, New York and 2009, where $150,000 and a flash drive were given. When the computer program was inoperative, Guryev supplied Kutsik with a laptop computer that Guryev brought from Moscow. Vladimir and Lidiya Guriyeva were arrested at their home at 31 Marquette Road in
Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...
. The couple have two young daughters, aged 11 and 9 at the time of their parents' arrest. Vladimir Guriyev used a false
birth certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...
that claimed he was born in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, while his wife said that she was born in New York City as "Cynthia A. Hopkins." The two earlier lived in an apartment in
Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...
after arriving in the United States in the mid-1990s. They then purchased a suburban Montclair home for $481,000 in 2008. When they purchased it, the couple argued with their handlers as to who would officially own the house, with the ultimate decision being that it would be owned by "Moscow Center."Bautista, Justo
"Authorities: Montclair pair long-term suburban spies for Russia "
, '' The Record'', June 28, 2010. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
Professor Nina Khrushcheva, who served as Vladimir's faculty adviser at
The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
for three years starting in 2002, said in July 2010 that she found it difficult to figure out the purported
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
native: "I was always puzzled by the inconsistency between a completely American name and completely Russian behaviour. ..He had a thick Russian accent and an incredibly unhappy Russian personality." Vladimir Guryev was criticized by his wife for his poor information gathering; she suggested that he pursue individuals with connections to the White House. The couple was also tasked with obtaining information about US policy in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, the
nuclear program of Iran The nuclear program of Iran is an ongoing scientific effort by Iran to research nuclear technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran has several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facilit ...
, and the latest Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty talks. Shortly after the couple's arrest, one of their neighbors quipped: "They couldn't be spies. Look what she did with the
hydrangeas ''Hydrangea'', () commonly named the hortensia, is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants native plant, native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are ...
."


Mikhail Kutsik and Nataliya Pereverzeva (Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills)

Mikhail Kutsik ( rus, Михаил Куцик; cover name Michael Zottoli) and Natalya Pereverzeva ( rus, Наталья Переверзева; cover name Patricia Mills) were agents in Seattle, Washington, and, later, Arlington, Virginia. They appear to be in their 40s. Kutsik came to the US in 2001, and Pereverzeva came in 2003, according to the FBI. He claimed to be American but had a thick accent and she claimed to be Canadian but neighbors said she sounded
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
n. They lived in the Seattle, Washington, area for about two years and both attended the
University of Washington, Bothell The University of Washington Bothell (UW Bothell) is a branch campus of University of Washington in Bothell, Washington. It was founded in 1989 and is located just northwest of the junction of Interstate 405 and State Route 522, and it shares ...
, where they earned bachelor's degrees in business. Zottoli worked for several different jobs over the years including telecom company accountant, car salesman, and teleconference firm employee. Pereverzeva was a stay-at-home mom who cared for their toddler son named Kenny; a second son was born in late 2009. After Kutsik lost his job in 2009, they moved with their children to
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
, later that year. After their parents were arrested, arrangements were made to send the children to Russia.Martin, Jonathan; and Willmsen, Christine
"Accused Russian spies sure fooled people in the Seattle area"
, ''
The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
'', June 29, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
Kutsik and Pereverzeva pleaded guilty to "conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country." They appeared to be an ordinary married couple with two young children. However, US authorities allege that they had both been spying for Russia in the US since at least 2004. They received specially coded radio transmissions at their high-rise
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
apartment, and the FBI secretly entered their home, where they found random numbers used to decode the "radiograms". Kutsik received money from Guriyev (Murphy) in Columbus Circle, New York in 2004 while Pereverzeva stood as lookout. In 2006, the FBI photographed them visiting the area of
Wurtsboro, New York Wurtsboro is a village located on U.S. Route 209 in the town of Mamakating in Sullivan County, New York, United States, near its junction with New York State Route 17 (which is being upgraded to interstate standards and will be renumbered as i ...
, where they dug up a bundle of cash in a field that Metsos placed there two years earlier. Kutsik visited New York again in 2009, where he evidently received $150,000 in cash and a flash drive from Murphy. Kutsik communicated with the SVR using a laptop that Guryev brought from Moscow after the computer program supplied to him did not function. Kutsik and Pereverzeva were arrested on June 27, 2010, at their Arlington, Virginia, home. Both had family living in Russia and prosecutors argued that bail be denied under the circumstances. On January 13, 2011, Russia's oil pipeline monopoly,
Transneft Joint Stock Company Transneft (russian: Транснефть) is a state-controlled pipeline transport company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. It is the largest oil pipeline company in the world. Transneft is operating over of trunk pipeline ...
, confirmed that Natalya Pereverzeva was appointed an adviser for foreign economic relations to the company's president, Nikolai Tokarev.


