Russians Among Us
Page 40
Sutyagin was taken to the office of the head of the prison: https://www.rferl.org/a/Interview_Igor_Sutyagin_Discusses_Spy_Swap_Life_In_England/2127860.html.
“It’s a very simple deal”: Sutyagin’s recollections from “Ruing Exile, Russian Says He’s No Spy,” New York Times, August 13, 2010; https://www.rferl.org/a/Interview_Igor_Sutyagin_Discusses_Spy_Swap_Life_In_England/2127860.html; and Katherine Butler, “Spy Swap Scientist Pays a Price for His Freedom, Independent, September 29, 2010.
“I was between a rock and a hard place”: “Ruing Exile, Russian Says He’s No Spy,” New York Times, August 13, 2010.
Some Russian officials: Kommersant, November 11, 2010.
The agreement was that: https://www.kp.ru/daily/24603/775004/.
the prisoners were expecting to be freed: Account from Russo and Dezenhall, Best of Enemies.
“you get so accustomed”: Vavilova Tomsk TV interview.
did not want to go to Russia: Panetta, Worthy Fights.
“The only Russian thing my mother likes is vodka with passion fruit”: “Sons Still Don’t Believe Parents Were Spies,” New York Post, July 9, 2010.
Alex and Timothy, Heathfield and Foley’s two sons: Details of the family’s recollections drawn from Alex Foley and Timothy Vavilov’s affidavits and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley; also Vavilov and Bezrukov TV interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CvRgpSFxSA.
“I had mixed emotions in that cell”: Vicky Pelaez 2011 interview with Revista Caretas, https://nuestragente2010.wordpress.com/%E2%96%BA-vicky-pelaez-regresa-al-peru/.
Her lawyer afterward said she was expecting: “The Russian Swap-Stakes—Anna & Spies Traded to the Reds,” New York Post, July 9, 2010.
22: VIENNA
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this”: Russo and Dezenhall, Best of Enemies, p. 287.
Sutyagin would later say: https://www.kp.ru/daily/24603/775004/.
“Do you think it’s a trick?”: Recollections of flight from Moscow to Vienna, https://web.archive.org/web/20100819011114/http://www.novayagazeta.ru:80/data/2010/087/11.html, and Russo and Dezenhall, Best of Enemies.
Vavilova later recalled: Email from Vavilova and https://www.kp.ru/daily/26986.4/4045797/.
Sutyagin was given instructions as he disembarked: “Ruing Exile, Russian Says He’s No Spy,” New York Times, August 13, 2010.
“It took 40 seconds”: Modern Spies, BBC TV.
“Nice try, motherfucker”: Russo and Dezenhall, Best of Enemies, p. 289.
no band or big welcoming party: Sutyagin’s arrival in the UK, https://web.archive.org/web/20100819011114/http://www.novayagazeta.ru:80/data/2010/087/11.html.
he dreamed of returning to Russia: https://republic.ru/russia/v_tyurme_ya_rasskazyval_zaklyuchennym_o_kvantovoy-431251.xhtml.
warnings from multiple people: “Freed Russian Analyst Sutyagin Yearns for Home,” Associated Press, August 13, 2010, and https://www.rferl.org/a/Interview_Igor_Sutyagin_Discusses_Spy_Swap_Life_In_England/2127860.html.
23: ANGER
the illegals were taken to the forest at Yasenevo: https://www.mk.ru/politics/article/2010/07/12/515908-razvedchikam-dali-srok-na-rodine.html.
The series was one of Putin’s favorites: Gaddy and Hill, Mr. Putin, p. 344, and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/vladimir-putin-russian-spy-ring.
He had died at age fifty-three: Tretyakov’s death, https://web.archive.org/web/20100731201345/https://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/081/13.html.
“died of a heart attack”: Tretyakov’s death, http://www.peteearley.com/2010/07/09/sergei-tretyakov-comrade-j-has-died/.
An autopsy confirmed the cause of death: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/piece-33102-chokes-russian.html.
This was a full-blown crisis: Kommersant, November 11, 2010.
