Later on, we’ll see how active measures played a role in the 2016 US election.Īlong with active measures, the Russians also often employ coercion to manipulate their targets. This involves using false or distorted information to influence political or social outcomes. While all nations engage in counterintelligence, Russia is particularly skilled at a form of it known as active measures. With intelligence comes counterintelligence, the effort to thwart an adversary’s intelligence work. Don and Ann’s intelligence work, for example, involved meticulously assessing American citizens and identifying those who could be persuaded to help Russia. According to Strzok, it refers to the secret operations a nation conducts to obtain strategic advantage. To fully understand Russia’s intelligence operations, we should first define what exactly intelligence means in this context. The key message here is: Russia is a master of espionage and intelligence. But Russia’s world-class skill at secret intelligence operations meant it wouldn’t be his last. It was his first time dealing with Russian intelligence and espionage. The author, Peter Strzok, was one of the case agents. The FBI even had a separate investigation into these illegals known as Operation Ghost Stories. But all the while, they were secretly feeding information back to Russia.ĭon and Ann were far from the only illegals operating within America.

They lived their daily lives as normal citizens. They were Russian intelligence agents known as illegals. Their real names were Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova. The couple worked, went out, and took vacations with their two sons.īut Don and Ann had a major secret. Their friends knew them as Canadian immigrants who had moved to Massachusetts so that Don could attend Harvard. By all appearances, Don Heathfield and Ann Foley were ordinary citizens.

Compromised by peter strzok