Mikhail Semenko

Mikhail Semenko ( rus, Михаил Семенко) was one of the two agents who "operated under their true names." He is reported to have studied for one year at the
Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin Institute of Technology (; abbreviation: HIT or ) is a public research university and a member of China's elite C9 League and a member of the University Alliance of the Silk Road. HIT is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Doubl ...
. He also attended school and received graduate degrees in the United States at
Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...
, one of the degrees being from the
Whitehead School of Diplomacy The School of Diplomacy and International Relations (SODIR), is a post-secondary, degree-granting institution concentrating on international affairs within Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in collaboration with the Un ...
. He is fluent in English,
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, Russian, and Spanish. He later worked for
the Conference Board The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit business membership and research group organization. It counts over 1,000 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, encompassing 60 countries. The Conference Board co ...
in New York City in 2009, and for 2009–2010 reportedly worked at Travel All Russia, an Arlington, Virginia, travel agency, helping Chinese and
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
travelers plan trips. He appeared to be in his late 20s; his neighbors said that he was a stylish man who drove a Mercedes S500 car and spoke Russian to his girlfriend.Staff
"Russian spy ring: who's who"
''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'', June 29, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
Semenko was first noted by the FBI on June 5 when he used a computer in a restaurant to send encrypted messages, presumably to a car parked in the restaurant lot that had Russian diplomatic plates and was driven by a Russian official who was known to have transferred money to other Russian sleeper agents in 2004. On or about June 26, 2010, Semenko met with an undercover FBI agent purporting to be a Russian agent and accepted $5,000, which he delivered to a drop site in an Arlington, Virginia park. The drop was made at 11:06 am and Semenko was arrested at his residence in
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
, a suburb of Washington, DC, later that day.


Other presumed agents of the Illegals Program


"Christopher Metsos" (Pavel Kapustin)

The man known by the name of "Christopher Metsos" was alleged to be the money man and main go-between behind the Illegals Program and the SVR. On June 29, 2010, acting on an
Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
notice, police arrested the 55-year-old man at the
Larnaca International Airport Larnaca International Airport – Glafcos Clerides (''Diethnís Aeroliménas Lárnakas''). tr, Larnaka Uluslararası Havaalanı). is an international airport located southwest of Larnaca, Cyprus. Larnaca International Airport is Cyprus' main ...
in Cyprus as he was about to board a jet for
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. He was released after posting €27,000 (equivalent to US$33,777) bail and told to report to a police station thereafter but skipped out and apparently fled the country. According to the information from US authorities shortly after his flight, "Metsos," who traveled on a Canadian passport and claimed to be Canadian, regularly traveled to the US to deliver money to his fellow Russian spies; he would typically drop off money at New York City area locations including a coffee shop, restaurant and subway station.Daragahi, Borzou
"Fugitive might have easily fled Cyprus"
''Los Angeles Times'', July 1, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
According to his Cypriot lawyer, "Metsos" had no discernible Russian accent and described himself as a Canadian resident who divorced 15 years prior and had a son living in Paris. On July 26, 2010, it was reported by the media that
Passport Canada Passport Canada was an independent, special operating agency of the Government of Canada with bureaucratic oversight provided through Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Formerly known as the Passport Office prior to June 2006, Passpo ...
, upon conducting a review, revoked the travel document issued to Christopher Metsos. Late in July 2010, Russian political commentator
Yulia Latynina Yulia Leonidovna Latynina (russian: Ю́лия Леони́довна Латы́нина; born 16 June 1966) is a Russian writer and journalist. She is a columnist for ''Novaya Gazeta'' and the most popular host at the Echo of Moscow radio stat ...
voiced a theory that "Christopher Metsos" might have been a
double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
and was probably now in the US; she did not cite any sources. A court verdict read in Moscow on June 27, 2011, identified “Metsos” as Pavel Kapustin (), a Russian espionage professional, who was exfiltrated upon being released on bail in Cyprus.


