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

by Gordon Corera

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Espionage, Politics, Russia, Audiobook, True Crime

Audible Audio

First published February 18, 2020

About the author

Gordon Corera is a British journalist. He is the Security Correspondent for the BBC.

Reviews

[Rowan MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Excuse me, did we meet in Bangkok in April last year?”

“I don’t know about April, but I was in Thailand of May of that year”

If any random ever approaches me and asks if we’ve met before – I’m going to run.

If you’re a fan of the TV show The Americans, then this is a must-read!

I had been looking for a good book about spies – in particular one that covered recent events and somewhat tied into the real-life stories that inspired The Americans (a favourite TV show of mine). It’s immediately evident Gordon Corera knows what he’s talking about, with this book result of 20 years reporting on intelligence agencies in the West and Russia.

Corera does a great job of explaining everything in good detail, while never being overwhelming. For a book on espionage and intelligence, it’s easy to digest and doesn't require much prior knowledge.

There are lots of names being thrown around which can sometimes be difficult to keep track of. Even convicted spy “Richard Murphy” asks “Which name?”, when asked to state his name for the judge. It probably doesn’t help these individuals have numerous identities and aliases – but I got used to this after a while, as many are repeated throughout the book. All the famous names in the espionage world get a mention too: Kim Philby, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, Sasha Zhomov, Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal, Anna Chapman, Christopher Metsos, Poteyev and others. The real-life spies inspiring The Americans are followed too; “Donald Heathfield” and “Ann Foley”, “The Murphys” etc.

The book jumps in time, from the 2010 spy swap and preceding arrests, to the history of the Russian illegals program and evolution of spycraft during the last century. It makes these transitions in time quite effectively, which kept me engaged.

You can’t help feel the paranoia of spies and those living undercover. After a while, I even found myself becoming more aware of my own surroundings. I began noticing the subtleties in life; whether it be an old discarded soda can, or an out-of-place rock. Trash will never look the same! In this way, Russians Among Us oddly made me more present and mindful in everyday life!

Mum’s passport went suspiciously “missing” during a Contiki Tour in 1970s USSR, after handing it to authorities. This book convinced me that her identity was probably used by a spy at some point during the Cold War. Numerous accounts of passports being taken by embassies and officials for identity theft purposes are featured. I felt bad for laughing.

I was somewhat surprised at how unbiased Russians Among Us is. This is testament to the fantastic writing and research of Corera. This book doesn’t have an agenda or political point to push, and it's so much better for it. I developed somewhat of an admiration for both sides and the ingenuity and lengths they went to.

It wasn’t short on classic tradecraft used by spies either. Some memorable ones being:

- The ‘danger signal’, which involved holding a copy of Time Magazine in the left hand
- The “Excuse me, could we have met in..” coded questions that spies used to identify each other
- Utilising a Careers Day on Campus to note anyone signing up at the CIA stall
- Using YouTube comments sections to communicate in code to each other
- Bail-jumping, despite handing over passport, because they owned dozens of other passports and identities

The ability of undercover illegals to blend into neighbourhoods and society was impressive. I laughed at the regular mentions of the “Murphy’s” hydrangeas - with neighbours debating whether to water them or not post-arrest: “The hydrangeas did nothing wrong”

It’s impressive journalism by Gordon Corera, when you consider how little is publicly known about many of these shadowy figures. As Andrey Bezrukov ("Donald Heathfield") states about his fellow spies, “You have never heard about the best ones. And never will”. Despite a lack of information at times, Corera still succeeds in painting a picture of their lives.

The work of intelligence services and illegals is placed on the global scale, with direct impacts laid out in easy to understand ways. The damage done by turncoats on their respective organisations is mentioned too – whether it be Hanssen and FBI, or Poteyev and SVR.

This book is as much about patriotic heroes on both sides, as it is the dedication to professional craft. The painstaking surveillance done by the FBI on illegals was as impressive as the ingenuity and sacrifice by Russian illegals themselves. How crazy would it be to suddenly discover your parents were spies? This unique aspect of undercover life is discussed extensively too.

Gordon Corera’s Russians Among Us certainly makes you look twice at that neighbour watering their hydrangeas. For the record – the Russian spies loved watching The Americans. They didn’t expect creators to show the lives of spies so deeply, unbiasedly, or even with sympathy – much like Corera achieved with this remarkable work too.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were a fan of the TV show “The Americans” and were fascinated by stories of Russian sleeper cells living in the US and other countries for decades in order to spy, this book was a really cool look into all the details of the real life cases that inspired the show. I was impressed with the level of detail.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.

[Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is maybe not necessarily a 5-star book, but it was five stars of how much I enjoyed reading it. It's wildly entertaining and really informative, even if you followed the news of the 2010 spy swap and the "illegals" who'd been operating in the US, both from the end of the Cold War into the new breed of spy who lives under their own name and not those of dead babies the KGB scoured graveyards for. It's also very informative for those of us who don't read that much spy nonfiction and are easily confused when we do. All the fun stuff is here - invisible ink (they still use it!), what happens when married undercovers in bugged houses have sex (the FBI tries to tactfully not listen or fast forward but they kinda do listen anyway), numbers stations!!! The level of detail is amazing, if sometimes a little hmm - did Putin really angrily throw a bunch of papers into the air when he heard about the deal? I have my doubts, but I do love that image and I hope that he did do it.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
This was such a fascinating and informative non fiction book that details the Russian espionage efforts after the cold world. I learned so much. Highly recommend it.

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yikes. This is a scary account. They've been devilishly clever. It's scary how easy it is to snatch a birth certificate, build a biography and install the 'deep cover agent' into the house next door.

Hmmm, I'm now a little concerned about Mr and Mrs Smith across the road. They're always going on holiday, but never come back with a sun tan.

If you read this (I think you should) you might have a few questions about your neighbours. Summer's on the way. Are you sure you want to invite them around for the barbecue?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone considering this book should first watch the 1987 movie "No Way Out" starring Kevin Costner.

Corera does a very fine job with this book. The material is topical, interesting and accessible. The title and subtitle promise a grand story and the author delivers. The pace is steady and he never overplays his hand. The book occasionally reads like it's on the lighter side of the subject (I actually mean that in a positive way) but it's all really quite thought-provoking.

[QOH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accessible, engaging, and utterly chilling without resorting to hyperbole. Very much recommended.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read. Are we (the West) up to the same tricks in their back yard? Isn't all this just part-and-parcel of the spying game?

Still a good read.

[RANGER · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Five-Star Spy Story Ruined by a One-Star Deviation into Political Mythology

“Russians Among Us” by BBC Correspondent and author, Gordon Corera, is a great read about Russian “illegals” i.e., “sleeper agents,” living and operating in Post-Cold War America. Unfortunately, he makes a desperate bid for media relevancy and book sales by going off-topic (or overly broadening the topic) and delving into the 2016 election controversy in the final chapters. This left a bad taste in my mouth.

Russian espionage is a subject both near and dear to my heart, having spent over 20-years in the intelligence business myself and with a national security resume going back to the early 80s. As a result, I’ve spent much time studying Soviet and Russian intelligence operations, capabilities, and organizations. Like many of my peers from the late Cold War, I devoured non-fiction books by the likes of Viktor Suvorov, the famous Soviet Defector, who wrote detailed, popular works on the subject; and “Spycatcher” by former MI5 officer and Assistant Director, Peter Wright. But the “experts” often-times publicly discredited the likes of Suvorov, probably due to the fact the CIA had such an inept chief of counterintelligence at the time in the person of the infamous James Jesus Angleton. Fortunately, there were smart people at the FBI who knew better and built careers on tracking these people down and surveilling their every move until they knew more about them than their own families.

“Russians Among Us” is a great investigative read into the 2010 “spy case” in which the FBI arrested ten “deep cover” Russian agents who were living regular, middle-class American lives while positioning themselves to identify future spy recruits, gain access to sensitive information, and/or to move into positions of influence as political or governmental insiders. It’s a chilling expose and the ten-year FBI investigation is a worthy subject for such a book. The lives of the illegals, their hardships, their difficult decisions (especially concerning marriage, children, and an increasing fondness for their target as “home”), and their collection targets are fascinating subjects. The political complications created by this mass arrest, and the infamous “prisoner swap” that followed, is also important and engaging history. Especially as so many in the Obama administration were counting on a diplomatic “re-set” with Russia to advance Western globalist aspirations. Alas, it was not meant to be and some, forgetting Vladmir Putin’s own desires to displace America and make Russia the supreme post-Cold War power, blamed the FBI operation, dubbed “Ghost Stories”, for ruining it all.