The FSB had already been given the power to conduct operations overseas: “Politics”: “The Chekists Against the Spies,” Novaya Gazeta, November 15, 2010.
the cost of training and supporting illegals: https://www.newsru.com/russia/28jun2011/poteev.html.
“What damn illegals?”: Soldatov comments, https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/why-a-young-american-wants-to-be-a-russian-spy-16845.
Old SVR hands did their best: “Former Russian Intelligence Officers Analyze Recent Spy Scandal,” Novaya Gazeta, November 26, 2011.
“we talked deep into the night”: Friscolanti, “The Russian Spies Who Raised Us.”
“In the end, they had an understanding”: Bezrukov interview, “Why Spies Are Like Scientists,” Russian Reporter, October 11, 2012, https://expert.ru/russian_reporter/2012/40/pochemu-shpionyi-pohozhi-na-uchenyih/.
“They understood us”: Vavilova Tomsk TV interview.
take down Morse code at twenty groups a minute: “30 Years Undercover,” Прямой эфир, July 9, 2019.
taken on a tour: Trips around Russia described in https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley.
feared he might have been turned: Gordievsky, Next Stop Execution, p. 142.
“He was sore as hell”: “The Illegals,” Inside Story, BBC, 1992.
Michael Zottoli: Interfax December 24, 2012, and https://fief.ru/img/files/180707_list_RUS_EU_participants.pdf.
“Class with Andrei Bezrukov”: http://www.thesetonian.com/2018/04/11/student-journeys-to-moscow-for-foreign-policy-studies/.
“Just watch The Americans”: Heathfield talking to Russian students in 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rX3_A6am8.
“The result is quite close to reality”: Heathfield on The Americans, https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2781713.
spoke together mainly in English: Heathfield on language, https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2781713 and http://www.tsu.ru/podrobnosti/andrey-bezrukov-u-razvedchika-na-dushe-koshki-ne-skrebut/.
“What I regret most of all”: Bezrukov and Vavilova TV interview 2019, https://tvzvezda.ru/news/qhistory/content/201931106-ftYfe.html.
“There are certainly no regrets”: Vavilova Tomsk TV interview.
“I feel I have lost touch with my previous self”: Alex and Timothy Vavilov comments from their Canadian court affidavits.
“We don’t have a very close relationship”: Bezrukov and Vavilova TV interview, 2019, https://tvzvezda.ru/news/qhistory/content/201931106-ftYfe.html.
“He doesn’t want to stay in Russia”: Boudreaux, “Busted Russian Spy Wants Old Life Back.”
“very strong words”: Vicky Palaez 2011 interview with Revista Caretas, https://nuestragente2010.wordpress.com/%E2%96%BA-vicky-pelaez-regresa-al-peru/.
“collateral damage”: https://mundo.sputniknews.com/opinion/20110805149975896/.
“sleazy glitz”: Lucas, Deception, pp. 14 and 190.
Anna Chapman and Vladimir Putin: One person even claimed that Chapman had said she had spent time with the other illegals at a villa on the Black Sea with Putin and that she had been singled out for a ride with him in his personal submarine. https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2012/01/the-big-russian-life-of-anna-chapman-ex-spy-067223.
“She quickly became disappointed in Alex”: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7873299/Friends-of-Russian-spy-Anna-Chapman-call-ex-husband-a-rag.html.
“We didn’t much like Poteyev himself as a person”: Vavilova Tomsk TV interview.
“He had a choice. He made his choice”: Bezrukov interview, “Why Spies Are Like Scientists,” Russian Reporter, October 11, 2012, https://expert.ru/russian_reporter/2012/40/pochemu-shpionyi-pohozhi-na-uchenyih/.
“It was no coincidence”: Fradkov comments, interview with Rossiyiskaya Gazeta, December 20, 2010.
“We know who and where he is”: Kommersant, November 11, 2010.
of his regular TV appearances: Transcript of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s annual Q&A session, broadcast on December 16 by Rossiya 1 and Rossiya 24 TV channels and Mayak and Vesti FM radio stations and reproduced
in English on Putin’s official website.
24: STILL AMONG US
Frith was another illegal: Details of the Frith case from Pierre Briancon, “The Story of a Russian Illegal,” Politico, June 17, 2016, and New Zealand Herald, March 14, 2018. A Russian spy operated under a fake New Zealand identity and additional information from sources with knowledge of the case.