Alexey Karetnikov

On July 13, 2010, the US government disclosed that a 12th, previously undisclosed, person was being held in custody and was said by the media to be implicated in the same federal probe. Later that day, the person was identified as Alexey Karetnikov, a 23-year-old former entry-level software tester at
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, who was apprehended on June 28, 2010, in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
. He was charged with immigration violations and consented to deportation in lieu of further court proceedings; he was sent to Russia on July 13, 2010. Law enforcement officials said on the day of his deportation that Karetnikov had no direct ties to the other deported persons, although his name came up in the broader investigation. On July 22, 2010, ''Newsweek'' published the comments of Karetnikov's fellow dormitory resident, who said that Karetnikov impressed him as "very oily" and "very Russian"; according to the anonymous source, Karetnikov spoke surprisingly poor English but was "sophisticated" and knew a lot about Microsoft.


Communication techniques

The Russian agents used private
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
networks, flash memory sticks and text messages concealed in graphical images to exchange information. Custom
steganographic Steganography ( ) is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the information is not evident to human inspection. In computing/electronic contexts, a computer file, ...
software developed in Moscow was used where concealed messages were inserted into otherwise innocuous files. This program was initiated by using the Control-Alt-E keys and entering a 27-character password, which the FBI found written down. Coded bursts of data sent by a shortwave
radio transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
were also used. Other methods included employing invisible ink and exchanging identical bags in public places. In January 2010, Anna Chapman used her laptop at a New York coffee shop on 47th Street to electronically transfer data to a Russian official driving by. Two months later, Chapman used a private Wi-Fi network, possibly at a
Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
store on Greenwich Street in New York, to communicate with the same Russian official, who was nearby. Chapman used a range extender for her laptop.


Court proceedings

On June 27, 2010, FBI Special Agent Amit Kachhia-Patel submitted a sealed complaint alleging a violation of
Title 18, United States Code Title 18 of the United States Code is the main criminal code of the federal government of the United States. The Title deals with federal crimes and criminal procedure. In its coverage, Title 18 is similar to most U.S. state criminal codes ...
, section 951 (conspiracy to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government). An
arrest warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual, or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a j ...
was issued for Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko by
Magistrate Judge The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
Ronald L. Ellis. As of July 6, 2010, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that federal and local prosecutors were seeking a rapid conclusion to the case, to avoid a trial that might disclose sensitive information about information-gathering techniques. The proposed deal would have the defendants deported to Russia after pleading guilty to lesser charges. On the morning of July 7,
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
Moscow correspondent Guy Faulconbridge broke the news of the spy swap. He reported that
Igor Sutyagin Igor Vyacheslavovich Sutyagin (russian: И́горь Вячесла́вович Сутя́гин; born 17 January 1965) is a Russian arms control and nuclear weapons specialist. In 1998, he became the head of the subdivision for Military-Technical ...
—jailed in 2004 for passing secrets to a British company that Russian prosecutors said was a front for the CIA—was to be swapped as part of a deal with the United States to bring home the Russian agents. In a hearing held in federal court in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
on July 8, 2010 before Judge
Kimba Wood Kimba Maureen Wood (born January 21, 1944) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Wood has presided over many high-profile cases involving such figures as "Junk Bond Kin ...
, all ten defendants pleaded guilty to a single charge each of secretly conspiring to act as agents of the Russian government. While the charge could carry up to five years in prison, ''The Washington Post'' described the pleas as a first step in what could be the largest prisoner swap between the United States and Russia since the days of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.Markon, Jerry; Pincus, Walter; and Branigin, William
"10 Russian spy suspects plead guilty at N.Y. hearing"
''The Washington Post'', July 8, 2010. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
Under the plea agreements, the defendants also disclosed their true identities and all except for Vicky Peláez admitted that they were Russian citizens. On July 9, 2010, Attorney General
Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African America ...
said none of the ten defendants passed classified information and therefore none were charged with espionage. All the defendants were sentenced to time already served. According to the ''New York Times'', political leaders of the two nations made the deal even before the indictment—with U.S. prosecutors and the defendants' lawyers playing a minimal role.