Gordon Corera’s book would be a classic of investigative journalism and post-Cold War intelligence history if not for a single, altogether unnecessary deviation from topic that occurs in the final chapters of the book. As this was published in February 2020, Corera, probably to garner media attention in the US (his previous niche books -- about Britain’s MI6 and Carrier Pigeons in WWII -- were not the kinds of books to rocket to top of American best-seller lists), decided to add several chapters on the future of Russian espionage. Chapters 26 and 27 delve deeply into the now largely discredited idea that Russian “influence operations” and “election interference” caused Hillary Clinton to lose the 2016 elections. The tone and writing style of these two chapters is different from the rest of the book, lacking credible citations and filled with quotes by “unnamed” officials. Chapter 27 reads as if written by a Hillary Clinton campaign staffer. As of July 2022, one of the key components of this scenario, the so-called Steele Dossier, has been exposed as a fabrication financed by the Clinton campaign. The New York Times has admitted this publicly. Meanwhile, a cast of former top FBI officials including Andrew McCabe and James Comey, were removed amid evidence of their political bias and false testimony when challenged on this issue. There is certainly no doubt that the Russians (and the Chinese) meddle in American politics. But as the first 24 chapters of the book are focused on the “Ghost Stories” Operation and Russian illegals, and this “story arc” resumes in Chapter 28, one wonders why the change in subject matter. Ironically, chapter 25, about the Russian Cyber Threat, is important information. Especially as Hillary Clinton, the so-called “victim” of Russian influence operations, was known to have used an unsecured, unencrypted email server located in her bathroom while serving as Secretary of State. But irony is lost on an author who was desperately trying to court the mainstream liberal media during the height of anti-Trumpism in January 2020. This is my only serious complaint regarding this otherwise fine account. Perhaps in a better world, Gordon Corera would publish a revised edition removing these three unnecessary chapters and focusing on the original subject of interest. One hopes he will. It would move “Russians Among Us” into the realm of classic spy history.

Corera has proven once and for all those Russian illegals are real and the current nationalistic obsessions of Vladmir Putin means more of them than ever before are probably entering the US and pursuing intelligence and influence targets.

[Svetlana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super enjoyable reading! 4.5 ⭐️

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, but honestly, watching The Americans was way more fun.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! A thorough examination of how KGB agents operated in other countries, how they operate post-cold-war and the consequences of embarrassment or critique of Putin.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Russians are coming......Hold on. The Russians have always been here. Russia's secret Directorate S of the former KGB is devoted to espionage like no other nation. Special agents, known as illegals, are trained over a period of years to blend into American society. They live in suburbia. They raise their kids, join the PTA, shop at the supermarket; just like their American neighbors. These "illegals" are revered as heroes in Russian. They sacrifice living in their homeland, seeing their families; sometimes for decades.

In 2010 the FBI blew the whistle on ten illegals. They had been under close surveillance after being outed by a former Russian spy turned double agent. According to this author, the bust was an embarrassment - a cataclysmic disaster to Russia's program. Vladimir Putin, angered but undeterred, then ushered in a new era of espionage using internet social media to collect information and to sabotage the US political system. This book reads like a John LeCarre novel, frightening and fascinating.

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kept me interested the whole book. If you have a fascination or curiosity of Russia or spies in all capacities this book is a good read.

[John Behle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just released in early 2020, Gordon Corera's very readable and relatable book attracted me due to the current and correct data he presents. Readable based on Corera's training as a reporter for BBC. Easy to relate to as he describes the Russian spies that might be your neighbor, realtor or soccer mom who brought cookies to the local bake sale.

Weaving several stories on international relations, spy craft and most of all, motives, this book demands detailed reading to keep the who is who and where and when straight. To be sure, Corera senses this and takes time to keep the reader connected through several trips through glittering halls of mirrors of double identities.

My favorite thread is the "Richard and Cindy Murphy" family of Montclair New Jersey. Whip smart Cindy breezes through American society with degrees from NYU and Columbia. They set up their HQ as charming suburban couple, raising two darling girls and having friends over for ongoing cookouts. Spies.

Oh, back to motives. It's not so much the latest stealth fighter hardware tech spies are after. It's political influence.

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Americans was a great television series – it was multi-layered and engaging with occasional action sequences and starred Keri Russell. In this book we learn that the germination for the show wasn’t thought of out of whole cloth but was based on real life events. The book does a good job fleshing out the background of first the Soviet and later the Putin led effort to provide eyes on the ground in the West. However, we learn that it was much different than The Americans: the lives for these spies were much more mundane and downright boring and if the TV show was more true to life we would have seen about 90% of the show taking place at the travel agency that the couple ran rather than engaging in outlandish spy hijinks. The author does a good job telescoping in and out of the personal lives and also showing the ramifications on the world stage, and towards the end ties it in with the recent Russian interference in the 2016 election. In all enjoyable and informative throughout.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book, I never would have imagined how much of the FX TV show "The Americans" was either true or close to it. This is the story of the Soviet Union's and then Russia's, "illegals" spying program and its aftermath. It's a very factually dense book, so I took my time reading it, but the writing is never dry. I enjoyed the entire book, though I preferred the part (the majority) which covered the period culminating with the arrest and exchange of the illegals. I felt that the final section, detailing the consequences of their capture and the Skripal poisoning was a little sluggish by comparison. Nonetheless a 4+ star recommendation for espionage enthusiasts and historians.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Easy to read and written in a format that keeps you reading past your bedtime. Another book which illustrates the need to be vigilant about Russian espionage.

[Liz Cabrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent book!! Although I vividly remember the 2010 illegals swap, this book provided so much more information. I am a huge fan of the tv show, “The Americans” and this almost exactly like that (minus the murders and wigs per one of the actual illegals). Very fast paced, extremely well researched and absolutely captivating!!

