What Happened to the Kids of Russian Sleeper Agents?
Tim & Alex Vavilov/"Foley." Should the children pay for the sins of their parents?Eight years ago, the FBI rounded up ten Russian deep cover agents, so-called illegals, in Boston, New York suburbs and northern Virginia after having surveilled them for years. As part of their ill-fated "reset" policy, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton had them deported back to Russia in return for four jailed Russians who had spied for the U.S. and U.K.
The Russians had adopted false names and identities, took on mundane careers and raised their kids as North Americans. Their mission was to burrow themselves deeply into U.S. society and gradually network with power players. By all accounts, they largely failed. But the fascination with the illegals engendered a highly popular TV series, The Americans. The protagonists, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings - aka Mischa and Nadezhda - run a small travel agency near D.C. as part of their cover, and suborn and murder enemies of the Soviet state in their clandestine work. Great fiction. Lousy reality. The real illegals went out of their way to blend into the wall paper. No assassinations, no violence. Only the young and brash Anna Chapman drew attention to herself as she partied her way up and down the length and breadth of Manhattan on a seemingly bottomless flow of cash. (I had great sport writing about her in this blog.)
But what ever happened to the kids of these impostors? Eight of the ten spies had kids. At the time their parents were busted in 2010, they ranged in age from 1 to 38. Raised on lies, oblivious to their Russian roots, how have they fared? The children of Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, aka Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills, were only 1 and 3 and would easily become rebranded Russians. The daughters of Vladimir and Lydia Guryev, aka Richard and Cynthia Murphy, aged 7 and 11, would likewise presumably assimilate fairly well over time. Now ranging in age from 9 to 20, how these younger kids have fared in Russia is not known to the outside world. The sons of Vicky Palaez and Mikhail Vasenkov, aka Juan Lazaro, chose to remain in the U.S. Their then 17-year old has pursued a promising career as a classical pianist. Those children born on U.S. soil have U.S. citizenship. They would have the right to return one day, if they chose to do so.
The case that tugs at one's heart, however, is that of the sons of Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova, who lived in Cambridge, Mass., under the aliases Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley. Tim, then 20, and Alex, then 16, were born in Toronto. Their parents assumed the identities of deceased Canadian babies and insinuated themselves into Canadian society in preparation for later infiltration into American society. "Donald" even started up a diaper delivery service as part of his cover build-up. The boys were proud of their Canadian identity. One even won an award from the Canadian consulate after the family had resettled in Boston for promoting Canadian values. “I am first and foremost Canadian,” Tim wrote in an affidavit after their parents' arrest. “I have lived for 20 years believing that I was Canadian and I still believe I am Canadian. Nothing can change that.”
As in The Americans, the kids found odd the holes in their parents' accounts of their past, including a grandmother who the parents claimed lived in Alberta (in reality, Siberia) but whom they never saw post-toddlerhood or talked to by phone. But they paid these disparities little mind as they enjoyed the life of upper middle class North Americans. Their father obtained a master's degree from Harvard School of Government and pursued a career as a business consultant. "Tracey" worked various jobs in the business sector. Unbeknownst to them, the FBI had bugged their home, periodically searched the place and monitored their activities and secret communications with Moscow - for over a decade. When the FBI burst into their home in June of 2010 and hauled Mom and Dad away in handcuffs, Timothy and Alex were, needless to say, stunned and confused.
Canada's Mclean's magazine has closely followed the fates of the Russian brothers. The boys, understandably media reticent, have opened up to Mclean's journalists. Their reporting is a fascinating read.
“Having your life flipped upside down in every conceivable way is not an easy change to make,” Alex told Maclean’s. Add to the scramble the Canadian government's rescinding their citizenship on grounds of being offspring of a “representative or employee in Canada of a foreign government.” The boys have been fighting this decision in the courts asserting that the relevant section of the law pertains only to foreign officials who are diplomatically accredited to Canada. (U.S. law more clearly spells this out: children of accredited foreign diplomats are not granted citizenship at birth, but those of foreign officials without full diplomatic status generally are.)
The Canadian government's decision was upheld in court, but overturned on appeal. The Trudeau administration has appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada, which is expected to make its ruling this year.