Prisoner exchange

Reuters reported on July 7–8, 2010 that the U.S. and Russia reached a deal under which the ten individuals arrested in that country as part of the Illegals Program would be deported to Russia in exchange for individuals who Russia convicted of espionage on behalf of the US and UK.
Igor Sutyagin Igor Vyacheslavovich Sutyagin (russian: И́горь Вячесла́вович Сутя́гин; born 17 January 1965) is a Russian arms control and nuclear weapons specialist. In 1998, he became the head of the subdivision for Military-Technical ...
, Alexander Zaporozhsky,
Sergei Skripal Sergei Viktorovich Skripal ( rus, Серге́й Ви́кторович Скрипáль, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ skrʲɪˈpalʲ; born 23 June 1951) is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent f ...
and Gennadiy Vasilenko were included in the exchange. All four served a considerable time in Russian prisons; at least three of the jailed individuals in Russia were convicted of
spying Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
for either the United Kingdom or the U.S. White House Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...
reportedly said on July 8 that President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
approved the swap deal. An administration official was quoted as saying that Obama had not spoken to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the spy swap but was "fully briefed and engaged in the matter." Broad agreement in the US was reported to exist that the agents were being deported swiftly as neither government wanted the case to damage attempts to reset their relationship. Shortly before the swap deal was reached, nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, one of the Russian prisoners included in the deal, was moved to a Moscow prison from a facility near the Arctic Circle and then flown to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
as part of the exchange. Under a U.S.–Russian agreement, the Russian government agreed to release the Russian prisoners and their family members for resettlement. The Russian prisoners had served a number of years in prison and some were in poor health. On July 9, all ten suspects were deported. A government-chartered jet from
Vision Airlines Vision Airlines, formerly Vision Air, was an airline that had its operations headquartered in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The airline also operated charter flights for their tour services in northern Arizona and Nevada including the Grand Canyon, Ma ...
left New York's
LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. ...
and flew to
Vienna International Airport Vienna International Airport (german: Flughafen Wien-Schwechat; ) is the international airport of Vienna, the capital of Austria, located in Schwechat, southeast of central Vienna and west of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is the co ...
via
Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...
for refueling and then for the swap around midday of July 9 (local time). Returning from Vienna were the four Russian prisoners – Sutyagin, Zaporozhsky, Skripal, and Vasilenko. The aircraft landed at
RAF Brize Norton Royal Air Force Brize Norton or RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, about west north-west of London, is the largest station of the Royal Air Force. It is close to the village of Brize Norton, and the towns of Carterton and Witney. The station ...
in Oxfordshire, England, to drop two of the exchanged Russian nationals and proceeded to
Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Eastern United States, loc ...
on the afternoon of July 9. The Russian government
Yakovlev Yak-42 The Yakovlev Yak-42 (russian: Яковлев Як-42; NATO reporting name: "Clobber") is a 100/120-seat three-engined mid-range passenger jet developed in the mid 1970s to replace the technically obsolete Tupolev Tu-134. It was the first airli ...
jet returned to Moscow's
Domodedovo airport Domodedovo Airport ( rus, links=no, Домодедово аэропорт, p=dəmɐˈdʲɛdəvə) (International Air Transport Association, IATA: DME, International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO: UUDD), formally Domodedovo Mikhail Lomonosov I ...
where, after landing, the ten spies were kept away from local and international press. Later that day the Russian ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the exchange of four convicted people for ten Russian citizens citing "humanitarian considerations and constructive partnership development."


