Deception: Spies, Lies and How Russia Dupes the West

by Edward Lucas

From the capture of Sidney Reilly, the 'Ace of Spies', by Lenin's Bolsheviks in 1925, to the deportation from the USA of Anna Chapman, the 'Redhead under the Bed', in 2010, Kremlin and Western spymasters have battled for supremacy for nearly a century.

In Deception Edward Lucas uncovers the real story of Chapman and her colleagues in Britain and America, unveiling their clandestine missions and the spy-hunt that led to their downfall. It reveals unknown triumphs and disasters of Western intelligence in the Cold War, providing the background to the new world of industrial and political espionage. To tell the story of post-Soviet espionage, Lucas draws on exclusive interviews with Russia's top NATO spy, Herman Simm, and unveils the horrific treatment of a Moscow lawyer who dared to challenge the ruling criminal syndicate there.

Once the threat from Moscow was international communism; now it comes from the siloviki, Russia's ruthless 'men of power'.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Politics, Espionage, Military Fiction, Contemporary

374 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Edward Lucas is a British journalist. Lucas works for The Economist, the London-based global news weekly. He was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998 to 2002, and thereafter the central and east European correspondent. He has also been a correspondent for The Independent and the BBC. Lucas also writes occasionally for The Daily Mail.

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this was an interesting book with lots of enticing anecdotes, it felt a little disorganized, unfocused in scope, and jumbled. It went from present to past to somewhere in between when it might have taken events, even if they were not necessarily geographically or politically related, chronologically.

From another angle, it seems like Lucas wanted to write a book about spying in Estonia or the Baltics but knew that the topic was too esoteric and therefore had to give it wider scope. Essentially, it needed to be two separate books: more information could have been given about espionage in and from Russia, and though I may be one of a small audience, I would have gladly torn through a book devoted to spying in the Baltics.

In the acknowledgments section he hints at having to widen the scope, which shows, and which is disappointing. A more focused tackling of whatever topic he initially chose would have been more satisfying and would have avoided giving the impression that he was trying to fit too many unrelated topics under one umbrella.

[Dmitry · Rating 1 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Просто плохо написанная книга, которая представляет из себя сборник статей. Так же автор больше полагается на мнение российских политологов и журналистов, нежели делает своё собственное умозаключение. Впрочем, это наименее важная проблема. Главная проблема всей книги в том, что она просто скучно написана и в ней нет одной центральной темы (главы книги выглядят, как я уже отметил ранее, как статьи). Поэтому хотя у меня и нет возражений того как автор обрисовывает ситуацию в России, просто эту книгу читать скучно и не интересно так же как ничего нового автор не предлагает.

It is just a poorly written book, which is a collection of articles. The author also relies more on the opinion of Russian political scientists and journalists than on his own conclusions. However, this is the least important problem. The main problem with the whole book is that it is simply boringly written and lacks one central theme (the chapters of the book look like articles, as I noted earlier). So while I have no objections to the way the author describes the situation in Russia, it is simply boring and uninteresting to read, as well as offering nothing new.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

As my husband noted when he read it, this book is really three mini-books in one. There is a really interesting section about the state of Russia today and how such a place gave rise to spies like Anna Chapman. Then there is a section about some random stories of espionage from WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Then there is a section about another specific spy, Herman Simm from Estonia. These three mini-books are not woven together very well, which means that no matter how interesting they are on their own, this makes for a very puzzling and disorienting read. An editor should have had the author reorganize it and tighten it up and it would have been fine.

Jeremy and I talked as much about this book's odd sequence of chapters as much as we did about the content of those chapters. Fortunately, I think we solved the mystery. I was almost done with the book when I chanced upon an endnote (well, I flipped to the back of the book to read an endnote, which I don't do for every single one) that I think hints at the genesis of this book. Mr. Lucas apparently planned to write a book all about Herman Simm, but must have decided that it wasn't enough material for more than two chapters (which is the treatment it gets in this final product). So then he added in a bunch of stuff about espionage in the Baltics and Russia in general. Then maybe his editor thought he should throw in some stuff about Anna Chapman et al because that's tangentially related and could bring in a lot of readers. Then they LED with the Anna Chapman stuff since it was the most exciting section of the book. So we have here a book about espionage in the Baltics, focusing on Herman Simm, that only gets at its subject 2/3 of the way through because of a lengthy detour through Anna Chapman-ville.

