Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies

Written by Gordon Corera

Narrated by Derek Perkins

With intrigue that rivals the best le Carre novels, Russians Among Us tells the urgent story of Russia’s espionage efforts against the United States and the West from the end of the Cold War to the present

Spies have long been a source of great fascination in the world of fiction, but sometimes the best spy stories happen in real life. Russians Among Us tells the full story of Putin’s escalating espionage campaign in the West, the Russian ‘deep cover’ spies who penetrated the US and the years-long FBI hunt to capture them. This book also details the recruitment, running, and escape of one of the most important spies of modern times, a man who worked inside the heart of Russian intelligence. In this thrilling account Corera tracks not only the history, but the astonishing evolution of Russian espionage, including the use of ‘cyber illegals’ who continue to manipulate us today and pose a significant threat to the 2020 election.

Like a scene from the TV drama The Americans, in the summer of 2010 a group of Russian deep cover sleeper agents were arrested. It was the culmination of a decade-long investigation, and ten people, including Anna Chapman, were swapped for four people held in Russia. At the time it was seen simply as a throwback to the Cold War. But that would prove to be a costly mistake. It was a sign that the Russian threat had never gone away and more importantly, it was shifting into a much more disruptive new phase. Today, the danger is clearer than ever following the poisoning in the UK of one of the spies who was swapped, Sergei Skripal, and the growing evidence of Russian interference in American life.

 

Russians Among Us describes for the first time the story of deep cover spies in America and the FBI agents who tracked them. In intimate and riveting detail, it reveals new information about today’s spies—as well as those trying to catch them and those trying to kill them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Feb 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9780062933614

Gordon Corera

Gordon Corera is a journalist and writer on intelligence and security issues. Since 2004 he has been a Security Correspondent for BBC News where he covers terrorism, cyber security, the work of intelligence agencies and other national security issues for BBC TV, Radio and Online.

Reviews for Russians Among Us

[max · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For anyone seeking information so they may draw their own conclusions about the true extent of Russia’s modern day espionage efforts to bring down the US, it’s a must read.

[rt3tech · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you loved the Americans, you'll love this deep dive into how it really went down for Phillip and Elizabeth.

[Christian Fullerton Amendola · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Must Read, could not put it down, would read again.

[Tyler Meers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting book about the world of espionage and the Russian illegals program, as well as the complex Anglo-American-Russo relations. Sure it can be a little dry since The Americans has lots of action, but overall it’s not exactly a truthful account of the illegals program. Thorough, fascinating and very informative. Highly recommended. If you like The Americans or spy non fiction, then you’ll enjoy this one.

[jim · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Propaganda, full of false information, Wikileaks is more informative source.

[meredy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Six-word review: Spy vs. spy: we're not winning.Russian "illegal" Andrey Bezrukov lived for twelve years as a Canadian citizen named Donald Heathfield and then eleven as an American while spying for Russia. His career was the model for the deep-cover Russian agents in the TV series The Americans. Asked by a class of Russian students in 2018 what it was like to be a spy, he said, "Just watch the series," adding that it was "quite close to reality, though without the killings and the wigs" (page 310). (If he also said "without the sex," it wasn't quoted.) His career in espionage ended in June of 2010 along with those of several others in an FBI roundup that was grossly humiliating to Putin's Russia, where the sleeper agents were considered heroes, the jewels of Russian spycraft. Capping the unbearable humiliation of the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the incident left Putin with an insatiable thirst for revenge.And so we come to the election of 2016.Today, three days before the U.S. election of 2020, I have just finished reading the book and am pondering the things that have clicked into place. Not least among them is that it affords a particular view of Russia's interest in American elections that I have not seen discussed in countless written articles by columnists and commentators in dominant U.S. media.I have read four or five books on Russia and Putin in the past few years, but this one delved into territory I had not explored before.Among the main ideas that I took away are• that even though the Cold War was considered "over" by the CIA and the UK's counterpart, MI6, which moved on to terrorism as their primary concern in international conflict, Russian spying never abated but just changed as technology changed;• that most American authorities stopped taking it seriously after the Cold War ended, but Russia remained "patient and persistent" (page 396);• that influence--among power wielders and ordinary citizens alike--became a major aim of the Russian agencies, rather than espionage per se, meaning stealing secrets; and• that while we in the West were still thinking about war and peace in conventional terms, the Russians were thinking about bringing chaos and destabilization to the West, unbalancing and dividing allies and populations, along with destruction of faith in their institutions and systems--a different sort of victory altogether, and one that we have sorely underestimated.One of many points that surprised me was that fictional drama and especially spy stories actually shape how both Russia and the West think about "how the world really works and what their adversaries are up to" (page 341). Author Gordon Corera, security correspondent for the BBC since 2004, has high credibility as a journalist with a long track record covering spy cases and investigators with the CIA, MI6, and Russia. His capably crafted and very readable narrative of the personal histories and missions of Russian spies from the Cold War to the present is backed by interviews and documented reports from numerous informed sources, some openly identified and some in sensitive positions protected.Many names we know from news stories over the past decades appear, including FBI and CIA directors Mueller and Panetta, respectively, and those of Russian poisoning victims Litvinenko, Skripal, and Navalny. This book was published before Navalny in September 2020 became the latest high-profile victim of the Russian-made nerve agent Novichok. Right now, in the breathless suspense of the countdown to victory and defeat in the 2020 presidential election, wild theories abound on all sides. I don't think this account is a wild theory. Skeptic though I am, I found it credible and compelling.The book has 28 pages of notes and an adequate index. The editing seems a little lax in places, as if performed in haste.