When CIA director George Tenet went to talk to the leadership of Russia House: John Sipher and Steve Hall in the Cipher Brief special report “Foreign Influence, Domestic Division: The Kremlin and the American President.”
Directorate S told agents to look for people who might have access to Western DNA databases: Kouzminov, Biological Espionage, p. 125.
transferred money from the United Kingdom to Zimbabwe: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295606/Redhead-spy-linked-UK-money-smuggling-ring.html.
“Anna had seductive charm”: Richard Woods, “The Spy Next Door,” Sunday Times, July 4, 2010.
100 billion pounds over the last twenty years: “Moscow’s Gold,” Foreign Affairs Select Committee report, May 21, 2018.
“significant risks” were being taken: UK Intelligence and Security Committee, 2003–2004 annual report.
with more aggressive spying abroad: “Russia Steps Up Espionage,” Jane’s Intelligence Digest, November 27, 2002.
By 2005, MI5 was warning: Jane’s Intelligence Review, February 16, 2006.
“My dream was to go to London and find a rich husband”: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315056/Agent-Anna-The-Man-Hunter-London-flatmate-reveals-Russian-spy-used-sex-prey-string-oligarchs.html.
specifically attending Boujis nightclub to meet Princes William and Harry: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/russian-spy-anna-chapman-had-wills-233061 and interview with Nicholas Camilleri.
target a ballerina in Paris: Pavel Sudaplatov, Special Tasks (London: Little, Brown, 1994), p. 247.
“sleeping agents” who would marry influential foreigners: Kouzminov, Biological Espionage, p. 104.
12: THE SPECTRE
no one would believe him: Details drawn from evidence to Litvinenko inquiry, particularly transcripts of police interviews. Also reporting carried out at the time and interviews with Marina Litvinenko and others who knew Alexander Litvinenko.
“Would you tell us who that person is?” asked the police officer: Scotland Yard record of November 20, 2006, interview with Edwin Carter (Litvinenko’s alias).
Berezovsky in London: I found myself entering a strange world when I arrived at Berezovsky’s swanky office in Mayfair, full of bodyguards and aides, before being taken into a large conference room where I sat alone with the former oligarch and one interpreter who helped him when he struggled to find an English word to convey his message that Putin was a murderer.
Litvinenko turned to Yuri Shvets: Yuri Shvets witness statement, Litvinenko Inquiry.
A major in the Russian tax police claimed Litvinenko: www.kp.ru/daily/23930/69736, 2007 interview.
“It began to dawn on me, that all was not what it seemed”: Andrei Lugovoi at a press conference June 1, 2007.
“When the British agents started to approach me”: Interview with El País in 2008, quoted in Litvinenko Inquiry report.
“piss on their grave”: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/world/europe/skripal-poison-russia-spy-spain.html.
13: MOSCOW RULES
according to an official Russian investigation: https://www.newsru.com/russia/27jun2011/poteev_prigovor.html; https://www.newsru.com/russia/28jun2011/poteev.html and “Prosecutor Proposes to Sentence Poteyev to 25 Years in Absentia,” Interfax, June 20, 2011.
On January 25, 2003, Poteyev suffered: https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2010/11/21/573-predatelya-znali-vse.
14: THE CONTROLLER
a Special Reserve officer: Details from Kouzminov, FBI complaint, and also Oleg Gordievsky, who says these officers were also known as the Nagayev Group after their first commander. His own brother was one—traveling across Europe, Africa, and Asia. In one case he had to contact and bring back another illegal who had gone mad in Sweden. Oleg Gordievsky, Next Stop Execution (London: Macmillan, 1995), p. 136.
The central identity this man used was Canadian: Some reports say this passport was obtained through the Canadian embassy in South Africa.
The FBI believes he first came to the United States for operational work as early as 1993: The FBI Wanted poster for Metsos lists him as being wanted for acting as an unregistered agent in the United States from 1993 to 2005.
belonged to a car wash: “Accused Spy Studied at Vermont Military College,” Associated Press, June 29, 2010, and http://old.themoscowtimes.com/sitemap/free/2010/7/article/how-a-suspected-spy-eluded-capture-in-cyprus/409771.html.
