The American television CBS showed a documentary that reveals the details of the operation of the American counterintelligence service during the arrest of a network of Russian spies in 2010.
This scandal is considered one of the largest in the modern history of the Secret Service.
The BBC reveals what new details have become known from interviews with former and current FBI officials, who have been gathering information about Russian intelligence for many years.
The operation, dubbed "Ghost Stories" by the FBI, began in 2000 and involved dozens of officers from several departments.
"This was probably the largest counterintelligence investigation in the entire history of the FBI," said Alan Kohler, deputy director of the agency's counterintelligence division.
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The highlight of the operation was the arrest of ten people, eight of whom, according to the FBI, were particularly valuable personnel - they were illegal agents.
These people were sent by the USSR and Russia to other countries with false documents in order to carry out long-term autonomous work.
Illegal agents pretend to be born and raised in another friendly country and try to obtain classified information, usually only available to the local political or military elite.
"Fantastic agents" and Morse code
"They were fantastic agents. I kept asking myself if we knew everything, if 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 Ritchie.
She led the case against Russian spies who worked in the territory of New York state.
The first in the FBI's spotlight in 2000 were Juan Lazaro (according to the US counterintelligence service, his real name is Mikhail Vasenkov) and Vicky Pilares.
After establishing surveillance on the couple, the Secret Service soon noticed that Lazaro occasionally drove out of town on the same route on weekends.
He didn't stop by anywhere and, after a while, he would return home. The FBI was able to determine that during those days, Lazaro turned on a short-wave radio receiver located in the car and transmitted messages to the Russian intelligence service.
Encryption was done the old-fashioned way, via Morse code.
No more is said about Lazar (Vasenkov) in the film.
He is believed to have been the most experienced and hard-working of all the Russians arrested in the US.
In 2020, the Russian foreign intelligence service declassified Vasenkov and admitted that he was awarded the Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner and the Red Star for the successful execution of Moscow's tasks.
"Modern Russian intelligence no longer hunts for military maps or information considered classified from a technical point of view.
"They're interested in anything that can give their country a competitive advantage," FBI Special Agent Tide Shelton said.
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The circle is widening
According to FBI officials, in 2004 they began monitoring several more married couples they suspected of working for the Russian intelligence service.
Cynthia Murphy and her husband Richard (according to US data, their real names are Lidija and Vladimir Guriev) attracted the special attention of the counterintelligence service.
According to FBI officials, Cynthia was the soloist in this pair.
She received a master's degree from the prestigious Columbia University and got a job in finance.
"Working in financial services provided Cynthia with the opportunity to obtain information valuable to economists in Russia," FBI agents said.
But most of all, the American counterintelligence service became concerned when the woman tried to befriend people who were about to join the CIA (the American intelligence service specializing in foreign operations).
Cynthia's husband, Richard, devoted a lot of attention to raising their two daughters.
But he also managed to occasionally secretly meet with representatives of the Russian embassy and other Russian illegal agents.
For example, according to the FBI, at one of these meetings, Richard received US$175.000 for his operations, as well as another US$60.000 with a separate instruction.
A little later, Richard carefully put that bundle of money in bags and taped it, then buried it in the woods near New York.
The FBI installed cameras at that location, and after two years, in 2006, saw how the money was successfully unearthed by a man named Michael Zottoli (the FBI believes his real name is Mihail Kucik).
Since 2004, another married couple, who have been "under surveillance" by the FBI, have also shown increased activity.
They are Donald Heathfield and Tracy Foley (according to the FBI, their real names are Andrei Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova).
Donald graduated from Harvard University and often attended alumni meetings in order to, according to the FBI, "get access to people who might be in power at some point."
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Donald also developed a computer program that could be used for strategic forecasting.
"This gave him access to many people who possessed valuable information for Russia.
"For example, access to a person who worked in the US government and had access to information related to nuclear technologies.
"We also knew that Heathfield was collecting information about how he could get into the service of the US Secretary of State," says Officer Shelton.
The FBI had to work hard to prevent Donald from getting close to the nuclear technology expert.
According to FBI officials, they sometimes had to arrange for Heathfield's so-called random acquaintances with some supposedly interesting people or come up with something else to thwart the meetings.
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Progress and important silence
In the film, it is mentioned that the FBI managed to make a real breakthrough after 2006, conducting a successful search of the house of Cynthia and Richard Murphy (Gurievi).
Counterintelligence found notebooks with codes and a pile of old diskettes.
At first glance, the floppy disks appeared to be empty.
But by inserting a floppy disk into a computer and entering a 27-digit password, FBI operatives were able to open a messaging system between illegal agents and Moscow.
"It completely changed the whole game.
"From that moment we were able to read every message that Richard and Cynthia Murphy sent to the Center [that's the intelligence jargon for the apartment that is the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service in Moscow - BBC note] and every message that the Center sent to Richard and Cynthia " says FBI Special Agent Richie.
The film does not say how the counterintelligence agents were able to find the 27-digit password in the pile of papers and belongings of the Murphy family.