A Russian report after Poteyev’s trial: New Times website, May 23, 2011.
the EU and NATO uncovered twenty illegals: NATO figures of illegals from https://twitter.com/RidT/status/1022253545800650752/photo/1.
The case was a perfect example: Details of Anschlag case from Welt am Sonntag website on July 19, 2015.
the world’s largest video platform: Use of YouTube, https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article112870150/Die-Vorliebe-von-Alpenkuh1-fuer-Cristiano-Ronaldo.htm.
The Anschlags served relatively short prison sentences: Details of Anschlag case from Focus magazine, June 25, 2012.
The couple moved to Belgium: “Belgian Spy Couple,” http://www.mo.be/en/news/belgium-chases-russian-spy-couple and a detailed report in Le Monde, July 25, 2018.
A few weeks later a sensational headline: “MI5 Quizzed MP’s Aide on ‘Spy Links,’ Sunday Times, August 29, 2010. The details of MI5’s claims and the evidence presented in the legal battle are drawn from Special Immigrations Appeals Commission transcripts.
Evgeny Buryakov arrived in New York: Details of Buryakov case drawn from indictment, DOJ press release on his conviction, and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-15/the-spy-who-added-me-on-linkedin.
Page says he has always sought to: Letter to House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from Carter Page, May 22, 2017.
The FBI never believed that Page: The 2008 contact and further detail on Page are cited in the Mueller report.
“This isn’t about just stealing classified”: Ricci quoted in information.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-15/the-spy-who-added-me-on-linkedin.
25: A NEW CONFLICT
the annual meeting of the Valdai Group: Details of the Valdai dinner from participants and https://www.brookings.edu/on-the-record/putins-next-move-in-russia-observations-from-the-8th-annual-valdai-international-discussion-club/; https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/cold-autumn-russia-the-valdai-club-2011-6172; and also conversations with other attendees.
Putin is said to enjoy watching House of Cards: Mikhail Zygar, All the Kremlin’s Men (New York: PublicAffairs, 2017), p. 271.
an FSB officer pulled the baseball cap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je5cjpDwAbU&feature=player_embedded.
liaison discussions about counterterrorism: A bombing at the Boston Marathon the previous month had led to attempts to improve contacts after it emerged Russian authorities had notified the United States about the extremist views of one of the attackers two years earlier. American intelligence officials involved at the time dismiss the idea that the Russians were helpful, saying they received those details along with four hundred other names in a dossier a foot thick and seeded with names of defectors to cause trouble for them by having them identified as extremists so they could not travel.
In February 2013, a military newspaper: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/05/im-sorry-for-creating-the-gerasimov-doctrine/.
although the CIA may have been able to get: It was reported that this source was extracted in 2017 amid concerns he might be identified. They are alleged to have reported on US election interference in 2016 but were operating for a number of years.
26: THE NEW ILLEGALS
What the man building the cage did not know: https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/20/media/internet-research-agency-unwitting-trump-supporters/index.html.
the KGB had recruited a Democratic Party activist: Mitrokhin archive, cited by US Intelligence Community assessment.
The Ghost Stories illegals were tasked: This is referred to in the US 2016 intelligence community assessment of Russian interference in the election.
It was registered in July 2013: https://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/ira-political-polarization/. The Oxford study sees the first activity in 2009 inside Russia and low-level English language work from 2013 but picking up significantly in 2014.
Project Lakhta’s job: Details “Project Lakhta”: indictment and other documents of Elena Khusyaynova by David Holt of FBI Washington Field Office, unsealed September 28, 2018.
“Our goal wasn’t to turn the Americans toward Russia”: https://tvrain.ru/teleshow/bremja_novostej/fabrika-447628/.
Young men and women: Adrian Chen’s account in the New York Times gives the earliest insight into it: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html.
Twitter was where it began: Details of life within the IRA, https://tvrain.ru/teleshow/bremja_novostej/fabrika-447628/.
As early as 2014: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/14/obama-russia-election-interference-241547.