They were married on June 5, 2005: Other pairings like the Murphys and Heathfield/Foley had been sent out as couples. It is possible that in the Seattle case they had always been intended to operate together but their legends were documented differently as an American and Canadian and they were ready at different times. It is also possible that there was a probationary period for their relationship to make sure they were compatible before they got married.
Both attended the University of Washington: http://www.bothell-reporter.com/news/alleged-russian-spies-received-business-degrees-from-the-university-of-washington-bothell/.
high-tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon: One of the classes the illegals took at the university required students to create a website and complete a scavenger hunt with one of the tasks being to find Bill Gates’s home address. The Russian consulate in Seattle would be closed in 2018 after it was reckoned by some to be a major spy facility with officers using it as their base from which to look for dead-drop and signal sites in places like Oregon beaches. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/29/what-really-went-on-at-russias-seattle-consulate-217761.
15: MURPHY STEPS UP
Paul Hampel was about to board: Federal Court in the matter of the person alleging to be Paul William Hampel, http://www.4law.co.il/cansp1.pdf; https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alleged-spy-beat-passport-curbs/article18178241/; and “Jet Setter’s Life Veiled by Secrecy,” National Post, November 22, 2006. The Balkans as his target is mentioned in documents from Registrar of Citizenship in Canada sent to Alexander Vavilov, dated August 15, 2014.
“We all high-fived ourselves because they didn’t spot us”: “Operation Ghost Stories: The Spies Next Door,” CNN Declassified, July 22, 2017.
Gerard had been to Moscow on vacation in 2005: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/us-spy-ring-probe-donegal-firefighter-quizzed-28545338.html.
16: ANNA TAKES MANHATTAN
“Relentless”: details in this chapter drawn from one of a number of interviews with individuals who knew her in New York.
A $1 million loan from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5500693/British-former-husband-Russian-spy-Anna-Chapman-DEAD.html.
“All dreams may come true if you act on it”: The website for a final one, NYCRentals.com, was bought for around $25,000 in June 2010. Edward Lucas, Deception (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), p. 169.
“Not vulgar, but very flirtatious”: https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/russian-spy-ring-anna-chapman-accused-regular-nyc/story?id=11044883.
“He definitely didn’t seem to be hiding anything”: https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/russian_spy_network_included_s.html.
“He seemed a lot younger than 27”: https://www.alternet.org/story/147941/i_was_a_landlord_to_a_russian_spy,_and_he_was_a_total_slob.
“filthy imperialist economy from within”: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703374104575337533081334118.
Semenko returned to Russia in late 2009: https://www.washingtonian.com/2010/08/24/my-landlord-was-a-russian-spy/.
“Russia/China” expert: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/another-twist-in-the-russ_b_639652.html and http://washingtonnote.com/close_call_with/.
A wireless network was detected: FBI complaint against Semenko.
Semenko emailed the president of the AFPC: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/30/my-spy-story/.
Alexey Karetnikov: http://www.newsweek.com/miscrosofts-russian-spy-was-greasy-foreign-and-loved-snickers-217422 and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-07-14/microsoft-says-12th-alleged-russian-spy-worked-at-its-redmond
-headquarters.
17: CLOSING IN
“taken a class in Suburbia 101”: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7871348/Richard-and-Cynthia-Murphy-suburbias-Spies-Next-Door.html.
“Look what she did with the hydrangeas”: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29spy.html.
“I was just struck at how accomplished she was”: https://www.nj.com/news/2010/06/accused_russian_spies_children_nightmare.html.
But the KGB caught him: Previous cases of illegals turning against the system from Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive, pp. 260 and 339.
“three major ways [for Richard Murphy]”: July 1, 2010, detention request to Judge Ellis.
Patricof: “FBI Watched, Then Acted as Russian Spy Moved Closer to Hillary Clinton,” TheHill.com, October 22, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/356630-fbi-watched-then-acted-as-russian-spy-moved-closer-to-hillary.
“In the end, some of this just comes down to what it always does in Washington”: Ibid.
“Several were getting close”: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/31/nation/la-na-russian-spies-20111101.
