The Russian Illegals, 2010
Mark Stout
Historian, International Spy Museum
Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University
June, 2011
What is…
• …an “illegal”?
• …a “spetsagent”?
• …a “special reserve officer”?
• …Directorate S of the SVR?
2
Line N: Illegal Support
• SVR “Residency”
• Line N officers in each
residency to support ops
by illegals
• Also spotting, assessing,
and recruiting.
• Often support illegals
working in other
countries.
3
Selection and Training
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•
•
•
Selected young
“Illegals are
Marriage and children loners, strangers
Training
in a crowd.”
Challenges
Concealment device of
a Soviet illegal at the
International Spy Museum.
4
Legends and Documentation
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•
•
•
•
New identities: “legends”
Phony citizenship
University degrees
Jobs, professional associations
Marriage and children
5
What Do Illegals Do?
• Spot
• Recruit
• Run
• “Illegals…seldom insert
themselves in sensitive
posts or target
governments”
• Especially important in
wartime/crisis: “konservy”
They are involved in the
clandestine activities, the
main purpose of which is
to be actively involved
during the crisis times and
when the diplomatic ties
are suspended, when
other means of
intelligence service are
not efficient or sometimes
are not possible.
--Vladimir Putin on Larry King Live.
6
2010: Illegals in the US
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Roster
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•
•
•
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•
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ILLEGALS
Donald Heathfield
(Boston)
Tracey Lee Ann Foley
(Boston)
Richard Murphy (New
Jersey)
Cynthia Murphy (New
Jersey)
Michael Zottoli (Seattle)
Patricia Mills (Seattle)
Juan Lazaro (Yonkers)
•
•
•
•
SPETSAGENTS (?)
Vicky Pelaez (Yonkers)
Anna Chapman (NYC)
Mikhail Semenko
(Arlington, VA)
Alexey Karetnikov (Seattle)
SPECIAL RESERVE OFFICER (?)
• Christopher Metsos (int’l)
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Christopher Metsos
•
•
•
•
•
Special reserve officer?
Claimed to be Canadian
Come and go from the US
Conduit for money, guidance to the illegals
Arrested, skipped bail in Cyprus.
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Boston: Donald Heathfield
• Real name: Andrey
Bezrukov
• Naturalized, from
Canada
• Claimed son of
Canadian diplomat,
studied in Czech
Republic
• Entered US in 1999
10
Boston: Tracey Lee Ann Foley
Tracey
Lee Ann Foley
aka Yelena Vavilova
Cambridge Home
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Boston: Donald Heathfield
• MPA Kennedy
School, Harvard,
2000.
• A “joiner,” kept
track of classmates
• Member, World
Future Society
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Boston: Donald Heathfield
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Boston: Donald Heathfield
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New Jersey: The Murphys
Richard aka Vladimir Guryev
Cynthia aka Lidiya Guryeva
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New Jersey: The Murphys
Montclair New Jersey House
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New Jersey: Richard Murphy
• Came to the US in the
mid-1990s
• Claimed to be an
American born in
Philadelphia
• Birth certificate forged
• Metsos to Murphy:
“Well, I’m so happy I’m
not your handler.”
(March 2002)
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New Jersey: Cynthia
Murphy
• Two bachelor degrees from
NYU and an MBA from
Columbia
• On LinkedIn
• VP of Morea Financial
Services in New York
• Targeted Alan Patricof
– Venture capitalist
– Co-Chair of Hillary Clinton’s
campaign
– He says never discussed
anything more than his taxes.
18
New Jersey: Richard and Cynthia
Murphy
• Concerns about their
legends
• Center steered their
careers
• 2009 Center tells Cynthia
to strengthen ties with
profs/classmates
– Access
– Security checks
– Students who’d applied to
CIA
Well done. A good job….
Our tech people in NY
didn’t notice anything
suspicious.
--SVR to NJ Conspirators
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Yonkers: Pelaez and Lazaro
• Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro
• Two sons, one an adult
• Arrived in US in 1980s
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Juan Lazaro
• General Mikhail
Vasenkov
• Claimed Peruvian from
Uruguay
• Former adjunct prof of
Political Science at
Baruch College
• Falsifying info in reports
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Vicky Pelaez
• Well-known left-wing
journalist.
• El Diario/ La Prensa
• 1984 held hostage by
MRTA in Peru
“Vicky Pelaez knows,
as we also know, that
the charges against
her are malicious and
false”
--Committee to Defend
Vicky Pelaez
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Yonkers: Pelaez and Lazaro
• Lazaro communicated by radio with Center
• They also used “invisible ink”
• 14 January 2000 video surveillance in a park in
S. America, Pelaez receives money
• 25 August 2007 Lazaro in a park in S. America
receives money from Russian Embassy official
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What Did Russia Target?
• Cultivating contacts
• Speculation about running an agent at
NSA
• Geography:
– Boston: Government
– New York: Business and Government
– Seattle: Tech?
– Washington: Government
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What Did Russia Target?
• Foreign Policy
• Intelligence
• Terrorism
• Economic info
• Military Info
• Domestic politics
You were sent to USA for
long-term service trip. Your
education, bank acounts, car,
house etc. – all these serve
one goal: fulfill your main
mission, i.e. to search and
develop ties in policymaking
circles and send intels to C.
--SVR to Murphys, 2009
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QUESTIONS?
CSPAN URL
Why Do (Post-)Communist Countries
Use Illegals?
• Lack of
embassies
• Individuals
valued less?
• Immigration
• Scrutiny of the
population
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Colonel Aleksandr Poteyev
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