The history of Russian spies from New Jersey

Vladimir and Lydia Guriev

For the unsuspecting residents of Montclair, New Jersey, this news was too unbelievable to believe so easily: their quiet, friendly neighbors were Russian spies.

An ordinary married couple, Richard and Cynthia Murphy, and their two daughters lived in a beige, two-story colonial-style house at 31 Market Road. They led a normal life - carefully choosing a school for their daughters and growing hydrangeas.

Neighbors knew that Cynthia worked as a financial planner for an accounting company in Manhattan, and Richard remained on the farm and raised 9-year-old Lisa and 11-year-old Kate.

The shocking truth surfaced in 2010, when the FBI searched the house of Murphy and found out that their real names are Vladimir and Lydia Guriev.

“You could tell me that they were Martians, and I would have been less surprised,” said Elizabeth Lapin, a poetry professor who lived in a nearby house.

Since 1990, the Guryevs have been collecting information for the Russian foreign intelligence service (analogous to the KGB). 27 June 2010, the FBI, arrested the Guryevs along with eight other alleged Russian spies who lived in Manhattan, Yonkers, Boston and northern Virginia.

Neighbors say that the Guryev family was not too socially active, but they sometimes attended local city holidays and were quite benevolent. They were hard to suspect that they were not Americans, much less spies.

“The girls set up a lemonade stand one day. It’s very American,” Lapin recalled.

How were they caught?

In the early 2000s, the FBI and CIA received information that spies from the Russian intelligence service were working in the United States. The operation, called “Illegals,” was launched before the end of the Cold War. And Russians working undercover came to the attention of American intelligence services quite a long time ago - when Bill Clinton was still President of the United States. They conducted surveillance of the Guryevs, and also once conducted a secret search in their house. FBI employees reported that the Guryevs tried their best to integrate into American society and did not even speak Russian at home.

In 2009, Lydia made connections in the financial circles of New York to get information about the global gold market. Tried to make friends with Alan Patricof, an investor specializing in ventures. The couple’s responsibilities also included collecting information about US policy in Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear program, and the latest agreement on reducing strategic offensive arms.

In the end, the FBI was able to crack the cipher that the spies used to communicate with Moscow, and found out about their secret activities. In 2009, the American special services were able to make a video showing how Vladimir met with one of the Russian officials. The authorities decided it was time to arrest the espionage nest.

What happened to the kids?

Two weeks after the arrest of the spies, Moscow and Washington made a deal. All 10 arrested intelligence officers confessed to the crimes imputed to them and were exchanged for four citizens who were "imprisoned in Russia for alleged contacts with Western intelligence agencies." The daughters Kate and Lisa, who were born in the United States, were returned to their parents in Russia. US Attorney General Eric Holder told CBS in 2010 that the children of the Guryevs and all the other children of the Russian agents were "repatriated."

What happened to the spy house?

The confiscated home of the spies who inspired the television series The Americans is up for sale for $444. The home has four bedrooms, “one and a half baths,” an updated kitchen and a backyard. The house was built in 900. The Guryevs/Murphys had three properties in total at different addresses - in New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York. The fate of the other two houses is unknown.

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