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have it from a trusted source that this is absolutely accurate, especially the end about the current status

[Rodica Popa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Ben Macintyre’s book, "The Spy and the Traitor", that John Le Carré himself praised, I did not expect to read anything else like it, yet, here I was, “right out of John Le Carré, as President Obama himself put it in the Situation Room, in the basement of the West Wing, on the afternoon of June 18, 2010.
It is a very well documented book by Gordon Carera, BBC’s Security correspondent since 2004, who has covered first-hand many episodes in the spy wars and has interviewed serving heads of MI6 and CIA.
He goes from describing the Russian deep-cover spies in America in what he calls “Ghost Stories” – also the code name of the decade-long FBI investigation into Russian sleepers’ cells – to the “new illegals”, including the “cyber variety”.
“These new illegals were moving much faster than the old. (…) they were gravitating quickly into positions of influence in New York, Washington, and Silicon Valley. They were the new threat” (p.212)
“Russia was shaping up for a new spy war – one in which the nature of espionage – and the role of the illegals – was changing. It was becoming a battle for influence as much as secrets” (p.336)
“Social media networks – (…) – turn out to be excellent at distributing propaganda, misinformation and fake news. (…) The essence of social media – its speed, its anonymity, its love of controversy – made it ideal for Russian influence operation” (p. 357)
This book serves an important purpose of writing, to make you feel that you have learnt something new. I certainly did.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read after rewatching “The Americans” (one of my favorite shows of all time). Really interesting to learn all the history around the “illegals” program and how it evolved into the digital sabotage programs of today. Extensive research on a topic that must have been quite challenging, and well paced writing with a sense of suspense despite the known outcome of many of the anecdotes.

Read for Reading Glasses 2021 challenge (counting this as my “microhistory”).

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting look at deep cover operatives within the US, this book was hard to put down. If you are into current affairs, politics, or just like a good story, you will enjoy this book. The author details the surveillance that the FBI and CIA conducted against a team of deep cover "illegals" in the US that led to the now famous "spy swap" at Vienna in 2010. Along the way we learn more of the trade craft the illegals used and how their success would have hurt national security. A very good book.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

An astounding story of the Russian agents that spent decades infiltrating foreign countries as citizens, all the while, building networks of contacts, ferreting information. Gone are the days of stealing secrets; in the new order, influence is more valuable.

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up a bit, due to slight repetitiousness (especially in the later parts, which seem a bit hurried compared to the rest) and undue validation of Steele's dossier. Still, a very good rendering of the late-Soviet/Russian illegal agents program.

[Diana Manevskaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book for those who are interested in espionage topic. Well-researched, well-written and engaging read.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and terrifying at the same time

[Amelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's all very interesting for someone who knows nothing of the subject. I'm not dizzy and I'm not dumb and the author has done little to persuade me. A BBC boy (a boy signed up by the Biased Broadcasting Company). We've all seen how the BBC will manufacture information about those they have a hatred toward (Mr Trump being one such individual). I have no care for Mr Trump; I don't know him and I have little interest in American politics. However I despise those that use my money (the tax I pay) to falsify information about another. The BBC boy spends most of the book telling us about the illegals and then, probably at the urging of his employer or maybe he thought it might help him up the greasy-pole, he decides to close the book by telling us all how the Russkiyes fixed election. Yeah, I'm sure they did. NO THEY DIDN'T. Just like Trump incited violence. Ohh yeah, that's right, HE DIDN'T: the BBC made it up.

Sorry BBC boy: your tirade fell well short and ruined the book for me.

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies by Gordon Corea, a detailed look at the modern Russian espionage program in the US and Western democracies. A central part of this book is the Russian sleeper agents placed under deep cover for over ten years in the US before they were arrested in 2010 and swapped for Russians in Kremlin jails who had spied for the West. The ten sleeper agents were KGB agents moved to Canada, where they adopted the names of dead children before moving to the US. Unfortunately for them a Russian supervising agent betrayed them and the FBI closely observed them for nearly 11 years before they were arrested. One Husband and wife spy team raised two children as Americans and when they were deported to Russia they had no knowledge of the language or culture; they were essentially American kids. The last part of the book speaks in great detail about Putin’s revenge for the 2010 humiliation, specifically the use of cyber warfare and placing Russians agents as influencers in the US. Chilling book!

[James Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book covering one of the most interesting aspects of espionage (for me anyway) - the 'illegals'; Russian sleeper cells operating in the US and other countries. If anyone has watched the terrific TV series 'The Americans', this will be familiar ground. Gordon's research is thorough with access to FBI and CIA personnel who were involved in capturing these cells. While it is a non-fiction account of these activities, it is a fast read that keeps the reader glued to the page as a good thriller would. Great book.