Russia’s new type of attack on the west

Russia's spies: Uncovering Russia’s secret espionage programmes

In person and online
Thursday 22 May 2025
7.30pm-9pm (BST)

Dear reader,

In Lithuania, an Ikea mall was set on fire; in Britain, six people were arrested for an arson attack on a business with links to Ukraine; and just last year, there was an apparent plot from Moscow to send exploding parcels to the US. These are just a few of the incidents pointing to how Russia’s intelligence services have moved towards a new kind of attack on the west – to one that is more dangerous and violent, and involving all kinds of freelancers.

How – and why – has Moscow pivoted in recent years from using trained professional spies to recruiting casual operatives for one-time sabotage operations? How are they using deep undercover agents, known as “illegals” to infiltrate the West? And most importantly, what’s the endgame?

On Thursday 22 May, I’ll be joining the investigative journalist, Christo Grozev, and the senior lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department of War Studies in King’s College London, Daniela Richterova, to answer these key questions. We'll be discussing Daniela's work in Communist-era archives, Christo's groundbreaking investigations to uncover numerous Russian spies, and my own book, The Illegals.

Join us, live in London and online, as we take you through the secrets of Russia's intelligence history and the way Moscow uses spies today. This is also your opportunity to ask us your questions about Vladimir Putin's intelligence operations in the West, and to hear about the methods and sources used to uncover some of Russia’s most secret operations.

I hope to see you there.

Shaun Walker
Central and eastern Europe correspondent