Putin’s secret mission in UK and US laid bare as masses of Russian ‘spies undetected’ – Express

Embedding undercover operatives in the likes of the UK and the US has been a favoured Russian intelligence tactic since the dawn of the Cold War. Unlike Russian intelligence officers masquerading as diplomats, so-called illegals are typically far more difficult to uncover.

For this reason, Dr Calder Walton, historian and former barrister at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, predicted there is almost certainly a web of unknown illegals embedded in Western countries, unbeknownst to domestic intelligence agencies.

Dr Walton told Express.co.uk: "Are there illegals operating in Western countries today that the security services do not know about? Almost certainly.

There was a large-scale Russian illegal operation uncovered in the US in 2010.

And I'm confident to say that there are other networks that the security services do not know about, it would seem improbable if there were not."

Dr Walton, author of the upcoming book, Spies:The Epic Intelligence War between East and West", pointed to one of the most infamous discoveries of illegals in Western countries.

Anna Chapman, otherwise known as Anna Vasilyevna Kushchenko, was part of a ring of Russian spies arrested in the US in 2010.

The FBI described the operatives goals as cultivating influence in the highest echelons of US society.

However, accounts suggest the group was largely unsuccessful in feeding useful intelligence back to the Kremlin.

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The most patriotic thing that somebody can do would be to live overseas, under an alias, carefully recruiting people and undertaking active measures as directed, all the while right under the noses of the domestic security services."

Dr Walton added: Whether they're successful, we don't know.

How many are there? We don't know.

But it seems difficult to believe that Putin will have just given up and not be undertaking illegals anymore."

This comes after the head of MI6, Richard Moore, said a handful of illegals had been discovered in Europe since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.

The UK foreign intelligence chief added: Across Europe, roughly half - at last count, something north of 400 Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover have been expelled.

We reckon in the UK, thats probably reduced their ability to do their business, to spy for Russia in Europe, by half.

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Putin's secret mission in UK and US laid bare as masses of Russian 'spies undetected' - Express