Russian spies

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KGB Spies May Have Done a Huge Favor for Successors

Investigators believe they obtained Brazilian birth certificates for next generation of spies

(Newser) - As the Soviet Union started to collapse, KGB spies in Brazil may have done their Russian successors a huge favor. Investigators trying to determine how Brazil became an "assembly line" for deep-cover Russian agents believe KGB agents in the country obtained birth certificates for nonexistent babies in the final...

Brazil Was 'Assembly Line' for Deep-Cover Russian Spies

Their job wasn't to spy on Brazil, but to become Brazilians with perfect cover stories

(Newser) - Russia is known to have deep-cover spies in numerous countries—but the ones it sent to Brazil were different. According to a New York Times investigation, Moscow used the country as an "assembly line" for spies whose job it was "not to spy on Brazil, but to become...

Latvia: Those Hikers Might Actually Be Russian Spies

Officials warn adaptable spies may be carrying survival gear, medical kits, maps, and radios

(Newser) - They might look like lost tourists—unkempt and overloaded with gear—or hikers with military haircuts, survival gear, and no clue how to behave in the woods. But Latvia's intelligence agency said Wednesday that they might actually be Russian saboteurs and spies, per the AP . In its annual report,...

Queen Only Later Learned Her Art Adviser Led a Double Life

Declassified MI5 files show she wasn't told about Anthony Blunt was a spy until 1973

(Newser) - Queen Elizabeth II wasn't told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn't want to add to her worries, newly declassified documents reveal. The files about royal art historian Anthony Blunt are among a trove from the intelligence agency...

Popular Whale Rumored to Be 'Russian Spy' Is Dead
We Now Know How the
'Russian Spy' Whale Died
UPDATED
Sep 10, 2024 9:35 AM CDT

We Now Know How the 'Russian Spy' Whale Died

Kind of—beluga known as Hvaldimir had a stick stuck in its mouth, per Norwegian police

(Newser) - On Monday, Norwegian police said they'd found zero evidence that supposed "Russian spy" whale Hvaldimir, found dead in Norway's waters last month, had been shot to death, as some animal rights activists had alleged, per the AP . Now, an answer on the marine creature's premature demise:...

Report: Russia Planned to Assassinate Defector in Florida

Putin 'wants all these guys dead'

(Newser) - Some 80 years after Ramon Mercader killed Leon Trotsky in Mexico City on orders from Josef Stalin, Vladimir Putin's regime plotted to send "a modern-day Mercader" to kill a Russian defector living in Florida, according to an upcoming book from Calder Walton, a Harvard scholar of national security...

Robert Hanssen, Spy for Russia, Dies in Prison

FBI agent sold US secrets for years for $1.4M

(Newser) - Robert Hanssen, the notorious FBI agent who sold national security secrets to Russia for years—making dead drops in a Virginia park—in one of the most harmful espionage cases in US history, died Monday in a Colorado prison. He was found unresponsive in his cell, the Federal Bureau of...

Report: Russia Is Spying With Civilian Boats

Nordic public broadcasters say they've uncovered spying program in the North Sea

(Newser) - A joint investigation by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland has uncovered a large fleet of Russian spy ships allegedly posing as fishing vessels in the North Sea. The broadcasters—DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden, and Yle in Finland—say about 50 Russian...

Alleged Russian Spy Tried to Infiltrate War Crimes Court

Dutch authorities say man posed as Brazilian

(Newser) - Dutch authorities say they've stopped a Russian spy from infiltrating the International Criminal Court, which is investigating alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine and Georgia. The suspected operative of Russia's GRU military intelligence service posed as a 33-year-old Brazilian named Viktor Muller Ferreira, who'd successfully applied for...

Russia Spy Who Inspired The Americans Is Dead
Russia Spy Who Inspired
The Americans Is Dead
OBITUARY
Apr 22, 2022 12:17 PM CDT

Russia Spy Who Inspired The Americans Is Dead

Mikhail Vasenkov reportedly died April 6 at age 79

(Newser) - The most senior of 10 Russian spies unmasked in the US in 2010 in a case that inspired the TV show The Americans has died. Mikhail Vasenkov, who worked for years in secrecy in Yonkers, New York, died April 6 at the age of 79, according to an announcement from...

