From the magazine

The Russian spies hiding in plain sight

A programme of deep-cover espionage, begun in the 1920s, is as important to Russia as ever with the expulsion of so many diplomats in the wake of the war with Ukraine

Thomas W. Hodgkinson
Vladimir Putin welcomes the daughters of Illegals repatriated to Moscow in August last year. Their parents, Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, were posing as an Argentine couple in Slovenia.  Mikhail Voskresensky/ Pool/ AFP via Getty
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 03 May 2025
issue 03 May 2025
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  • The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West

    Shaun Walker

    Profile, pp. 448, £22

In June 2022, Vladimir Putin tipped up at a party at the headquarters of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR. This was to mark, of all things, the centenary of the country’s programme of deep-cover spies, who live for years abroad under elaborate false identities while passing secrets back to their masters at home.

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