The authors also do not say how the FBI managed to get hold of the network of Russian illegal agents in the first place, despite the fact that the answer to this question has long been known.
The failure of such a number of spies is the result of the transfer of the senior officer of the Russian foreign intelligence service, Alexander Poteyev, to the side of the United States of America.
According to the Russian investigation, Poteev was recruited by the Americans in 1999.
As deputy head of the 4th Department of the "C" Directorate, Poteyev was in charge of Russian illegal agents throughout North America.
Moreover, as stated in the judgment of the Military Court of the Moscow Garrison,
Poteev personally knew each of the informants he betrayed.
By court decision, the former colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison, deprived of his military rank and awards. In 2016, it was announced that Potejev, who was then living in the United States of America, had died suddenly.
However, in 2018, journalists from the BBC and Buzzfeed managed to establish that he was alive.
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The cap is closedara
In 2009, FBI officials learned that two more people who could be Russian intelligence agents, Mikhail Semenko and Anna Chapman, had arrived in the US.
They were representatives of the younger generation (they were around 30 years old) and did not hide their Russian origin.
According to the FBI, Semenko and Chapman posed a threat to American security because they had a new communication system with Moscow.
This meant that counterintelligence could no longer intercept their messages.
According to FBI officials, Chapman's laptop, loaded with special equipment and additional programs, was able to transmit messages to the curator's laptop even when it was turned off.
The FBI recorded that Chapmanova was just walking on the street with a computer in her bag at a distance of several tens of meters from the Russian diplomat, who was also walking with a computer in her bag.
Counter-intelligence officers claim that during that walk they were able to register a short exchange of messages between two switched off computers.
It was decided that "Ghost Stories" will end with arrests and a trial in 2010.
In the film, this is explained by the fact that the spies got too close to American state secrets.
However, there is another version according to which Colonel Poteyev, 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, there was madness.
"All staff of the headquarters, who participated in the operation, worked around the clock, seven days a week.
"Airplanes were flying in the sky to follow the suspects," said Alan Kohler, the FBI's deputy director of counterintelligence.
"We used virtually all of our outside surveillance staff for this operation," adds Ed Foley, who was in charge of leading the surveillance team in New York State.
The situation was complicated by the fact that they did not have enough material to arrest four married couples.
And as for Chapmanova and Semenko, who had almost arrived, there was practically nothing on the basis of which they could be prosecuted.
Then the FBI decided to conduct the operation "Under a foreign flag" as soon as possible.
The film does not specify how the counter-intelligence agents managed to get in touch with the recently arrived Russians.
Most likely, Colonel Potejev told them the password and recall, which are necessary in such cases to meet highly conspiratorial agents.
Posing as men sent by Russia's foreign intelligence service, FBI agents took turns meeting with Chapnamov and Semenkov and giving them assignments.
Ana was asked to give someone a fake passport, and Mihail was asked to hide a pile of money in the park under the bridge, supposedly for another intelligence officer.
According to FBI agents, both Russians agreed to carry out the assigned tasks.
The neighbors of the arrested 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," remarked one of the arrested neighbors with disbelief.
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"A unique opportunity to talk to the enemy"
Immediately after the arrest, Washington and Moscow began negotiations.
"I invited my Russian colleague Fredakov [in 2010 Mikhail Fredakov was the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation]. And I told him: 'We have arrested ten people, they are your people'.
"And he replied, 'Yes, those are our people.'
"Then the expression on the faces of everyone who sat with me in the cabinet was seen - wow, they admit that they are agents. That's how the negotiations began," says former CIA Director Leon Panetta.
It was soon decided to exchange the ten arrested in the USA for four who are in Russian prisons on charges of espionage for the benefit of Western intelligence services.
Among them was the former officer of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned in 2018 in Great Britain.
It is interesting that the spies who were arrested in the US for exchange flew together with FBI agents who had been following them for years.
"It seems to me that I knew these people better than some of my family members!" says officer Ritchie.
Some of the Russians were very gloomy during the flight, while others had a philosophical attitude towards everything, according to FBI officials who accompanied the Russians.
"When you investigate an agent, you look at him only through the lens of work and only see him as a villain.
"But when you meet him in person, everything is different," counterintelligence officer Kohler recalls.
FBI officials remember how difficult it was for them to watch, how all these events affected the children of the arrested spies.
For ten years, counterintelligence officers watched as the children, many of whom were born in the US, grew up before their eyes.
Shortly after the exchange, three families, out of four, managed to be reunited.
Only the son of Mihailo Vesenkov, Juan Lazaro Jr. decided to stay in the USA.
Now he continues his career as a pianist there.
Officer Sheldon recounted a striking conversation with Michael Zoloti (who at the time had already admitted to being Russian):
"We asked him how long he would stay in the USA? And he replied that he would stay forever, that he liked the USA very much, and that his life was excellent.
"A counterintelligence officer rarely gets the opportunity to speak directly with his opponent. And this was a surreal experience."
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