SECONDNEXUS
percolately
georgetakei
comicsands
George's ReadsMost Read
Second Nexus © 2019
THE AMERICANS -- Pictured: (L-R) Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings, Matthew Rhys as Philip Jennings -- CR: Frank Ockenfels/FX
What would you do if you learned that your two friends, Richard and Cynthia, were actually Vladimir and Lydia?
If this sounds straight out of a Cold War propaganda film (or an FX-original drama), ask the residents of suburban Montclair, New Jersey, about the FBI raid that occurred back in 2010 at 31 Marquette Road. As it turns out, the bread-and-butter, all-American family down the street were actually Russian spies.
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The two-story, beige, colonial home seemed all-American from the outside. The residents were named Richard and Cynthia Murphy, and they lived with their two daughters: Kate, who was 11 years old, and Lisa, who was 9 at the time.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Richard stayed home with the girls while Cynthia worked as a financial planner at an accounting firm in New York City.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, this was all part of an elaborate masquerade.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The true intention of Richard and Cynthia — who were actually Vladimir and Lydia Guryev — was information reconnaissance for Russia’s </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Service_(Russia)"><span style="font-weight: 400;">SVR</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which is essentially the modern-day </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB"><span style="font-weight: 400;">KGB</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzODY0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDYxOTkyMX0.XA_PMyjXDpAkoQMH7nr3tK05xRQIm5wKETR27sJXrRs/img.jpg?width=980" id="6b9cf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="da8e91d9511d5aa15894582a030ebe27" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Richard" and "Cynthia" Murphy, with their children. (Credit: <a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/22038646/origin.jpg">Source</a>.)</small></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For context, the KGB was the national security agency of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Soviet Union</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> during the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cold War</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The organization operated a secret police force domestically but also employed international spies. The SVR, as the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, shares similarities with the infamous agency.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Guryevs’ clandestine intentions were long concealed from their neighbors, however, until the FBI raided the seemingly inconspicuous home on June 27, 2010.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Much to the neighborhood’s shock and confusion, the identities of Richard and Cynthia were then revealed.</span></p><h3><b>How Did They Manage This?</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Apparently, the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/nyregion/spy-house-a-decrepit-reminder-of-betrayal-sits-empty-in-new-jersey.html?mcubz=1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Guryev family were active spies</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for quite some time, working for the SVR since the 1990s. Their mission was to learn about nuclear weapons, American policy toward Iran, CIA leadership, the governmental institutions of the U.S. and other varied subjects.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the Guryevs were not the only Russian spies arrested on that fateful day in 2010. The FBI took in eight other alleged SVR spies in various East Coast locations: Manhattan, Yonkers, Boston, and northern Virginia. One person was also apprehended and arrested in Cyprus, but this was all done in one fell swoop.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The “spy house,” as neighbors termed it, in Montclair was for some time a near-perfect place to hide without either detaching from society or raising suspicions.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With Manhattan a mere 30-minute ride away, and a nature preserve surrounding the back perimeter of the property, there was easy access to information, other agents and travel — but without the fear of discovery.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In addition, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_spy"><span style="font-weight: 400;">these spies endured years of training</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for their posts abroad, either by the SVR or KGB, depending on when they took the job. Directorate S, the most classified part of the KGB, trained one such spy in the late-1970s for two years in Moscow. Included in these lessons were daily English classes, communicating in code and surveillance. It was all done one-to-one, and no other spies were acquainted with one another during these years.</span></p><h3><b>Inspiration For Popular Television Shows</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Naturally, the news of Russian spies made national headlines, regenerating for some a bygone sense of Cold War nostalgia.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These events even prompted the creation of the </span><a href="http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/the-americans"><span style="font-weight: 400;">television series “The Americans,”</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a Cold War-era spy drama on FX.</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzODY0Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDk3MzMxMH0.mCfYF7xeMRXfUaiHEn7EdyPILwWNUlnz-OFVAfcBJzA/img.jpg?width=980" id="0b5d3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d0fb13be6c0aa3cca8cb4b363e6a440f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Credit: <a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/22038647/origin.jpg">Source</a>.</small></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The real “Murphys” were significantly less imprudent and precipitous than the Russian spies on the popular show, behaving much more cautiously.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to neighbor Virginia Bailey, in an interview with CNN, “By all accounts these neighbors were neither reckless nor wild.”</span></p><h3><b>What Was It Like Living Around Spies?</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neighbor Elizabeth Lapin, a poetry professor who still lives down the street from the house, recounted to CNN, “You could have told me they were Martians from space and I would have been less surprised.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to others, the spy couple even attended local block parties. They were not overly social, but by no means were they reclusive. One summer, the girls opened a roadside lemonade stand.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lapin also remarked on this: “The girls built a lemonade stand one summer. That was such an American thing.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Also, like Lapin, some neighbors were not even sure they heard the couple speaking English with any trace of an accent.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Before the raid, neighbors Virginia Bailey and her daughter, Jessie Gugig, recall “Cynthia” taking her dog for morning walks. They never spoke to “Mrs. Murphy,” but Bailey described her appearance as “very attractive and very well put together. She always dressed very nicely.”</span></p><p></p><h3><b>How Were They Found?</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Guryevs and others were discovered by both the FBI and CIA, as word of SVR spies in the United States made the rounds to these intelligence agencies in the early 2000s.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This batch of Russian spies had been surveilled for years. The Guryevs’s house was bugged and even searched in their absence. In an effort to keep up appearances, the family avoided speaking Russian in their own home, using English as a default. The children only knew English.