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Russians Among Us audiobook

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Russians Among Us Audiobook Summary

With intrigue that rivals the best le Carre novels, Russians Among Us tells the urgent story of Russia’s espionage efforts against the United States and the West from the end of the Cold War to the present

Spies have long been a source of great fascination in the world of fiction, but sometimes the best spy stories happen in real life. Russians Among Us tells the full story of Putin’s escalating espionage campaign in the West, the Russian ‘deep cover’ spies who penetrated the US and the years-long FBI hunt to capture them. This book also details the recruitment, running, and escape of one of the most important spies of modern times, a man who worked inside the heart of Russian intelligence. In this thrilling account Corera tracks not only the history, but the astonishing evolution of Russian espionage, including the use of ‘cyber illegals’ who continue to manipulate us today and pose a significant threat to the 2020 election.

Like a scene from the TV drama The Americans, in the summer of 2010 a group of Russian deep cover sleeper agents were arrested. It was the culmination of a decade-long investigation, and ten people, including Anna Chapman, were swapped for four people held in Russia. At the time it was seen simply as a throwback to the Cold War. But that would prove to be a costly mistake. It was a sign that the Russian threat had never gone away and more importantly, it was shifting into a much more disruptive new phase. Today, the danger is clearer than ever following the poisoning in the UK of one of the spies who was swapped, Sergei Skripal, and the growing evidence of Russian interference in American life.

Russians Among Us describes for the first time the story of deep cover spies in America and the FBI agents who tracked them. In intimate and riveting detail, it reveals new information about today’s spies–as well as those trying to catch them and those trying to kill them.

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Russians Among Us Audiobook Narrator

Derek Perkins is the narrator of Russians Among Us audiobook that was written by Gordon Corera

Gordon Corera has been the BBC’s security correspondent since 2004. He has reported from London, Moscow, and Washington, and is the only journalist to have interviewed serving heads of both the CIA and MI6. He has covered firsthand many of the central episodes in the spy wars between the three countries and has unparalleled insight into the working of all sides. He is the author of several books, including The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6, and has contributed to a number of important BBC documentary series about MI6, the CIA, and Russia.

About the Author(s) of Russians Among Us

Gordon Corera is the author of Russians Among Us

Russians Among Us Full Details

Narrator Derek Perkins
Length 12 hours 48 minutes
Author Gordon Corera
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date February 18, 2020
ISBN 9780062933614

Subjects

The publisher of the Russians Among Us is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is 21st Century, History, United States

Additional info

The publisher of the Russians Among Us is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062933614.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Rennie

March 16, 2020

This is maybe not necessarily a 5-star book, but it was five stars of how much I enjoyed reading it. It's wildly entertaining and really informative, even if you followed the news of the 2010 spy swap and the "illegals" who'd been operating in the US, both from the end of the Cold War into the new breed of spy who lives under their own name and not those of dead babies the KGB scoured graveyards for. It's also very informative for those of us who don't read that much spy nonfiction and are easily confused when we do. All the fun stuff is here - invisible ink (they still use it!), what happens when married undercovers in bugged houses have sex (the FBI tries to tactfully not listen or fast forward but they kinda do listen anyway), numbers stations!!! The level of detail is amazing, if sometimes a little hmm - did Putin really angrily throw a bunch of papers into the air when he heard about the deal? I have my doubts, but I do love that image and I hope that he did do it.

Rachel (TheShadesofOrange)

June 27, 2022

4.0 StarsThis was such a fascinating and informative non fiction book that details the Russian espionage efforts after the cold world. I learned so much. Highly recommend it.

David

May 03, 2020

Anyone considering this book should first watch the 1987 movie "No Way Out" starring Kevin Costner.Corera does a very fine job with this book. The material is topical, interesting and accessible. The title and subtitle promise a grand story and the author delivers. The pace is steady and he never overplays his hand. The book occasionally reads like it's on the lighter side of the subject (I actually mean that in a positive way) but it's all really quite thought-provoking.

Florence

April 24, 2021

The Russians are coming......Hold on. The Russians have always been here. Russia's secret Directorate S of the former KGB is devoted to espionage like no other nation. Special agents, known as illegals, are trained over a period of years to blend into American society. They live in suburbia. They raise their kids, join the PTA, shop at the supermarket; just like their American neighbors. These "illegals" are revered as heroes in Russian. They sacrifice living in their homeland, seeing their families; sometimes for decades. In 2010 the FBI blew the whistle on ten illegals. They had been under close surveillance after being outed by a former Russian spy turned double agent. According to this author, the bust was an embarrassment - a cataclysmic disaster to Russia's program. Vladimir Putin, angered but undeterred, then ushered in a new era of espionage using internet social media to collect information and to sabotage the US political system. This book reads like a John LeCarre novel, frightening and fascinating.