Prisoners held by Russia involved in the exchange


Igor Sutyagin

Igor Sutyagin Igor Vyacheslavovich Sutyagin (russian: И́горь Вячесла́вович Сутя́гин; born 17 January 1965) is a Russian arms control and nuclear weapons specialist. In 1998, he became the head of the subdivision for Military-Technical ...
was an arms control researcher with the
Institute for US and Canadian Studies Institute for US and Canadian Studies (Russian: Институт США и Канады РАН, ''Institut SShA i Kanadi RAN'') is a Russian think tank which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specializing on the comprehensive studies of ...
(ISKAN) of the
Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
. He was arrested in 1999, and sentenced in April 2004 to 15 years hard labor on high treason charges. He collected open-source data on Russian nuclear submarines and missile warning systems, analysed and provided it to a British consulting firm. He steadfastly denied using any classified information and ISKAN is said to have no access to Russian classified materials. Sutyagin maintained his innocence throughout his trial and conviction, but had to plead guilty shortly before the swap to qualify for a Presidential pardon. The U.S.
Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
and
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
classified Sutyagin as a
political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
, not a spy. The ''Washington Post'' commented that Sutyagin's case differed from the other released prisoners, and that his original arrest might have been to warn Russians not to cooperate with Western companies and think tanks. According to his relatives, Sutyagin phoned home on his arrival in the UK, saying that he was placed in an undisclosed location in a London suburb and that British authorities were in the process of granting him a UK visa. Later his lawyer confirmed that Sutyagin was granted leave to remain in the UK.


Sergei Skripal

Sergei Skripal Sergei Viktorovich Skripal ( rus, Серге́й Ви́кторович Скрипáль, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ skrʲɪˈpalʲ; born 23 June 1951) is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent f ...
was a colonel in Russia's
Military Intelligence Service The Military Intelligence Service ( ja, アメリカ陸軍情報部, ''America Rikugun Jōhōbu'') was a World War II U.S. military unit consisting of two branches, the Japanese American unit (described here) and the German-Austrian unit based ...
(GRU), who was arrested and convicted of
high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
in Russia in 2006, and sentenced to 13 years in prison.Kulish, Nicholas; Baker, peter; and Barry, Ellen
"Prisoner Swap in Vienna Ends U.S.-Russia Espionage Case"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', July 9, 2010. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
According to the prosecution, he had spied for the United Kingdom's
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
as a
double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
. After the prisoner exchange in 2010, he moved to the UK and in 2018 Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a
nerve agent Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an enzyme that ...
in
Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
, England. Three unrelated people were accidentally poisoned as well, one of them fatally.


Aleksandr Zaporozhsky

Alexander Zaporozhsky was an operative in Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. He was sentenced in 2003 to 18 years for secret cooperation with the United States. He was released as part of the swap after serving seven years.


