The Illegals by Shaun Walker: The Russian agent who couldn't get Irish people to shut up, and other spy stories
The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West
Author
:
Shaun Walker
ISBN-13
:
978-1788167772
Publisher
:
Profile Books
Guideline Price
:
£22
Spare a thought for Tim and Alex Foley. It was Tim's 20th birthday when, on June 27th, 2010, the
FBI
pushed their way into the family home in Cambridge,
Massachusetts
and snapped the cuffs on their parents, Don and Ann.
Turns out their parents, who had never even hinted it to their sons, were actually Andrei Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova,
KGB
'illegal' agents. The brothers found this hard to believe but the truth sunk in once their
Canadian
citizenship was stripped and they found themselves in
Moscow
, 'expected to start a new life in a country they had never previously set foot in'.
If this sounds like the plot of streaming spy caper
The Americans, then Shaun Walker's history of 'illegals' – as opposed to 'legal' intelligence officers stationed in embassies – that stretches all the way back to Lenin and Trotsky hiding in London from the Tsar, proves fact a lot more clandestine than fiction.
Once the Bolsheviks were in power, 'Moscow's illegals roamed Europe at will' long before the United States even had a dedicated foreign intelligence service. The adventures of Dmitri Bystrolyotov deserve a book on their own. He seduced secretaries in Nazi Germany, lived with Tuareg tribes, and 'at other times he took on the guise of a Yugoslav butcher, a jaundiced English lord, or a Norwegian herring salesman'.
READ MORE
Walker's thrilling book also serves as a potted history of communist Russia, taking in everything from the assassination of Trotsky in Mexico (by an illegal), Stalin ignoring warnings about Hitler's invasion, a near miss for Yugoslav leader Tito and the rise of Putin. Lest we think that Ireland was spared, there's also the case of Yuri Linov who was sent to Dublin to 'scout for interesting contacts, particularly Americans' in the mid-1960s.
[
Deep-cover Soviet spy in Ireland posed as travelling salesman and chess buff
Opens in new window
]
He paid his way by going door-to-door selling bath mats and television magnifying devices. 'Usually, spies have to find ways to coax important information from reluctant targets, but in Ireland Yuri had the opposite problem.' Apparently, he couldn't get people to shut up, although it's unclear if the gossip was of much use to the Kremlin.
As Walker points out, we had still not established diplomatic relations with the USSR at that point so this 'Austrian bath mat salesman' was in effect 'Moscow's top representative on Irish territory, even if nobody in Ireland knew it'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Journal
12 hours ago
- The Journal
Two men jailed for life for supplying bomb that killed Maltese anti-corruption journalist
TWO MEN FOUND guilty of supplying the bomb that killed Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 have been sentenced to life in prison, the reporter's family said yesterday. The journalist had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta and her murder shocked Europe and triggered angry protests in Malta. There were also large protests in Malta against the then-prime minister, Joseph Muscat, who resigned as prime minister in January 2020 following pressure from citizens for the truth about the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. Caruana Galizia's sister, Corinne Vella, said the family lawyers had asked 'for the court to consider the devastating impact of Daphne's brutal murder both on our family and on society'. Following a six-week jury trial, Robert Agius, 41, and Jamie Vella, 42, were found guilty Thursday of complicity in the assassination by supplying the military-grade explosive used in the deadly car bombing near the reporter's home. 'Her assassination created a sense in society that the people behind her murder were sure of their impunity and that the institutions that are duty-bound to protect her and society had failed,' Vella said on behalf of her family. 'We hope that today's sentences will be a step towards a safer world for journalists by signalling to potential killers that there are heavy penalties to pay when a journalist is murdered', she said. The three hitmen who carried out the murder – brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio together with Vince Muscat – are already in jail after pleading guilty in separate proceedings. Advertisement Businessman Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of masterminding the murder, is still awaiting trial. Public Inquiry Caruana Galizia was an investigative reporter who had written about cronyism and sleaze within Malta's political and business elite. Her murder, at age 53, drew international outrage. A public inquiry published in 2021 found no evidence of state involvement in the killing, but found the government created a 'climate of impunity' for those who wanted to silence Caruana Galizia. Hitman Vince Muscat was the prosecution's key witness in the trial against Agius and Vella, although more than 150 people testified before the jury, including relatives of Caruana Galizia, members of the FBI and a former government minister. Muscat had also given evidence against the Degiorgio brothers, in return for a reduced sentence of 15 years for his role in the killing. The Degiorgio brothers, who pleaded guilty on the first day of their 2022 trial, were each sentenced to 40 years. Fenech, who had close ties with Joseph Muscat's government, was arrested in November 2019 aboard his yacht as he tried to sail out of Malta. He was granted bail in January. Melvin Theuma, the middleman in the murder, received a presidential pardon in 2019 and is now a state witness. - © AFP 2025
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- Irish Times