ANYWAY. An uneven but worthy read.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Anything written by Edward Lucas is worth reading. This is a long overdue wake up call. Edward's bottom line is that Russia is actively and successfully exploiting Western vulnerabilities associated with having open societies and having an unfounded trust in Russian support for international economic and security norms. Russia is going to incredible lengths in intelligence efforts to achieve its state aims of influence, political / economic / military power, and internal control (this latter is only marginally addressed). Western ignorance, inaction and lackluster defense are all at our own great peril. The West needs to act: recognize the facts, change its behavior towards Russia, close its vulnerability gaps, and improve its own intelligence / counter-intelligence efforts vis-a-vis Russia. Risks of inaction include continued great loss of private and state revenue, intellectual property, and greater exposure to strategic surprise and military vulnerabilities in case of conflict. The book chronicles select Cold War and recent espionage cases to lay out the level and type of effort Russia continues to exert today to uncover national, Alliance, and EU commercial / political / financial / military secrets.

[David Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this a slow read. The best part of the book was about the state of Russia today. The vignettes about WWII and the cold war were disjointed and the entirety did not flow well together. There was a lot of supposition (which may be inherent in spy craft), but does not necessarily make for engaging reading.

[Gocha Gabodze · Rating 4 out of 5]

წიგნში უამრავ კითხვაზეა პასუხი თუ რაც ხდება დღეს ჩვენს თავს. რა არის თანამედროვე რუსეთი. ვინ არიან ოლიგარქები. როგორ მუშაობს საიდუმლო სამსახურები. მათ შორის განხილულია უახლოეს წარსულში საქართველოში განხორციელებული რუსული სპეცოპერაციები.

[Marin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting recount of the aggressive Russian espionage in the West.
Some of the stories are known, but the author presents facets of the murky world of espionage and counterespionage not analysed in newspaper reports.

It would have been exciting as a thriller but the book depicts a chilling reality - the increase of the Russian espionage under Putin's paranoid dictatorial regime to the level URSS used to have before its dissolution.
It is frustrating the book was published in 2013. Since then Putin's regime became even more brazen and include media presence and attempts to influence the elections in the West and military aggression in the East.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ‘ruthless men of power’ that ‘run’ Russia are discussed in this lame / unoriginal book, which read like a poorly researched newspaper article.

[Kristjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toksiline olukord rahvusvahelistes suhetes paneb aastaid tagasi raamaturiiulile pandud teemakohaseid teoseid nüüd läbi lugema.

Sarnaselt oma ajakirjanduslikele artiklitele ja teistele teostele tabab Edward Lucas ka selle raamatuga naelapea pihta, tuues välja Lääne vajakajäämised süüdimatu Nõukogude Liidu/Venemaaga toimetades - seekord luurevaldkonnas.

Lucas ütleb kokkuvõttes: "Lääne käitumise tõsine nõrkus seisab selles, et spioonide püüdmist, kriminalsüsteemi, finantsjärelevalvet, lobitöö avalikustamist ja ajakirjanduse omandiprobleeme käsitletakse otsuste langetamise mõttes täiesti eraldi valdkondadena."

Eelneva lause tabavus seisneb faktis, et raamat on ilmunud 2012. aastal ja vahepealsetel aastatel on venelased teinud jätkanud luuretegevuse ja erioperatsioonidega, pööritanud ja pesnud miljardites eurodes raha, õlitanud poliitikuid ja ärimehi ning alles hiljuti õnnestus väidetavalt ka Forbesi omandus Vene rikkurile mängida.

Kriitika osas toon välja raamatu ülesehituse - üks raamat koosneb mitmest hästi erinevast osast, mis on kirjutatud väga erineva stiiliga. Segamini on analüüs, ajalootund, intervjuude üleskirjutused ja muud osad, aga kui teema on lugejale siiski põnev, siis õnnestub stilistikast mööda vaadata ja positiivne üldmulje saada.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book's bibliography will be the most useful part to this extremely underwhelming book, with very little new information in this. Much like the book Spycatcher, there is a lot of bias and all the excessive conjecture and somewhat shitty writing, seriously makes it not all that worthwhile.

The odd thing about this disjointed book is that I think it was three separate articles that he tried to turn into a book, and just mushed it all together.

Read the books in the biblography and maybe you'll come to the conclusion of how much this is a disappointment.

You ever read a book on Jack the Ripper or some True Crime book and get the feeling it's more about the author's opinions than the facts, and you read better explanations elsewhere?

////////

The wild Amazone

Poor writing, bad book
2/10

Edward Lucas has often written some good books about East West relations, and especially about Russia and the Soviet Union. His bias against Russia is very obvious in this book. I think it would have made for better reading if he had tried to be more objective.

As it is I found the book really sagged for most of the time; it was a struggle to finish it.