Colleagues remember him as grumpy and unhappy: “Accused Russian Spies Sure Fooled People in the Seattle Area,” Seattle Times, July 1, 2010, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/accused-russian-spies-sure-fooled-people-in-the-seattle-area/ and James Ross Gardner, “The Russian Spies Who Fooled Seattle,” SeattleMet, October 30, 2017, https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2017/10/30/the-russian-spies-who-fooled-seattle.
skiing with his family in Whistler: Timothy Vavilov affidavit.
“We were alarmed when in the end when their team won”: Vaviolova Tomsk TV interview.
Rudolf Herrmann, an illegal: Rudolf Herrmann case from Barron, KGB Today; Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive; and https://ceospeaks.wordpress.com/category/from-russia-with-love/.
But the father was confronted by the FBI: This led to him acting as a double agent for two years (although KGB files suggest he was trying to send warning signs to Moscow about what was happening, which Moscow Center failed to notice).
Friends recall him being ambitious: https://www.gwhatchet.com/2010/07/08/details-emerge-about-gw-student-professors-tied-to-couple-in-russian-spy-case/.
“whatever makes me money”: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111402704.html??noredirect=on.
saluted Mother Russia: “Russian Spy Ring Aimed to Make Children Agents,” Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2012.
“just as ridiculous as it sounds”: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley.
“It’s logical to presume, and we suspect he knew”: Richard DesLauriers comments from “Son of Spies May Have Known Secret,” Boston Globe, August 25, 2010.
“Had they been allowed to continue”: Mueller comments from BBC, “Modern Spies.”
18: DECISION TIME
was surrounded: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/betrayer-and-betrayed-new-documents-reveal-truth-on-nato-s-most-damaging-spy-a-693315.html.
NATO officials said the damage was comparable: https://www.eesti.ca/portrait-of-a-well-placed-mole-estonian-life/article46769 and Edward Lucas, Deception (London: Bloomsbury, 2012).
“It was one of the longer years in my career”: Craig Fair comments from “Operation Ghost Stories: The Spies Next Door,” CNN Declassified, July 22, 2017.
now needed to get out of Russia “immediately”: Reference to “immediately” from John Brennan briefing Robert Gates. See Gates’s memoir, Duty (New York: Vintage, 2015), p. 409.
“There were a number of reasons there”: Robert Mueller comments from Modern Spies, BBC TV, April 2, 2012.
“As I looked round the White House”: McFaul comments are from his book From Cold War to Hot Peace (London: Penguin 2018), pp. 202–4.
the whole arrest plan should be shelved: Account based on conversation with a number of officials involved in decision making and Robert Gates’s memoir. Through spokespeople, Tom Donilon and Vice President Biden declined to comment.
Gates would understand: Gates talking to Panetta, in Gates, Duty, p. 409.
“This was part of a long story”: Interview with Leon Panetta.
“That would be long, exhaustive”: Interview with Leon Panetta.
to “minimize the fallout”: Leon Panetta, Worthy Fights (New York: Penguin, 2015).
19: ESCAPE
making his final preparations to flee: A month or so earlier Poteyev had made a request to visit a mistress in Odessa for a week, saying she had just given birth to a child. But this was turned down, according to Russian reports.
One account says he rushed from a meeting: “Foes Among the Friends,” New Times, May 23, 2011.
The FBI had a plan: Details drawn from interviews with FBI officers and FBI complaint against Chapman and Semenko.
Only later the Russians would realize: Russian reporting of the Poteyev trial and verdict.
“We believe that she was quickly processing”: Todd A. Shelton of the Bureau, in “Operation Ghost Stories: The Spies Next Door,” CNN Declassified, July 22, 2017.
Alexander Poteyev was on the move: Details of Poteyev’s escape, primarily from Russian sources, come from “Poteyev Sentenced to 25 Years” and report by Yuriy Senatorov, “For Outstanding Services: Defector Sentenced to 25 Years’ Imprisonment in Absentia,” Kommersant Online, August 10, 2011.
“Once we knew the source was safe”: Interview with Leon Panetta.
20: THE DAY IT ENDS
At the Heathfields’ house: Details drawn from interviews by Heathfield and Foley with Russian media, interviews with FBI officials, and testimony of their children and other witnesses.
