Our member, Daniela Richterova will speak at Russia’s spies: 'Uncovering Russia’s secret espionage programmes' organised by the Guardian
Invite only: Get in touch to request a spacePlease note that this is an external event and not managed by the KCSI. Please visit this website to register.
How is Russia using deep undercover agents, known as “illegals” to infiltrate the West? How has Moscow pivoted in recent years from using trained professional spies to recruiting casual operatives for one-time sabotage operations? What are the goals of Russia’s increasingly deadly sabotage campaign, including arson attacks, exploding parcels and even assassination attempts?
Join our expert panel including Christo Grozev, Daniela Richterova and The Guardian’s Shaun Walker, live in London and online. They’ll take us into a world of shadows and mystery to uncover the gripping history and present-day operations of Russia’s spy programme – as explored in Walker’s new book, The Illegals. The panel will also discuss the methods and sources they have used to uncover some of Russia’s most secret operations and fully understand Russia’s clandestine malign activities, looking further back in history – to the Cold War and into the long and chequered past of Russia’s spy programmes.
Shaun Walker is the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent. His new book, The Illegals, shines new light on Russia’s most secretive espionage project. Through hundreds of interviews and access to never-before-seen archives, it blows open the secrets of the biggest group of deep-cover spies in intelligence history.
Daniela Richterova is the senior lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department of War Studies in King’s College London. She has worked on the history of Eastern Bloc sabotage operations, and how that heritage informs present-day Russian tactics.
Christo Grozev is an award-winning investigative journalist who has busted numerous Russian spies with his groundbreaking investigations for Bellingcat and The Insider. He was the first to identify the suspects in the Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018. The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose poisoning he also investigated, described him as “a modern-day Sherlock Holmes”.
You can join this event in-person at a Central London location, WC1, or via the livestream. Tickets are £35 to attend the event in person, or £15 to watch it online. See tickets for further details.