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With no diplomatic protection, the Guryevs were considered illegal. When a fellow spy defected to the U.S. and intelligence cracked a secret code the spies were using to communicate with Moscow, the FBI finally got their evidence.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally, when Vladimir Guryev was spotted in 2009 with a Russian government official on video surveillance, the plan for the couple’s arrest moved forward.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neighbor Gugig, who was only 15 at the time, described the FBI raid and search from memory, years later: “Eventually another car pulled up and guys in suits with earpieces showed up with some papers that must have been a warrant. … The house got lit up like it was Christmas.”</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzODY0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDYwMzI3OX0.1GUELgyrWbWaQhmT9YsR-QDoKLYikXTMU_tVxHbWEk8/img.jpg?width=980" id="14dbe" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="26dae0eb377c976771e74fe055c587c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Credit: <a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/22038648/origin.jpg">Source</a>.</small></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Prior to the arrest, Lapin explained that she saw a police car parked in front of her house. She was not certain why it was there, besides a “premonition” that “something strange” was happening.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Following the dramatic event at 31 Marquette Road, the press maintained a presence in the area for a week or more.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two weeks following the event, Washington and Moscow agreed to an exchange: because all ten of the arrested spies pleaded guilty to Russian espionage, the U.S. placed them in their government’s custody in a trade for four individuals who were “incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies,” according to the Justice Department.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This infamous 2010 network of Russian sleeper agents has a Justice Department-sanctioned name based on the Russian nickname for people of this occupation (i.e., illegals). They are called the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Illegals Program</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><h3><b>Are The Kids All Right?</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though Kate and Lisa were born in the U.S., they </span><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/exchanged-spies-children-expected-leave-us-parents-217412"><span style="font-weight: 400;">followed their parents back to Russia</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, after staying for some time with a family friend. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder described this process as “repatriation,” though the girls were never Russian citizens.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It is unusual for spies to have children, since loyalties are divided between duty to the job and family, according to former FBI operative Eric O’Neill.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When you’re a parent, you’re supposed to take care of your kids. You are supposed to put them first in your life. And a spy can’t do that,” O'Neill explained.</span></p><h3><b>Who Lives in the “Spy House” Now?</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Common to its mid-century decennary, the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29spy.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">suburban home is two-story and beige</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, just over 1,800 square feet and valued at $425,700 this year, according to Essex County tax records.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neighbors associate the house with sour memories following the raid, but those who have not moved explain that the neighborhood is beginning to regain its old feeling. New neighbors obviously do not connect the house with the 2010 event, or the spy family.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s hard to believe it happened,” according to Bailey. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Nature is kind of taking the house back. … Ivy is starting to eat into the house. The garden is completely overgrown,” Gugig told CNN, adding, “The house just sits there and it's empty. … It's just a constant reminder.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lapin looked through the window following the arrest, noticing Lisa’s textbook on Chinese grammar, stacks of coins and a copy of a 1953 post-World War II memoir, “Woman in Berlin,” on a visible table. Near the piano was a “beautiful painting” of a young female, which Lapin assumes was Kate’s self-portrait.</span></p><p>[embed]<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7454a84744c4f9b911f18ad3a98041fd"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y4D96fPl_hI?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>[/embed]</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Recently, the house was purchased and </span><a href="http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/montclair/2017/07/26/russian-spy-home-montclair-sold-and-renovated/512387001/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">there are plans for renovation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, so a new era begins for Montclair’s Marquette Road.</span></p><h3><b>Are There Still Russian Spies Living In The U.S.?</b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Russian spy ring dedicated to </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444097904577537044185191340"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recruiting the children of spies</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> was one of the Illegals Program’s intentions. Though it was unsuccessful regarding the ten spies discovered in the U.S. during 2010, there were additional efforts to </span><a href="http://fortune.com/2017/03/17/the-americans-russian-spies/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recruit university students and otherwise influence public opinion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in favor of Russia.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Other families were involved in the 2010 FBI and CIA raids, like the </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Foley boys, who are children to Russian spies</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley. These boys, who are now young men, are currently attempting to gain Canadian citizenship, since they were born in Canada prior to moving to the U.S. Unfortunately, they are facing harsh and difficult challenges due to their parents’ actions.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Just this year, current and former U.S. intelligence officials have told CNN that </span><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/01/russia-spies-espionage-trump-239003"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Russian spies are increasing their efforts</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at acquiring intelligence within the United States. Furthermore, in 2016, multiple Russian diplomats once tracked by the Department of State went missing.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former Soviet KGB spymaster Oleg Kalugin told CNN he “would not be surprised” to learn that Russia was still involved in similar international spy programs, though he acknowledged these as inefficient and wasteful. He added that they are likely less active than back in 2010.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, the Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/opinion/donald-trump-russia-collusion-cia.html?mcubz=1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">collusion with members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> do not relieve any suspicions.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though it may sound reminiscent of the Cold War, the answer to the above question is likely </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">yes</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — or, at the very least, the possibility is real.</span></p>
Keep reading...
Show less