'Ghost stories': what was the largest exposure of the Russian spy network in the United States

The American TV channel CBS showed a documentary film revealing the details of the operation of the US counterintelligence service to capture a network of Russian spies in 2010. This scandal is considered one of the most high-profile in modern intelligence history. with the BBC tells what new details became known from interviews with former and current FBI officers, who had been collecting information about Russian intelligence officers for many years.

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The operation, which the FBI called Operation Ghost Stories, began in 2000. It involved dozens of officers from several departments.

“This was probably the largest counterintelligence investigation in the history of the FBI,” said Alan Kohler, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's counterintelligence division.

The end of the operation was the arrest of 10 people, eight of whom, according to the FBI, were especially valuable cadres - illegal spies. These people were thrown by the USSR and Russia to other countries with fake documents for long-term autonomous work.

“Illegal immigrants” pretend to be born and raised in this or another friendly country, they try to obtain secret information usually available only to local political or military elites.

"Amazing Agents" and Morse Code

“They were amazing agents. I constantly thought: do we know everything, have we missed something? Maybe they know someone who knows people with access to classified information? The risks of this operation were astronomical!” - notes FBI special agent Maria Ricci. She led the case against Russian spies operating in New York State.

The first in the field of view of the FBI in 2000 were Juan Lazaro (according to US counterintelligence, his real name is Mikhail Vasenkov) and Vicky Pilares. Having established surveillance for the couple, the intelligence service soon noticed that Lazaro on weekends periodically drove out of town by car along the same route. He did not stop by and, after a while, he returned home. The FBI was able to establish that in those days Lazaro turned on the shortwave radio located in the car and transmitted messages to Russian intelligence. Moreover, the encryptions went in the old fashioned way - in Morse code.

The film does not say more about Lazaro (Vasenkov). It is believed that he was the most experienced and valuable of the Russians detained in the United States. In 2020, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service declassified Vasenkov and admitted that he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and was also awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner and the Red Star for successfully completing Moscow's assignments.

“Modern Russian intelligence officers no longer only hunt for military maps or information that is technically considered secret. They are interested in everything that can give their country a competitive advantage,” says FBI special agent Tide Shelton.

The ring expands

According to FBI officers, in 2004 they began monitoring several more married couples, suspecting them of working for Russian intelligence.

Cynthia Murphy and her husband Richard (according to the United States, their real names are Lydia and Vladimir Gurievs) attracted special attention of counterintelligence. According to FBI officers, Cynthia was the soloist in this pair. She received her MBA from the prestigious Columbia University and took a job in a financial institution.

“Working in the financial services industry gave Cynthia the opportunity to obtain information valuable to economists in Russia,” notes the FBI agent.

But most of all, US counterintelligence became concerned when a woman tried to make friends with people who were going to get a job with the CIA (a US intelligence service specializing in operations abroad).

Cynthia's husband Richard paid a lot of attention to raising his two daughters. In addition, he managed to periodically meet secretly with representatives of the Russian embassy and other Russian “illegals.” For example, according to the FBI, at one of these meetings Richard received $175 thousand for his operations, as well as $60 thousand with separate instructions.

Over time, Richard first securely wrapped this wad of money with bags and duct tape, and then buried it in the woods near New York. The FBI installed a camera in this place, and two years later (in 2006) saw how this money was successfully dug up by a man named Michael Zottoli (the FBI believes that his real name is Mikhail Kutsik).

Since 2004, another married couple, who was “under the hood” of the FBI, showed increased activity. These are Donald Heathfield and Tracy Foley (according to the FBI, their real names are Andrei Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova). Donald received a degree from Harvard University and often attended alumni gatherings to, according to the FBI, “gain access to people who may ultimately find themselves in positions of power.”

Donald, among other things, developed a computer program that could be used for strategic forecasting.

“This gave him access to many people who had information valuable to Russia. For example, a person who worked for the US government and had access to information related to nuclear technology. We also knew that Heathfield was collecting information on how to join the US State Department,” says Officer Shelton.

The FBI had to work hard to keep Donald from getting close to a nuclear expert. According to the FBI officers, sometimes for this they had to arrange, as it were, random acquaintances of Heathfield with some supposedly interesting people, or come up with other tricks so that the meetings would break down.

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Breakthrough and important silence

The film mentions that the FBI made a real breakthrough after 2006, when they conducted a successful search in the house of Cynthia and Richard Murphy (Guriev). Counterintelligence officers found notebooks with codes and a stack of old floppy disks. At first glance, the floppy disks seemed empty. But by inserting a floppy disk into the computer and entering a certain 27-digit password, FBI operatives were able to open the messaging system between “illegal immigrants” and Moscow.

“It completely changed the whole game. Now we could read every message sent by Richard and Cynthia Murphy to the Center [as the SVR headquarters in Moscow is called in intelligence jargon. — Note. BBC], and every message that the Center sent to Richard and Cynthia,” says FBI Special Agent Ricci.