Barbara R

////////

[Kursad Albayraktaroglu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good read about the current state of affairs between Russian intelligence and the Western world; this book is based on excellent research and journalism by Lucas. However, the individual chapters are a bit disjointed- it almost looks as if the author wanted to write a book on the history of intelligence operations in Baltic countries, and decided to expand its scope at the last minute. There seems to be too much emphasis on Baltic countries; which would have been fine if the title of the book reflected this. I am still looking forward to a book that describes more recent events like the illegals caught in the USA and the attempt on Sergei Skripal in the UK.

[Vėjas Galvoje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puiki knyga, bet tikrai neskani tema  Taip norėtųsi netikėti visomis šiomis istorijomis, tačiau jos buvo, yra ir greičiausiai bus. Šnipai, įtakos sferos ir t.t. niekur nedingo, tik pasikeitė veikimo principai, metodai ir sudėtingumas.
Knygoje sunkoka sekti istorijos liniją, ypač jei klausaisi jos audio formatu, nes daugoka pavardžių ir istorijų vingiai labai sudėtingi. Visgi apie šnipus yra pasakojama ir visiškai nesvarbu ar apie pokario metus ar apie kelių metų senumo įvykius, šios istorijos visą laiką buvo ir bus nelengvai suvokiamos ir atpasakojamos.

[AliG · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, although that at some moments I was expecting to find more info about some topics.

[Ianis Ilinescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informații interesante, dar transmise într-o formă oribil de plictisitoare.

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish, was more textbook in nature

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this telling book on a list of what to read after watching The Americans.

[Cade Alejos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and very informative, but it is a little disjointed at times. Jumping around of stories/names/tactics makes it hard at time to follow what is going on. Interesting enough.

[RoseB612 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edwarda Lucase mám hodně ráda, sleduju ho na Twitteru (vynikající zdroj informací), čtu pravidelně jeho články (teď i česky v Newsweeku), ale k jeho knihám jsem se pročetla až teď.

Kdo se trochu zajímá o tématiku Ruska, tak v knize najde řadu věcí, které už zná (v řadě témat se překrývá třeba s Kundrovými Putinovi agenti: Jak ruští špioni kradou naše tajemství), ale Lucas se jim věnuje opravdu zevrubně, včetně celé řady odkazů na zdrojové dokumenty, takže opakování zde není vůbec na škodu a člověk se dozví řadu nových detailů. Zajímavá je také Lucasova pobaltská perspektiva, protože především k Estonsku má velmi blízko. Jako první linie "fronty" s Ruskem jsou tyto státy velmi názorné, a byť se o nich hodně mluví, tak přímo se jejich problematikou třeba u nás nikdo nezabývá, takže zde se člověk dozví hodně nového.

Kniha byla psána v době prezidentování Dmitrije Medveděva, tzn. před anexí Krymu a před konfliktem na východní Ukrajině, takže je z ní cítit velmi opatrná naděje na možnou normalizaci vztahů (která ale vývojem vzala za své). Mimo tento úhel pohledu ale na knize nezastaralo prakticky nic a i dnes je skvělým vhledem do tématu a určitě stojí za přečtení pro každého, komu není současná situace lhostejná.

Kontext: Ondřej Kundra u nás bude mít autorské čtení, tak jsem si načetla něco dalšího k tématu :-)

První věta: "Mrazivý dech tajné služby komunistického policejního státu zasáhl ničivě do bezpočtu životů za železnou oponou."

Poslední věta: "Jak zdůrazňuje Don Jensen: "Ti, kteří neustále volají po angažovanosti, která Rusko nakonec změní, nechápou, že se neproměňuje Rusko, ale Západ." Doufám, že tato kniha může Západu pomoci v tom, aby se takovému osudu vyhnul."

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

_Deception_ is an excellent look into the world of espionage, focused on what Russia has done in the past and what it is currently running. The book was published in 2012, but it is even more relevant today, into 2017. The Russians are continually running spies and using influence to control governments and corporations around the world.

One of the biggest take aways for me is how the government of Russia, its security services are tightly entertained with business and organized crime. There is a blurring of the lines that wouldn't be tolerated in any Western country. Russia is dying, the heads of state are enriching themselves while letting the country as a whole to rot. An excellent example is the story about how a Western company in Russia was taken advantage of to extract $250MM in tax money from the government.

The Russians take the long view to how they conduct espionage. Even though they are characterized as inept, they are determined to undermine Europe and the US in any way they can. The author pointed out in 2012 what Russia would be doing in our present, in 2017. They won't stop until the country collapses. They will build leverage against heads of state and other officials in order to subvert governments. It isn't ideology driven. It is more about bullying others to enable more profits for themselves.

[Iryna Dobrohorska · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've met Edward Lucas at my former university when he was delivering a commencement speech in June 2015. Ever since I wanted to read one of his books.