'Tragic Accident' Near Russian Embassy in Berlin Raises Eyebrows

Body of 35-year-old was found last month. Was he a diplomat or a spy?

(Newser) - Last month, a man's body was discovered on the pavement outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Now, more news on who the man was, though details are still murky. Der Spiegel reports that the deceased was a Russian diplomat, and that he'd apparently fallen from an upper floor....

Ever Wanted a KGB-Era Lipstick Gun? Now's Your Chance

NYC museum dedicated to Cold War espionage shuts down for good

(Newser) - What's been billed as the world's largest collection of KGB memorabilia has been on display in Manhattan for nearly two years, the labor of love of a Lithuanian collector who wanted to share with the world these 3,500 or so remnants of the Cold War. Now, per...

Report: Russian Spies Posed as Plumbers in Davos

Though Russia raises some questions about the report

(Newser) - It sounds like the plot of a movie: Police in Davos, Switzerland, believe Russian spies attempted to infiltrate this week's World Economic Forum by posing as plumbers, according to a local report and the Financial Times . Suspicion first arose when police questioned two Russian men back in August, after...

A Big Victory for Man Whose Parents Were Russian Spies


Mom, Dad Were
Russian Spies,
and He Just
Won Citizenship
in case you missed it
Dec 28, 2019 12:00 PM CST

Mom, Dad Were Russian Spies, and He Just Won Citizenship

Alexander Vavilov can live in Canada. His parents' story inspired 'The Americans'

(Newser) - Alexander Vavilov was born in Toronto 25 years ago. Under normal circumstances, that would automatically give him Canadian citizenship. His particular circumstances, however, were anything but normal. Vavilov's parents were secret Russian spies who were eventually unmasked—a case that inspired the hit TV series The Americans. Vavilov has...

'He Handed Them the Formula for the A-Bomb'

Oscar Seborer was part of a family of spies

(Newser) - Three Soviet spies were at Los Alamos during World War II, stealing atomic secrets—that we know. Now the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence reports on Oscar Seborer, a fourth, previously unknown figure who may have "handed" Soviets the A-bomb formula before defecting to the USSR. Born in New...

Russian Operative Heads Home
Butina's Next Stop: Russia
Oct 25, 2019 2:53 PM CDT

Butina's Next Stop: Russia

Russian operative will be deported after being freed from prison

(Newser) - Maria Butina, the Russian who pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a clandestine foreign agent by making connections with the Trump administration, NRA, and other conservative heavy-hitters, has been freed from federal prison. She was turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation Friday, NPR reports. Butina...

Maria Butina Admits Plot to Infiltrate NRA

Pleads guilty to single conspiracy charge

(Newser) - A Russian woman accused of being a secret agent admitted Thursday that she conspired to infiltrate the American gun-rights movement to gather intelligence on conservative political groups as Donald Trump rose to power. Maria Butina, 30, agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with...

Russia: OK, Release Our Accused Spy

Moscow calls charges against Maria Butina 'fabricated,' asks Pompeo to release her

(Newser) - The week of Russia whiplash continues , with Moscow now demanding the release of a Russian woman accused of being a covert spy , reports the New York Times . Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the request Saturday during a phone call to counterpart Mike Pompeo in which he "stressed that the...

Prosecutors: Maria Butina Tried to Trade Sex for Access

Feds lay out more allegations against accused Russian spy

(Newser) - The US government on Wednesday continued to flesh out its case against the 29-year-old Siberian woman accused of spying for Russia , and its most recently revealed allegations include offers of sex and contacts with the spy agency that succeeded the KGB. Prosecutors laid out the allegations in documents filed Wednesday...

Canadian Government Takes Son of Russian Spies to Court

Alex Vavilov was born in Toronto and wants to live there

(Newser) - Recent university graduate Alex Vavilov was born in Toronto, which would typically qualify him for Canadian citizenship except for one thing: His parents were part of a notorious Russian spy ring in North America, the AP reports. That is the conflict at the heart of a high-profile citizenship battle as...

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