Autumn

February 13, 2021

Kept me interested the whole book. If you have a fascination or curiosity of Russia or spies in all capacities this book is a good read.

Miguel

March 23, 2020

The Americans was a great television series – it was multi-layered and engaging with occasional action sequences and starred Keri Russell. In this book we learn that the germination for the show wasn’t thought of out of whole cloth but was based on real life events. The book does a good job fleshing out the background of first the Soviet and later the Putin led effort to provide eyes on the ground in the West. However, we learn that it was much different than The Americans: the lives for these spies were much more mundane and downright boring and if the TV show was more true to life we would have seen about 90% of the show taking place at the travel agency that the couple ran rather than engaging in outlandish spy hijinks. The author does a good job telescoping in and out of the personal lives and also showing the ramifications on the world stage, and towards the end ties it in with the recent Russian interference in the 2016 election. In all enjoyable and informative throughout.

Gary

April 09, 2020

A fascinating book, I never would have imagined how much of the FX TV show "The Americans" was either true or close to it. This is the story of the Soviet Union's and then Russia's, "illegals" spying program and its aftermath. It's a very factually dense book, so I took my time reading it, but the writing is never dry. I enjoyed the entire book, though I preferred the part (the majority) which covered the period culminating with the arrest and exchange of the illegals. I felt that the final section, detailing the consequences of their capture and the Skripal poisoning was a little sluggish by comparison. Nonetheless a 4+ star recommendation for espionage enthusiasts and historians.

William

April 04, 2020

Great book. Easy to read and written in a format that keeps you reading past your bedtime. Another book which illustrates the need to be vigilant about Russian espionage.

Ginny Harple

November 14, 2021

I have it from a trusted source that this is absolutely accurate, especially the end about the current status

Rodica

October 26, 2020

After reading Ben Macintyre’s book, "The Spy and the Traitor", that John Le Carré himself praised, I did not expect to read anything else like it, yet, here I was, “right out of John Le Carré, as President Obama himself put it in the Situation Room, in the basement of the West Wing, on the afternoon of June 18, 2010.It is a very well documented book by Gordon Carera, BBC’s Security correspondent since 2004, who has covered first-hand many episodes in the spy wars and has interviewed serving heads of MI6 and CIA.He goes from describing the Russian deep-cover spies in America in what he calls “Ghost Stories” – also the code name of the decade-long FBI investigation into Russian sleepers’ cells – to the “new illegals”, including the “cyber variety”.“These new illegals were moving much faster than the old. (…) they were gravitating quickly into positions of influence in New York, Washington, and Silicon Valley. They were the new threat” (p.212)“Russia was shaping up for a new spy war – one in which the nature of espionage – and the role of the illegals – was changing. It was becoming a battle for influence as much as secrets” (p.336)“Social media networks – (…) – turn out to be excellent at distributing propaganda, misinformation and fake news. (…) The essence of social media – its speed, its anonymity, its love of controversy – made it ideal for Russian influence operation” (p. 357)This book serves an important purpose of writing, to make you feel that you have learnt something new. I certainly did.

Dipra

April 05, 2020

An astounding story of the Russian agents that spent decades infiltrating foreign countries as citizens, all the while, building networks of contacts, ferreting information. Gone are the days of stealing secrets; in the new order, influence is more valuable.

Dennis

August 14, 2021

Finished Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies by Gordon Corea, a detailed look at the modern Russian espionage program in the US and Western democracies. A central part of this book is the Russian sleeper agents placed under deep cover for over ten years in the US before they were arrested in 2010 and swapped for Russians in Kremlin jails who had spied for the West. The ten sleeper agents were KGB agents moved to Canada, where they adopted the names of dead children before moving to the US. Unfortunately for them a Russian supervising agent betrayed them and the FBI closely observed them for nearly 11 years before they were arrested. One Husband and wife spy team raised two children as Americans and when they were deported to Russia they had no knowledge of the language or culture; they were essentially American kids. The last part of the book speaks in great detail about Putin’s revenge for the 2010 humiliation, specifically the use of cyber warfare and placing Russians agents as influencers in the US. Chilling book!

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