Shaun Walker

Shaun Walker

@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Correspondent focusing on Central and Eastern Europe for The Guardian shaun.walker@theguardian.com

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Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I’m really excited that my book on the history of Russia’s “illegal” spies comes out soon. It’s taken me years of work and covers a century of Soviet/Russian history... Below, a short thread about the book, as well as info on how to pre-order a copy.

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Like many, I've been fascinated and confused by the mystery of Havana Syndrome for years. Reported this long piece on the history and recent developments, talking to victims/sufferers, intel sources, scientists, and the authors of an upcoming book www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

theguardian.com‘Like a drill going into my eye’: why the mystery over Havana syndrome refuses to dieDozens of CIA officers have been afflicted by debilitating symptoms over the past decade. Are they the result of ‘mass hysteria’? Or are they from attacks with an energy weapon and, if so, who is resp...
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I spoke to former Pussy Riot activist Rita Flores, who recently admitted she had been forced to collaborate with the FSB for the past three years, on her life as an informant, how the FSB runs agents, and the sad state of the wartime Moscow art scene. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

theguardian.com‘My fear was too great’: the Pussy Riot member recruited by Russian spies to inform on fellow activistsExclusive: In her first media interview since fleeing Russia, Rita Flores describes her three years of being run by the FSB
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

My longread about the case of Igor Rogov, Russian opposition activist arrested in Poland as an FSB spy. It's a crazy story full of twists that reveals a lot about espionage, exile, the shadow Russia/Ukraine war and the long arm of the FSB... www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

theguardian.comA bungled bomb plot in Poland exposed a spy – but whose spy was he?The long read: When exiled Russian opposition campaigner Igor Rogov was accused of working for the Kremlin, his friends were shocked. Could this young activist have really been an undercover agent?
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

In 2023, Nataliia Daletska was told her son Nazar, a Ukrainian soldier, had died near the front. A DNA match confirmed it. There was a funeral, & he was buried in the local cemetery. Then a few weeks ago, Nazar - very much alive - came home. My story: www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

theguardian.com‘My dear son’: the Ukrainian soldier who came back from the deadIn 2023, Nazar Daletskyi’s apparent remains were buried in his home village. Three years later, he spoke to his mother, Nataliia, on the phone
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I've been working on this for ages in various countries: the story of the intelligence buildup to Putin's 2022 invasion. How did the US and Britain find out so much, and why were Europe and Ukraine sceptical. It's a long one: www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

theguardian.comA war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed themDrawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Thought this was an interesting point made by Polish foreign minister Sikorski in Kyiv this weekend - a good summary of what could be the problem with all the discussions of boots on the ground and the "coalition of the willing".

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

My long profile of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former army commander and current ambassador to London, who many see as Ukraine’s next president, with plenty of new info from behind the scenes: www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

theguardian.comGeneral, envoy … future Ukraine president? Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s London waiting gameRefusal to take calls from JD Vance after Zelenskyy-Trump showdown reflects political tightrope ‘war hero’ has walked since being fired as army chief
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

My story about a newish phenomenon of deportations from the occupied areas of Ukraine. Russia tells people they are banned from “Russia” for 40/50 years, drives them 20 hours under guard to the border with Georgia and pushes them across www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

theguardian.comBanned from home for 40 years: deportations are Russia’s latest move to ‘cleanse’ UkraineA deal freezing frontlines would be unacceptable for Serhiy Serdiuk, who was taken to Georgia in handcuffs with his family after refusing to teach the Russian curriculum
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Will be talking with the amazing David Hoffman next Thursday for anyone in DC who might be interested… carnegieendowment.org/events/2025/...

carnegieendowment.orgThe Illegals: A Conversation With Shaun Walker on the Untold Story of Russia’s Deep-Cover SpiesFor more than a century, Soviet and Russian spymasters have poured enormous resources into the training and deployment of deep-cover spies known as “illegals.” These agents live behind enemy lines for...
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Wrote this on Lana Estemirova’s new book Please Live, about her mother Natalia, the rights activist murdered in Chechnya in 2009, her work and their relationship. It’s a powerful, beautiful read - can’t recommend highly enough. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

theguardian.com‘She lived without fear’: daughter of Chechen activist publishes book she vowed to pen after mother’s murderLana Estemirova promised to tell story of her mother, a renowned human rights activist. This month it is published
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I spoke to the Crimean Tatar legend Mustafa Dzhemilev on a life of two exiles, turning down Putin’s money, and his views on Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff (“I’ve seen a lot of stupid diplomats in my life, but one like him, that’s a first.”) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.com‘Does he know anything?’: Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev on Trump’s plans to legitimise Russian annexationExiled Soviet-era dissident tells the Guardian that for the US to turn its back on the territory would be ‘shameful’
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