At least two killed in intense Russian drone attack on Kharkiv
A nine-minute-long Russian drone attack on Ukraine 's second largest city of Kharkiv in the middle of the night killed at least two people and injured 54, including five children, regional officials said on Wednesday. The intense strikes with 17 drones sparked fires in 15 units of a five-storey apartment building and caused other damage in the city close to the Russian border, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said. 'There are direct hits on multi-storey buildings, private homes, playgrounds, enterprises and public transport,' Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app. 'Apartments are burning, roofs are destroyed, cars are burnt, windows are broken.' A Reuters witness saw emergency rescuers helping to carry people out of damaged buildings, administering care and firefighters battling blazes in the dark. READ MORE Nine of the injured, including a two-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, have been hospitalised, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the broader Kharkiv region, said on Telegram. He added that the strikes hit also a city trolley bus depot and several residential buildings. There was no immediate comment from Russia. Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, withstood Russian full-scale advance in the early days of the war and has since been a frequent target of drone, missile and guided aerial bomb assaults. The attack followed Russia's two biggest assaults of the war on Ukraine this week, a part of intensified bombardments that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent attacks in Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched on its smaller neighbour in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian. 'We are holding on. We are helping each other. And we will definitely survive,' Terekhov said. 'Kharkiv is Ukraine. And it cannot be broken.' Russia's air defence systems destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday. Half of the drones were downed over the southern Voronezh region, while the rest were intercepted over the Kursk, Tambov, Rostov region and the Crimean Peninsula, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. - Reuters
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Ukrainian soldier released in prisoner swap left with ‘Glory to Russia' burned on his body by Putin's sick torturers
A UKRAINIAN prisoner of war had the words "Glory to Russia" burned onto his skin while held captive in Russia. A disturbing photo emerged showing the mutilated soldier after he was released in a prisoner exchange, and Ukraine's intelligence service has confirmed it is genuine. 5 Ukrainian prisoners of war celebrate their return home following a prisoner swap on Tuesday Credit: EPA 5 This soldier waved as he arrived back in Ukraine Credit: EPA 5 The phrase 'Glory to Russia' was branded onto this Ukrainian prisoner, written in Russian The phrase has been branded sideways onto his right flank in large, uneven letters. Up the middle of the tortured soldier's torso is another thick, livid scar ragged by rough stick marks. He also has a tube fitted into his stomach, and another area of major scarring on his left flank. Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for Defence Intelligence of Ukraine [DIU], said: "Unfortunately, the photo is real. He wasn't in this exchange, but one of the earlier ones. "While examining him at a rehabilitation centre for soldiers, a doctor, overwhelmed by what he saw, took the photo and posted it online. "This is evidence of what our defenders go through in captivity. The photo speaks for itself. "And it is imperative that not only Ukrainians see it – they know very well what the Russians are – but the whole world." He also revealed that 90 percent of prisoners released from captivity in Russia reported violations of the required conditions. Most read in The Sun This ranges from a lack of medical care to outright torture, as appears to be the case with this soldier. Yusov said that Ukraine is documenting each case and attempting to identify those involved. Night of hell for Ukraine as Putin launches 315 drones in one of biggest strikes of war sparking huge inferno in Kyiv He said: "This is visually very clear – there is a stark difference in the condition in which Russian POWs return to Russia and the condition in which Ukrainian defenders come back. "Violations of detention conditions, and breaches of the required standards for food and medical support, are widespread in Russian captivity. "This is something that the International Committee of the Red Cross must address and the entire international community must act upon." Russia and Ukraine exchanged at least 1,200 each on Monday after the second round of direct talks in Istanbul last week. 5 Ukrainian troops firing a M777 Howitzer towards Russians Credit: Reuters 5 A line of Russian soldiers getting off a bus after being released by Ukraine Credit: EPA From Yusov's statement, it seems the branded prisoner was released during an exchange earlier in the war. He could have been one of It had been hoped those talks would advance the peace process, but they broke up after Russia demanded Ukraine withdraw troops from its own territory — which Moscow has been unable to conquer — as a precondition of any ceasefire. Meanwhile, the chief of Germany's MI6 warned that Putin has his evil eyes set on invading Nato. Bruno Kahl, head of Berlin's Federal Intelligence Service, said the war in Ukraine is just the beginning for the Russian despot. Read more on the Irish Sun It's after his team obtained intel suggesting Russia is plotting to test the resolve of the alliance in the coming years, Kahl claims. A similar warning was issued by Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday.
