Join us on Thursday, 30 November for a conversation with Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov, the leading specialists on the history and practices of the secret services in Russia. The event will be moderated by Grigor Atanesian (BBC World Service) and together they will discuss the changes that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought about in the more clandestine activities of the Russian state.
The ultimate deterioration of diplomatic relationships between Russia and the West in 2022 has affected all types of political connections and interactions, including the secret ones. Russian diplomats have been expelled from European and American countries and the borders have almost been closed. It is now more difficult for Russian citizens to get visas and to travel, which inevitably leads to complications for secret services personnel. At the same time we witness regular arrests of people accused of spying, and investigators uncover recent as well as past instances of sabotage and various types of clandestine operations. How do these networks of agents operate in the wake of this large-scale war? Who are the people living as regular citizens, but working for the Russian state? Is it possible to discern sensationalist headlines from pragmatic reality?
About the speakers:
Irina Borogan is a Russian investigative journalist, deputy editor of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities. She is co-author with Andrei Soldatov of The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries (PublicAffairs, 2015) and The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad (Public Affairs, 2019).
Andrei Soldatov is a Russian investigative journalist, and co-founder and editor of Agentura.ru. He is co-author with Irina Borogan of The New Nobility. The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries (PublicAffairs, 2015) and The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad (PublicAffairs, 2019). In November 2023 Soldatov was added to the list of “foreign agents” by the Russian authorities.
Grigor Atanesian is a BBC World Service journalist, where he works as a member of the Global Disinformation Team. He has produced a number of documentaries, including Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone (2022).