"Tim and Alex Foley" were required to obtain Russian passports in the names of Timofei and Alexander Vavilov - names that the brothers regard as totally alien. They grew up speaking no Russian and knowing little to nothing of Russian society and culture. They had been denied visas to Canada, France and Britain. Barred from attending the University of Toronto, Alex is winding up a master's degree at an unspecified European institution. He aspires to work in investment banking in Canada.
“I must live in exile because of past events completely out of my control or knowledge,” Alex told Mclean's. “I believe deeply that people should not be punished for the circumstances they are born into.”
Since the appeals court decision, however, both have been issued Canadian passports and have traveled back to Canada. Should the Supreme Court decide in favor of the government, these presumably would be revoked.
One fly in the ointment is a plot twist straight out of The Americans. Apparently basing their information on the FBI taps, CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, has reported to immigration authorities that Tim knew the truth about his parents’ double lives, swore allegiance to Russia and was being groomed to follow in their footsteps. Tim vehemently denies the charge.
Watching the family life of the TV Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, one ponders the relationships between the children raised in a grand lie and their parents. The Vavilov brothers provide us with some insight. Alex insists his relationship with his parents is “quite fine." “Some ask me if I blame my parents for what happened,” he says. “I see it as counterproductive. Do I blame them for getting caught because of a traitor? For deciding to become spies? For moving to the United States? For deciding to have children? It’s impossible to know what would have happened in all those circumstances if events had not happened as they did. Nevertheless, I do get frustrated with the treatment I have received because of my parent’s choices.” The brothers periodically visit their parents in Moscow.
Personally, I'm as curious about the sleeper agents as I am of their deceived children. Just how brainwashed and deluded does one need to be to agree to be sent not only under deep cover to spy (which is SOP for all major espionage services), but to try to pretend to be a native of a foreign society, whose language was learned as an adult and whose collective mindset is as alien as American apple pie.
As I devoured reporting on the ten arrested illegals years ago, I found myself laughing at the incongruities of the agents and their assumed identities. I noted, for example, of Mikhail Kutsik and Nataliya Pereverzeva, aka Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills, that "despite bearing the name of 'Zottoli,' you didn't know cavatelli from calamari. But they placed you in the state with the highest concentration of Italian-Americans. Brilliant. And Nataliya, your 'Canadian' legend didn't hold water. Neighbors pegged you as 'Yugoslavian,' a nation which, like your cover, no longer exists."
I mean, these folks must have appeared like the "Coneheads" to their clueless American and Canadian neighbors.
Andrey Bezrukov aka "Donald Heathfield Foley"I watched a clip of a recent online interview with Andrey Bezrukov/"Donald Heathfield," now an executive with the Russian oil conglomerate Rosneft, done in English. I (a linguistics nerd) trained my ear closely on his speech and pronunciation. He sounds neither Canadian - Anglo or French - nor American, and clearly is no native born-and-bred English-speaker. His "s's" are off and he struggles with his "th's." Moreover, even his vowels sound rather labored and deformed. How could anybody mistake this clown as a native North American?
This leads me to conclude that not only is the SVR's "legend" shop manned with over-clever nincompoops, but Moscow's whole approach to spying is too wrapped up in deep rooted paranoia anchored in a byzantine weltanschauung. In other words, typically Russian. Or, as I stated at the time, "History has shown that Mother Russia never lacks enemies, real or imagined. Why, the more paranoid you are, the more enemies you have. It's in the Kremlin DNA. But the cold war ended two decades ago. And America is an open book. All you need to do is to google whatever information you want on the place. And you know what? The Americans don't care! It's what an open society is all about."
Instead, they waste God knows how much money, time and resources trying to turn any Vasily and Olga Pupkin into genuine John and Jane Doe's. Why do things the easy way when there's an infinitely more convoluted way?
Not only is their intel product likely flawed, but they make their children collateral damage. And for what?
Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova have sacrificed their children's normal development and possibly their future family lives and careers for silly spy games. I would love to ask them how they feel about this. (They don't respond to press queries.)
Let's hope the Supreme Court of Canada makes the right - humanitarian - decision.