It also turned out that I am currently writing my MA thesis on Russian influence in the West, and this book evoked my interest to the topic even further. And now I on my way to finishing my MA thesis and I came across perfect statement that proves the reason why Europeans should understand Russia, and what is the mere problem of treating it as equal:

"The West should cease treating Russian rulers as equals, providing them with legitimacy they do not merit."

The author points out points faibles of the West towards treating Russia, like any other democratic power:

"We urge Western leaders to discontinue their kisses-and-hugs 'Realpolitik,' which has failed, and to stop flirting with Russian rulers - behavior that has not brought any benefits to the West and produces in Russia an impression that Putin's system is a decent one, like any other in the democratic world."

So, the point of my MA thesis, as well as the point of this book, is: "Don't flirt with Russia!"

Strongly recommend the book!

[Joni Baboci · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting - current and historical account of russian spying strategy and methods. Lucas frames this book as a warning to the west's continued complacency towards a corrupt and often criminal regime. While the West certainly takes the blame for allowing Russia's financial and economical assets both private and public, to influence western policy towards Russia, the author explains how the biggest issue is actually the West's naivity in their awareness and skewed soft approach towards russian intelligence institutions. The book focuses on the Baltic region in general and Estonia in particular especially when dealing with interesting cases and historical accounts. An all around good book.

[Odhran · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this book, I had to spend half an hour lifting up all the beds in my house to make sure there were no reds hiding underneath it.

Seriously, this is dripping with barely-concealed Russophobia. The author is apparently convinced that, not only did the international communist conspiracy exist, but that it's still ongoing, albeit with communism replaced with Russian. And the anti-Russia bias is crazy. At one point, Operation Gladio and the Strategy of Tension are referred to as "a bit of political mischief-making." F'realsies.

A fun spy book, though, even if it's crazy paranoid.

[AURORA RU · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nevarēju palasīt, aaaaa kaitinoši. Uzrakstīts (sliktā nozīmē) populārā stilā, autors visu laiku koķetē ar lasītāju, operē ar uzvārdiem, manipulē ar skaļiem jēdzieniem, bet tas viss rada tādu a la streipa-domburšova iespaidu (tēma: "Viņi izskatās kā mēs, viņi ir starp mums, bet kādi īstenībā briesmoņi!") Skaidrs, ka autors ir kvēls Rietumu vērtību aizstāvis ar dziļu Komunisma Traumu, līdz ar šo fanātismu viņam nav īstas iekšējas/strukturālas poņas/intelliģences par Krieviju - par tās vēsturi, kultūru, mentalitāti. Aaaaa, vēlreiz - kaitinoši.

[Taras · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the author's raw dislike of the Russian state. It's too rare among Englishmen.

It's always fun to hear about the ineptness of the British secret service and that even though Russian spies seem comically bad, they are effective.

I liked the author's observation that it's hard to spy on Russia. It's easy to convince spies to live in the West, but try to convince a westerner to live in the crappyness that is Russia :)...Even if you do that, good luck having him blend in.

[iain meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chilling glimpse of Russian spying by an author who obviously dislikes Mr Putin.

However the history of Western involvement after the Bolshevic revolution may explain why the Russians are somewhat paranoid about the West- the history covered in this book as well. The latest edition of the book covers everything up to Pussy Riot being arrested.

[Doronike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grāmatas sākuma un beigu nodaļas - kas veltītas jaunāko laiku notikumiem Eiropā un pasaulē izlūkdienestu darbības kontekstā, man šķiet interesantākas par vēsturisko vidusdaļu. Manuprāt, šeit autors brīžiem aiz kokiem aizmirsa par mežu, taču izlasīt un uzzināt vairāk par Rietumu izlūkdienestu darbību Baltijā pēc Otrā pasaules kara bija diezgan vērtīgi.

[Artūras Ketlerius|Knygosnugarele.lt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunku rašyti apie knygas, kurių autoriai yra tau tam tikri autoritetai. Tokiu atveju tu savaime esi šališkas ir kalbi apie jų knygas, tartum ten laksto vienaragiai ant vaivorykščių.

Maždaug taip jaučiuosi, kalbėdamas apie Edwardo Lucaso knygą „Apgaulė: šnipai, melas ir kaip Rusija mausto Vakarus“.

Plačiau: http://knygosnugarele.lt/2015/10/edwa...

[tiddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a well-researched book, providing insight to the unruly Russian way (to put it mildly), akin to the wild wild west where anything goes, as long as you're in power.

If only anyone could point me to an equivalence of this to the Chinese way, I should be so glad.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Excellent research and the author clearly exposes the threat the former USSR and now Russia poses to the entire world. Anyone who believes the end of the Cold War means Russian threats have disappeared are wrong.

[Rachel Cotterill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading, but rather too preachy for my tastes: feels more like a policy paper than a book, in places.