The film is silent about how counterintelligence officers were able to find the 27-digit password in a heap of papers and belongings of the Murphy family. The authors also do not tell how the FBI managed to reach the network of Russian “illegals,” although the answer to this question has long been known. The failure of so many spies was a consequence of the defection of senior officer of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Alexander Poteev, to the US side.

According to Russian investigators, Poteyev was recruited by the Americans in 1999. As deputy head of the 4th Department of Directorate “C”, Poteev oversaw Russian “illegals” throughout North America. Moreover, as stated in the verdict of the Moscow Garrison Military Court, Poteev personally knew each of the intelligence officers he handed over. By a court decision, the former SVR colonel was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison and stripped of his military rank and awards. In 2016, it was reported that Poteev, who was living in the United States at that time, died suddenly. However, in 2018, journalists from the BBC and Buzzfeed managed to establish that he was alive.

The trap slams

In 2009, FBI officers learned that two more people who could be Russian intelligence officers arrived in the United States: Mikhail Semenko and Anna Chapman. They were representatives of a younger generation (about 30 years old) and did not hide their Russian origin. According to the FBI, Semenko and Chapman posed a threat to US security because they had a new communication system with Moscow. This meant that the counterintelligence officers could no longer intercept their messages.

According to FBI officers, Chapman's laptop, equipped with special equipment and additional programs, could transmit messages to the curator's laptop even when turned off. The FBI recorded Chapman simply walking down the street with a computer in her bag at a distance of several tens of meters from a Russian diplomat, who was also walking with a laptop in a case. Counterintelligence claims that during this walk they were able to record a short exchange of messages between two “sleeping” laptops.

They decided to bring the “Ghost Story” to arrests and trial in 2010. The film explains this by saying that the spies have already gotten too close to US state secrets. But there is another version, according to which Colonel Poteev, who collaborated with the Americans, felt that he would soon be discovered, and asked to be evacuated from Russia.

“The last few days before [the suspects] were arrested were pure madness. All headquarters officers involved in the operation worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We had planes in the sky to keep an eye on [the suspects],” notes FBI Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence Alan Kohler.

“We used virtually all of our surveillance officers for this operation,” adds Ed Foley, who was in charge of surveillance for the FBI in New York State.

The situation was complicated by the fact that there were enough materials to arrest four married couples. But on the recently arrived Chapman and Semenko there was practically nothing for which they could be brought to criminal responsibility. Then the FBI decided to carry out the so-called false flag operation as soon as possible. The film does not specify exactly how the counterintelligence officers were able to contact the newly arrived Russians. Most likely, Colonel Poteev informed them of the password and recall necessary in such cases for a meeting with deeply conspiratorial spies.

Depicting people sent from the SVR, the FBI took turns meeting with Chapman and Semenko and giving them assignments. Anna was asked to give someone a fake passport, and Mikhail was asked to hide a wad of money in the park under the bridge, allegedly for another scout. According to FBI agents, both Russians agreed to carry out their assigned tasks.

The next day, the FBI arrested 10 people in the United States who were being monitored as part of Operation Ghost Stories, including Chapman and Semenko. The US asked to arrest two more suspects in Europe, but they eventually managed to escape.

The neighbors of the arrested married couples could not believe that spies lived and worked next to them.

“If you had told me that they were Martians, I would have believed it more,” one of the neighbors of the arrested said incredulously.

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"A unique opportunity to talk with the enemy"

Immediately after the arrest, negotiations began between Washington and Moscow.

“I called my Russian colleague Fradkov [Mikhail Fradkov headed the SVR in 2010] and told him: “We took ten people, these are your people.” He replied: “Yes, these are our people.” In an instant, on the faces of everyone who was with me in the office, one could read: “Wow! They admit that they are spies." And so the negotiations began,” says former CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Soon it was decided to exchange ten detainees in the United States for four people detained in Russian prisons on charges of spying for Western intelligence. Among them was a former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned in 2018 in the UK.

Interestingly, the spies detained in the United States flew for the exchange with the FBI agents who had been following them for years.

“In many ways, I feel like I knew these people better than some of my family!” says Officer Ricci.

Some of the Russians looked very gloomy during the flight, others were philosophical about everything, say the FBI officers accompanying the Russians.

“When you investigate an agent, you only see him through the prism of his work, you see him as a bad guy. But when you meet him in person, everything is different,” recalls counterintelligence officer Kohler.

FBI officers recall that it was not easy for them to see how all these events affected the children of the arrested spies. For 10 years, counterintelligence officers watched as babies, many of whom were born in the United States, grew up before their eyes. Soon after the exchange, three out of four families were able to reunite. Only the son of Mikhail Vasenkov, Juan Lazaro Jr., decided to stay in the United States. Now he continues his career there as a pianist.

Officer Sheldon recounted an impressive conversation he had with Michael Zoloti (by then he had already admitted that he was a Russian): “We asked him how long he would stay in the United States? And he replied that he would stay forever, because he really liked it in the States, and they had a great life. A counterintelligence officer rarely has the opportunity to speak directly with his opponent. And it was a surreal experience."

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