The children were left with about three hundred dollars each: Timothy Vavilov affidavit.
taken to an office in Boston: Details of Vavilova and Bezrukov arrest and initial detention from various interviews on TV, including https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDU879mQjSA&feature=player_embedded and “Why Spies Are Like Scientists,” Russian Reporter, October 11, 2012, https://expert.ru/russian_reporter/2012/40/pochemu-shpionyi-pohozhi-na-uchenyih/ and https://www.rbth.com/articles/2012/10/18/russian_spy_reveals_his_secrets_19249.html; also Alex Foley’s affidavit of March 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley.
The two daughters were later taken away: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/29/nation/la-na-russian-agents-lives-20100630 and https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/nyregion/30suspects.html.
“The hydrangeas did nothing wrong”: Richard Woods, “The Spy Next Door,” The Sunday Times, July 4, 2010.
Semenko was arrested: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703374104575337533081334118.
an FBI car intercepted them: Lazaro arrest scene, https://www.bbc.com/mundo/internacional/2010/06/100630_0427_espia_peruana_ao.
“Dozens and dozens of heavily armed FBI men”: https://mundo.sputniknews.com/opinion/20110805149975896/.
“They knew my nickname”: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/nyregion/30suspects.html.
Alan Patricof wanted to give Hillary Clinton: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5009373/FBI-surprised-Bill-Clinton-took-500-000-Russia.html.
he was stopped by Cypriot police: Details of Metsos arrest, http://old.themoscowtimes.com/sitemap/free/2010/7/article/how-a-suspected-spy-eluded-capture-in-cyprus/409771.html and https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704699604575342991962704142.
Cyprus authorities went through the motions: Cypriot leaders’ relationship with Moscow, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/02/russian-spy-ring-christopher-metsos and Cyprus Mail website, May 3, 2016.
SVR could have whisked him away: https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/gangster-geopolitics-kremlins-use-criminals-assets-abroad.
21: THE SQUEEZE
“The old Cold Warriors in the CIA’s clandestine service”: Panetta, Worthy Fights.
What did Panetta think: Panetta and Fradkov conversation drawn from ibid.
“We had ten people plus their families”: Interview with Leon Panetta.
He refused to give his real name: July 1, 2010, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York letter to Judge Ellis requesting detention order.
criminal complaint had to be carefully drafted: There were three different types of illegal: what the FBI called Cadre Illegals, like the Murphys; the Special Agent or True Name Illegals, like Chapman; and Semenko and the Traveling Illegal Metsos. Because they were not all connected to each other, they had to each be connected to Moscow Center either through their covert communications and tradecraft or through the role of Metsos and Russian embassy officers in a “hub and spoke” conspiracy. Particular focus was made on the points at which there were meetings—such as Metsos and Murphy or Murphy with Zottoli. The idea was to create a story that looped everyone in together.
“When I read the paper and saw lots of people’s names”: Vavilova Tomsk TV interview and https://www.kp.ru/daily/26986.4/4045797/.
“It’s a circus. This is pure psychological pressure”: “Feds: Alleged NY Spy Guy More Devoted to Russia than Son,” Gothamist, July 2, 2010.
The charges were “ridiculous”: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/29/nation/la-na-russian-agents-lives-20100630.
Vavilova recalled: Heathfield and Foley recollections from Elena Vavilova Tomsk TV interview and thirty years undercover, Прямой эфир, July 9, 2019, Russian TV show.
he believed she would not want to go to Russia: “Swap of Accused Spies in Works?” Seattle Times, July 8, 2010.
Lazaro was pressured by a heavy-handed Russian: http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/10/in_spy_swap_agents_were_pawns_in_a_practiced_game/.
“What’s your name? Your real name”: Richard Boudreaux, “Busted Russian Spy Wants Old Life Back,” Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2010, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703309704575413600124475346.
Igor Sutyagin was hard at work: https://www.rferl.org/a/Interview_Igor_Sutyagin_Discusses_Spy_Swap_Life_In_England/2127860.html; “Ruing Exile, Russian Says He’s No Spy,” New York Times, August 13, 2010; and https://web.archive.org/web/20100819011114/http://www.novayagazeta.ru:80/data/2010/087/11.html.
Russians Among Us Page 39