Gennady Vasilenko

Gennady Semyonovich Vasilenko ( rus, Геннадий Семёнович Василенко) is the only person swapped from the Russian side who was not convicted on espionage (high treason) charges. He was a KGB officer who worked for external intelligence and counter-intelligence departments during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988, presumably having been fingered by a Russian mole in the FBI,
Robert Hanssen Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is an American former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) double agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described ...
, he fell under suspicion of being a double agent. Vasilenko was not convicted but instead sacked from the KGB. He was arrested in 2005 and charged with an attempted murder. Due to lack of evidence this charge was dropped. Instead, he was sentenced to three years on possession of illegal firearms and explosive materials. In 2009, Vasilenko was convicted and sentenced again for allegedly trying to bribe facility officials. According to media reports (which cite anonymous sources in Russian intelligence), Vasilenko was included in the list for the swap due to a personal request from a CIA officer who knew Vasilenko when he was posted in the U.S. under diplomatic cover from 1976 to 1981.


Others held by Russia

Alexander Sypachev ( rus, Александр Сыпачев) was a colonel in the Russian intelligence service who was arrested after delivering a report to a secret location in 2002. He was sentenced to eight years for spying for the CIA. He was reported to have been considered for a swap but was not among the four Russians released. Six others were considered for exchange as an even 11:11 swap, but were not exchanged in Vienna.


Political ramifications

While there was speculation that the arrests of the alleged spies, which occurred barely 72 hours after President Medvedev's White House visit, might cast a shadow over President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
's effort to improve relations between the US and Russia, on June 30, 2010, the US administration said that it would not expel Russian diplomats and it expressed no indignation that Russia had apparently been caught spying on it. On June 29, 2010, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s comment said: "Revelations about spy rings are the last thing a politician like Medvedev, who presents himself as a moderniser, needs"; in its July 1, 2010, issue, ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' wrote: "The revelations have caused embarrassment in Moscow, not so much because Russia was caught spying on America, but because it did it so clumsily. Old KGB spies this week lamented the decline in professional standards. But the scandal has rather more serious domestic implications too. It punctures the mystique that helped allow the security services to gain such clout under
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
, Russia's former president and present prime minister and a former KGB spy. The story discredits him and his circle of
silovik In the Russian political lexicon, a ''silovik'' ( rus, силови́к, p=sʲɪlɐˈvʲik; plural: ''siloviki'', rus, силовики́, p=sʲɪləvʲɪˈkʲi) is a person who works in the Russian Armed Forces, the Russian national police, ...
i, the former and present members of the security services. Being laughed at is worse than being feared." On February 1, 2011,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
's
cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
made a decision to expel a Russian diplomat from the country – the first time since 1983, after the Irish government, based on an investigation conducted by the
Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gover ...
Special Detective Unit , headquarters = Harcourt Street, Dublin (D2) , formed = as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) , preceding1 = Garda Special Branch , preceding2 = , jurisdiction = Ireland , employees = Undisclosed~ 300 , budget = Undisclosed ...
(SDU), concluded that the Russian security agent based at the Russian embassy in
Rathgar Rathgar (), is a suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It was originally a village which from 1862 was part of the township of Rathmines and Rathgar; it was absorbed by the growing city and became a suburb in 1930. It lies about three kilometres south of ...
gathered details from six genuine Irish passports that were then effectively cloned in Russia for the US-based spies. Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs said, "The Government, by today's action, has once again made clear that it will not tolerate the fabrication and use of forged Irish passports by agents of a foreign State." On February 4, 2011, the Irish press identified the expelled diplomat as Alexander Smirnov, first secretary in the Russian embassy's consular section. On February 2, 2011, Russia threatened retaliation.