“We see that in the West, including the United States”: http://iz.ru/news/623822.
a profile of Donald Trump: Bezrukov’s profile of Trump is at http://valdaiclub.com/a/reports/report-donald-trump-a-professional-profile/.
27: THE NEW WAYS
Two days later, she asked Torshin: Kevin Helson affidavit, pretrial detention request from the FBI, and government’s opposition to defendant’s motion for bond review, https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.198600/gov.uscourts.dcd.198600.26.0_1.pdf.
“If I’m a spy”: https://newrepublic.com/article/153036/maria-butina-profile-wasnt-russian-spy.
The CIA had reportedly believed: https://www.npr.org/2018/05/11/610206357/documents-reveal-how-russian-official-courted-conservatives-in-u-s-since-2009.
The FBI was adamant: This and other details from pretrial detention request are from the FBI.
Butina’s lawyers said: Motion to dismiss pretrial detention.
the Russian intelligence services would be able to use it for years to come: Robert Anderson declaration in support of sentencing memorandum in the Butina case.
28: REVENGE
Department 8 of Directorate S: Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive, pp. 505–10.
investigations have been so cursory: In Britain, investigations have been poorly handled, like that by Surrey Police into Russian exile Alexander Pereplichny, who dropped dead while jogging.
“Treason is the gravest crime possible”: Interview with the Financial Times, June 28, 2019.
former top SVR officials had got in touch with European counterparts: “Skripal: A Strange Message from the SVR,” Intelligence Online, April 11, 2018.
Russian facilities: used for communications monitoring. See “Russia Carried Out a ‘Stunning’ Breach of FBI Communications System, Escalating the Spy Game on U.S. Soil,” Yahoo News, September 16, 2019.
“TDY” travelers: Private information and “TDY Spies Used to Track Defectors,” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-spies/fewer-russian-spies-in-u-s-but-getting-harder-to-track-idUSKBN1H40JW and https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/expelled-spies-russians-tracking-defectors/index.html.
“A person who has committed treason”: Kommersant, July 8, 2016.
Poteyev, though, was not hard to find: BuzzFeed was able to find out considerable details of Poteyev’s life in Florida. See, for example, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexcampbell/alexander-poteyev-cia-vladimir-putin-russian-spy-undercover.
even as he approached the home: Details of the approach to a defector’s home were first reported by the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/us/politics/russian-informants-cia-protection.html.
“We believe we eviscerated that [program]”: Evanina comments, https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=CtsLDjWXQAI.
a KGB officer back in Dresden: Putin referring to his work with illegals, Times of London, June 26, 2017.
began to appear on talk shows: “Bezrukov and Vavilova Talk Show Appearance—30 Years Undercover,” Прямой эфир, July 9, 2019.
>
“I wish you good health”: Putin visit to Yasenevo, speech released by the Office of the President of Russia, June 28, 2017.
“I am an average undercover agent”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CvRgpSFxSA.
Index
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A4, 141
A234, 365
Abel, Rudolf, 16, 33, 279, 309–10
access agents, 160
active measures, 357, 365
Active Measures Directorate of SVR, 332
Advanced Persistent Threat. See APT
Afghanistan
Soviet invasion of, 31, 36, 70–71, 80, 176, 276
US occupation of, 216
agents, 144–45
access, 160
auxiliary, 147
of influence, 87
sleeping (see sleepers)
AIDS, 357
Alternative Futures, 112–14
Amazon, 186
American embassy, 21–22, 171–72, 366–67
American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), 211
Americans, The (television program), 7, 310–11, 396
Ames, Aldrich, 57–59, 114, 116, 118, 234, 278, 279, 285, 405n
Anschlag, Andreas, 324–26
Anschlag, Heidrun, 324–26
APT 28, 348, 350
APT 29, 348
Arab Spring, 339
Army of Jesus (Facebook page), 359
Asia Society, 334, 335
Assad, Bashar, 344
assessing, 122
atomic secrets, theft of, 6, 33
Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), 153, 155
Austria, 324
auxiliary agents, 147
backroom cases, 93
backstopping, 145
Baker, James, 405n
Balkans, 191–92
Baltics, 21, 22, 49, 355, 360