Is Russia Hunting Defectors in America?
Updated | They get lonely. They miss their friends and family. So, despite the danger of exposing themselves to retribution, Russian defectors hiding abroad make phone calls or send emails to relatives in the motherland. And when they do, the Kremlin is listening. “It’s easy to find us,” one defector in the U.S. tells Newsweek, “if they are really determined.”
While phone calls and emails open channels for Russian eavesdroppers to locate defectors, relatives visiting from back home make it even easier. Agents can track them to a defector’s doorstep.
Some American security sources say there has been an uptick in Russian activity in the U.S. in recent years; suspected agents have been spotted cruising the neighborhoods of some defectors protected by CIA security teams. The FBI and CIA have been “bringing people out of retirement, people who worked against the Russians in the
