The Illegals Program (so named by the United States Department of Justice) was a network of Russian sleeper agents under unofficial cover. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) culminated in the arrest of ten agents on June 27, 2010, and a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States on July 9, 2010.
The arrested spies were Russian nationals who had been planted in the US by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (known by its Russian abbreviation, SVR), most of them using false identities. 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 US and an eleventh in Cyprus. 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.Ten Alleged Secret Agents Arrested in the United States Monday, June 28, 2010, United States Department of Justice official web site.Shifrel, Scott; Kennedy, Helen; and Sherisan, Michael. "Russian spy ring: 11th suspect arrested in Cyprus; Moscow calls spy claims 'baseless and improper'" , Daily News (New York), June 29, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
The suspect arrested in Cyprus skipped bail the day after his arrest.Staff. "Russian spy suspect missing in Cyprus, say police", BBC News, June 30, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2010. A twelfth person, a Russian national who worked for Microsoft, was also apprehended about the same time and deported 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 US without being arrested.
Ten of the agents were flown to Vienna 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 for espionage (high treason) on behalf of the US and UK."Russia, U.S. swap 14 in Cold War-style spy exchange" , Reuters, July 9, 2010.
On October 31, 2011, the FBI publicly released several dozen still images, clips from surveillance video, and documents related to its investigation in response to Freedom of Information Act requests."FBI releases video, papers on Russian spy ring " (October 31, 2011). Associated Press.
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, in the mid-1990s, before purchasing a nearby home in suburban Montclair. Another couple named in court documents were journalist Vicky Peláez and Mikhail Vasenkov (using the alias Juan Lazaro) in Yonkers, New York. 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 US 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 and Central Park.Montanaro, Domenico. "Ten arrested, accused of spying for Russia", MSNBC, June 28, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
The Russian agents were tasked by "Moscow centre" to report about US policy in Central America, US interpretation of Russian foreign policy, problems with US 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, Montclair (New Jersey), Yonkers, and Northern Virginia. They charged the individuals with money laundering 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 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,"New arrest in Russian 'deep cover' case" , CNN, June 28, 2010. while attempting to depart from Cyprus for Budapest, but was released on bail and then disappeared.Barnes, Taylor. "Russian spy ring paymaster disappears from Cyprus" , The Christian Science Monitor, July 1, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
There was no evidence that the convicted agents knew each other beyond their respective spouses; military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer believed that they consequently did not constitute a "spy ring".
Shortly after the arrests, The Guardian 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. [Defector Sergei Tretyakov died in the United States. He was suspected of handing over 11 Russian spies]. NEWSru, 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 U.S. authorities about some of the "illegals",Неожиданная смерть перебежчика [Unexpected death of defector]. Novoye Russkoye Slovo, July 16, 2010. Tretyakov's co-author Pete Earley, citing anonymous "well-informed" sources, said in July 2010 that Tretyakov had not been privy to the case of Russian "illegals"."Биограф умершего перебежчика Третьякова: он ничего не знал о 10 шпионах из РФ" [Biographer of deceased defector Tretyakov: He knew nothing about 10 spies from the Russian Federation]. NEWSru, July 10, 2010.
The November 11, 2010, issue of span broadsheet Kommersant 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 , )."Полковник СВР Щербаков взят под защиту ФБР" [SVR Colonel Shcherbakov taken under FBI protection]. NEWSru, November 14, 2010. 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 US "three days prior to Dmitry Medvedev's June visit to the U.S." According to other media outlets' sources, the name "Shcherbakov" was fictitious,Коммерсант' назвал предателя, сдавшего русских шпионов в США" [Kommersant called a traitor who turned in Russian spies in the US]. NEWSru, November 11, 2010. and a number of experts and commentators judged many allegations in the article to be dubious or improbable.Felgenhauer, Pavel. "Чекисты против шпионов" [Chekists against spies]. . Novaya Gazeta, November 15, 2010."Убедительна ли версия провала сети российских нелегалов в США из-за предательства перебежчика? Об этом говорим с зам главного редактора холдинга 'Совершенно секретно' Леонидом Велеховым, бывшим генералом КГБ Олегом Калугиным и независимым журналистом Дмитрием Сидоровым, пишущим для 'Форбс' и 'Новой газеты [Is the account of the failure of the network of Russian illegal immigrants in the United States due to the betrayal of a defector convincing? We discuss this with Leonid Velekhov, deputy editor-in-chief of the Top Secret holding, Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general, and Dmitry Sidorov, a freelance journalist who writes for Forbes and Novaya Gazeta]. Radio Liberty, November 11, 2010."В СВР доказывают, что история с предателем Щербаковым, сдавшим русских шпионов, вымышленная" [Foreign Intelligence Service proves that the story of the traitor Shcherbakov, who surrendered Russian spies, is fictitious]. NEWSru, November 12, 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" [Medvedev responds to the exposure of a traitor who handed over a dozen Russian spies in the United States]. NEWSru, November 12, 2010. On November 15, 2010, Interfax 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" [The Poteevs spied on the whole family]. . Rosbalt.ru, November 16, 2010. According to Interfaxs 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 ()—was arrested with nine others in 2010. According to U.S. authorities, her former name is Anya Kushchenko, In Russian, "Anya" is a diminutive form of the given name Anna. and she is a Volgograd native. (According to some reports, she was born in Ukraine.)"CМИ: 'Русская Мата Хари' в США соблазнила миллионера и теперь пугает американских морпехов" [Media: 'Russian Mata Hari' in the US seduced a millionaire and now scares US Marines]. NEWSru, December 7, 2017. Her father was employed in the Russian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her master's in economics degree from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow. She later worked in London at NetJets, Barclays Bank, and other companies.