Aftermath of the swap

After the Russian agents were returned to Russia, they were delivered to the SVR headquarters. They were not technically arrested, and relatives could visit them. However, they were not allowed to leave the facility until after the debriefing process, which took several weeks, as the Russian authorities appeared to suspect that betrayal—by any of the agents themselves or not—could be a plausible explanation for their exposure. According to her lawyer, Vicky Peláez was placed in a Moscow apartment provided by Russian authorities. She turned down a 2,000 USD per month offer from the Russian government and planned to return to Peru. On June 28, 2010, the UK revoked Anna Chapman's UK citizenship. On July 13, 2010, Russian intelligence sources were quoted as saying that the deported Russian agents would undergo a rigorous series of tests, including a lie detector, to establish whether any of them acted as a double agent. The spy affair attracted media attention, including Chapman being described as "glamorous" and U.S.
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
Joe Biden joking shortly after the swap on a television chat show to comedian
Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...
when asked "Do we have any spies that hot?" by saying "Let me be clear. It wasn't my idea to send her back."Biden tells Jay Leno US got good deal in spy swap.
/ref> Joe Biden also said of the Russian agents: "And the ten, they've been here a long time, but they hadn't done much." In July 2010, while visiting
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
(
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
), Russian prime minister
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
told reporters,"Putin Sings With Deported Spies"
''
The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...
'', July 26, 2010.
without specifying the date, that he had had a meeting with the agents, specifically acknowledging that Chapman was among them; he said that they had had "a tough life" and been turned in as a result of "betrayal"; he also sang with the agents to live music some songs, including "From Where the Motherland Begins" (What the Motherland Begins With or What Does the Motherland Start With). Putin declined to evaluate their work saying that it was not up to him to evaluate but up to specialists and the "ultimate consumers of the information of such type, the Supreme Commander – the president of the Russian Federation." The defector former GRU agent,
Viktor Suvorov Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...
, was scornful of both the agents and the agencies that sent them. In mid-August 2010, Sir Stephen Lander, Director-General of
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
(1996–2002) voiced an opinion that the very existence of a ring of Russian "illegals" was no laughing matter: "The fact that they're nondescript or don't look serious is part of the charm of the business. That's why the Russians are so successful at some of this stuff. They're able to put people in those positions over time to build up their cover to be useful. They are part of a machine. ... And the machine is a very professional and serious one.""Russia's intelligence attack: The Anna Chapman danger"
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, August 17, 2010.
In October 2010, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
recognized those "Intelligence agents who worked in the United States and returned to Russia in July" together with other members of the Russian ''SVR'' for their service to the motherland in ceremonies held at the Kremlin. In November 2010, an unidentified Kremlin official told ''Kommersant'' that an
assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
plan for the alleged defector "Colonel Shcherbakov" was already in the works: "We know who he is and where he is." The source added that "a Mercader" was sent after Shcherbakov—a reference to assassin
Ramón Mercader Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río (7 February 1913 – 18 October 1978),Photograph oMercader's Gravestone/ref> more commonly known as Ramón Mercader, was a Spanish communist and NKVD agent, who assassinated Russian Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Tr ...
who murdered
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
in Mexico with an ice axe in 1940. The newspaper article's author later said that the statement could have been made in jest ("spy humour"). On November 13, 2010, U.S. intelligence analyst David Wise suggested that, assuming Shcherbakov was in the US, he must be under FBI protection. In November 2010, the Interfax news agency cited an unidentified "Russian intelligence source" as saying that "Colonel Alexander Poteyev, a former deputy head of the U.S. division of Directorate S (illegal intelligence) within the SVR" was the subject of both internal and criminal investigations, with the criminal case likely to have been opened as per Article 275 of the RF
Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...
(high treason). Poteyev's identity (full name: ''Александр Николаевич Потеев'') was confirmed by other ex-KGB and ex-SVR sources. The revelations in the Russian media about the 'treachery' within the SVR were seen by commentators as a sign of an ongoing struggle within the RF top bureaucracy for control over the administratively autonomous agency that had been part of the USSR KGB. On December 1, 2010, commentator and researcher
Bill Gertz William D. Gertz (born March 28, 1952) is an American editor, columnist and reporter for ''The Washington Times''. He is the author of eight books and writes a weekly column on the Pentagon and national security issues called "Inside the Ring". Du ...
quoted a "former intelligence official close to the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
" (NSA) as saying that the FBI and the NSA were conducting a counterintelligence probe at the NSA Fort Meade, Md., headquarters in a top-secret hunt for a Russian agent, believing that the spy ring was likely acting as conduits for information coming from "one or more Russian spies that NSA is convinced reside at Fort Meade and possibly other DoD offices, like DIA". Bill Gertz's report prompted the Russian intelligence expert
Andrei Soldatov Andrei Alekseyevich Soldatov (russian: Андрей Алексеевич Солдатов, born 4 October 1975 in Moscow, Russia) is a Russian investigative journalist and Russian security services expert. Together with fellow journalist Irina B ...
to question the quasi-official version about Poteyev's responsibility. In a ''
Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles s ...
'' interview, aired by
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
about the same time, Russian prime minister Putin maintained that the Russian agents "deserved unconditional respect"; according to him, no harm had been done to U.S. interests, and that they would only become operational "in crisis periods, say, in case of a breakup of the diplomatic relations." On December 16, 2010, prime minister Putin, when answering the question during a televised call-in show about whether he ever signed assassination orders, said that hit squads had long been abolished in Russia; speaking specifically of the turncoat allegedly responsible for exposing the ten sleeper agents, he denounced him as a "brute" and a "pig" saying that "the traitors will croak all by themselves", adding that a traitor's life is miserable and regrettable. On May 3, 2011 in Moscow, Alexander Poteyev was indicted on high treason and desertion charges and later put on trial ''
in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in absen ...
''. On 27 June 2011, he was found guilty ''in absentia'' on both charges and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment; the judge's verdict said that Poteyev was recruited to the CIA in 1999. His court-appointed advocate said that Poteyev's
remuneration Remuneration is the pay or other financial compensation provided in exchange for an employee's ''services performed'' (not to be confused with giving (away), or donating, or the act of providing to). A number of complementary benefits in additio ...
from the US government might have reached $55 million. In July 2012, new details about the agents' activities were revealed that suggested that some of them planned to recruit their children to become agents.


