Russian spy ‘sleeper cells’ are everywhere
The CIA has sleeper agents who infiltrate into unfriendly countries and ‘go to sleep’, sometimes for years before being activated- he/she does not communicate with his or her sponsor or with existing agents, or with U.S. embassies or staff. They remain invisible.
Sleeper agents have always been around. Some countries are more successful than others in forming them in different foreign environments. Sometimes they are teams, but they may be individuals who go about living their life, blending in under deep cover, and who do nothing until an event triggers their activation.
Just after WWII ended, the CIA wanted to spy on the American people because the Russian KGB spy agency managed to plant hundreds of female ‘sleepers’ inside the U.S. They targeted and married U.S. military officers at the end of WWII. I guess you could say these female Russian spies went to ‘sleep’ with both their husbands and with the KGB. They were “activated” periodically as needed.
I enjoyed the Cold War spy drama “The Americans”, which is based on a true story. In 2010, a cell of Russian sleeper agents who had been hiding in plain sight inside the U.S. for decades was busted by the FBI. They were later sent back to Russia in a spy swap. They were able to stay under the radar of U.S. intelligence (for a long while) by varying their daily pattern and staying within their cover. They always assumed they were under surveillance, and frequented different places and varied the routes they took to avoid becoming predictable. They got coffee from a different café, left the house earlier (or later), and drove different routes to work.
THE SHADOW WAR spy thriller in Amazon Kindle Vella portrays how a former Russian KGB spymaster set up a network of sleeper cells throughout America. Here’s three Snippets:
Snippet 1: “OK, thanks Mark.” CIA operative Corey Pearson returned to his seat to study the intel report. Bocharov revealed that Andrei Vavilova, while operating in East Berlin, formed sleeper cells throughout West Berlin and inside the U.S. He worked without diplomatic cover and shied away from visiting the Russian embassy.
What was most bothersome in Bocharov’s debriefing was when he swore that the Invisible Killer created operational sleeper cells inside the U.S. while stationed in East Germany… over forty years ago.
Snippet 2: Mark yelled back from the cockpit. “Houston’s approaching. Landing in five minutes.”
Corey buckled his seatbelt and sipped his Vesper martini. The sleeper cells are no doubt still in operation and the Invisible Killer is lurking somewhere within America’s heartland… by the order of POTUS, I must hunt him down and kill him.
Snippet 3: “I already had a nice sleeper cell network inherited from Corey. He recruited hotel desk clerks throughout Havana, paying them to monitor the hotel registers for anyone on the CIA’s ‘hit list’. I just expanded it a bit. Whenever a Russian spook or terrorist checks into a room, I’m notified.”
End of Snippets
In 2010, there were big busts of Russian sleeper cells in both the U.S. and in Germany. At the time, I happened to be watching the spy thriller SALT, starring Angelina Jolie. In the movie, a Russian defector named Oleg Vasilyevich Orlov walked into Jolie’s office at the CIA. During her interrogation of him, he revealed that Russia has permeated the U.S. and claimed that a “Day X” was approaching, where these highly trained Russian sleeper agents known as “KAs”, which were lurking undercover inside the U.S., would execute a plan to destroy the U.S. government.
I fantasized whether “KAs” were truly set up in Germany, since at the time of the release of the movie SALT, a married couple was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, the first such case on German soil since the cold war. They were a sleeper cell that worked undercover for the Russian secret service for more than 20 years before a commando unit from the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) raided their home, finding plenty of false documentation.
The couple was suspected to have begun spying for the KGB since 1988, before the Berlin Wall fell. Since reunification they maintained their sleeper cell status and answered to the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, a successor spy agency to the KGB.
Their fake identity papers claimed that one of them was born in Argentina and the other in Peru, but both had Austrian passports. Inquiries with the Peruvian and Argentinian authorities revealed that the couple had lied about their birthplaces, and that although the husband claimed to speak English, Spanish, and German, he spoke with a Russian accent.
The wife had been listening to coded messages on a shortwave radio linked up to a computer when the German commandos stormed in and arrested them.
I finished watching the movie SALT with Angelina Jolie, and I didn’t take the plot with a grain of salt. It seemed so tangible.
Fast forward to November of 2022, when a former British MI6 agent announced that Britain was infiltrated by a large network of Russian sleeper agents. I’m beginning to think they are everywhere.
Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community. He authors the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thrillers: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.