See also

*
Rudolf Abel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (russian: Рудольф Иванович Абель), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 – 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by ...
,
Gary Powers Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 i ...
, and
Frederic Pryor Frederic LeRoy Pryor (April 23, 1933 – September 2, 2019)Richard Sandomir ''New York Times'' (September 11, 2019). was an American economist. While studying in Berlin during the partition of the city in 1961, he was imprisoned in East Germa ...
– swapped in 1962 * Russian influence operations in the United States * ''
The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX (TV channel), FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg ...
'' – a 2013 period drama TV series about Soviet deep-cover agents inspired by the events of the Illegals Program * ''
Allegiance An allegiance is a duty of fidelity said to be owed, or freely committed, by the people, subjects or citizens to their state or sovereign. Etymology From Middle English ''ligeaunce'' (see medieval Latin ''ligeantia'', "a liegance"). The ''al ...
'' – a TV series * ''
Little Nikita ''Little Nikita'' is a 1988 American thriller film directed by Richard Benjamin and starring River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier. The film marks the first collaboration between Phoenix and Poitier (the second being '' Sneakers'' in 1992). Plot Jef ...
–'' a 1988 movie starring
Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...
and
River Phoenix River Jude Phoenix (; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician and activist. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He ha ...
, about Soviet deep cover agents.


References


External links


Official Press Release
from the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
Office of Public Affairs (includes copies of both indictments)
Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case
at the FBI
"Criminal Complaints From the Justice Department"
at ''The New York Times''
Profile: Russia's 'spies' in the suburbs
BBC News, July 2, 2010, includes related stories and video
Collected news and commentary
at ''The Guardian''

at ''The New York Times''
Anna Chapman, One Last Look
at The Smoking Gun, July 28, 2010, includes mugshots of the other spies
The Illegals: Russia's Elite Spies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Illegals Program Russian spies 2010 in the United States Russia–United States relations Spy rings Espionage scandals and incidents 2010 in Russia 2010 in international relations Russia intelligence operations Ireland–Russia relations Prisoner exchanges Articles containing video clips