London: there are a few tickets left for Thursday’s Guardian event when I’ll be talking to Christo Grozev and Daniela Richterova about Russia’s modern espionage programmes and Christo’s work to uncover them Non-London: online tix also available www.theguardian.com/guardian-liv...

theguardian.comRussia’s spies: Uncovering Russia’s secret espionage programmesExploding weapons factories, assassination plots and fake news: Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war campaign against the West has stepped up several notches since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

My analysis from a week in Kyiv that had lots of gambits, ultimatums, counter-offers and threats but didn’t change much when it comes to the fundamentals, as everyone puts on “a theatre play with one audience member” - Trump. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.comWeek of geopolitical poker over Ukraine ends with no endgame in sightPath to peace looks as unclear as it was before European leaders’ meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

After Euro ultimatum in Kyiv today, Putin's going to do a surprise video address at midnight Moscow time (in 45 mins). Is he going to agree to ceasefire? Would be big surprise for him to cave under ultimatum... Double down? Go on a random history rant? Feels quite unpredictable.

Shaun Walker reposted

Pjotr Sauer
@pjotrsauer.bsky.social

NEW: Our exclusive deep dive into a suspected Russian-led cell behind the parcel bomb plots with the first interviews with those directly involved, revealing how the sabotage campaign unfolded on the ground With @shaunwalker7.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.comExplosive sex toys and cosmetics: the story behind the DHL parcels plotExclusive account reveals previously unreported details and insights into how Kremlin’s sabotage campaign played out on the ground – and the multinational effort to track down the network behind it
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

“These people are disposable.” I’ve been working for a while on this story about how Russian intel services recruit (often unsuspecting) Ukrainians and Belarusians for their sabotage offensive in Europe, and how Western services are trying to counter it. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

theguardian.com‘These people are disposable’: how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in EuropeMoscow’s intelligence services have launched a new type of attack on the west, violent but piecemeal and hard to prove
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Yesterday we published our investigation into torture & death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. Now, what I & several Guardian colleagues have been working on for past few months: inside one of Russia's worst torture prisons for Ukrainians www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

theguardian.comInside Taganrog: beatings, electrocution and starvation at prison where Ukrainians were torturedRussia is holding an estimated 16,000 civilians in arbitrary detention at 180 separate facilities. Taganrog was the most notorious.

Shaun Walker reposted

Dr. Manisha Ganguly
@manisha.bsky.social

The Viktoriia project launches today- our first story. Our deep dive into Russian detention centres, with @shaunwalker7.bsky.social and @forbidden-stories.bsky.social consortium to follow tomorrow. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

theguardian.com‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prisonThe Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

“Carpet. Plane. Siberia.” An adapted short extract from my new book The Illegals: on how the KGB used its deep cover spies to get close to the leading lights of the Prague Spring. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

theguardian.comExposing ‘the illegals’: how KGB’s fake westerners infiltrated the Prague SpringKremlin’s most prized spies were sent in to Czechoslovakia to whip up the 1960s reform protests in a move then replicated across the eastern bloc
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I spoke with @christogrozev.bsky.social about his feelings on being trailed by the Bulgarian spy ring jailed in London last week for spying for Russia, and the effect it has had on his life: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.com‘They came across as muppets’: Christo Grozev on being target of Bulgarian spy ringInvestigative journalist called ‘modern-day Sherlock’ by Alexei Navalny on unsettling photos, reprisals and being exiled from Vienna
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I wrote this story on a young man from Kharkiv who was kidnapped by Russian troops from his home village while trying to rescue his mum, and on his mum’s two-year quest to find him and bring him home. With striking photos by Julia Kochetova www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

theguardian.comKidnapped, tortured and jailed: one woman’s quest to bring her son home from RussiaIvan and Maryna’s story is just one of hundreds of thousands of family tragedies that have afflicted Ukrainians after three years of Russian invasion
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Spent an hour chatting with Zelenskyy yesterday about his upcoming mission to persuade Trump to stay on Ukraine's side. If not, Ze thinks Europe won't be able to fill the gap. "Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

theguardian.comZelenskyy: Europe cannot guarantee Ukraine’s security without AmericaExclusive: In extended interview with the Guardian, Ukraine’s president says he will offer US firms lucrative reconstruction contracts to try to get Trump onside
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

“Never in the postwar period has remembrance been as important as now … We are at an enormous turning point. Everything’s changed very quickly... In these times we need some tangible points of reference." My interview with Auschwitz museum director www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

theguardian.comSpeeches by politicians banned at 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberationDirector of the memorial says he wants the focus to be on the last survivors of the Nazi concentration camp
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I’m really excited that my book on the history of Russia’s “illegal” spies comes out soon. It’s taken me years of work and covers a century of Soviet/Russian history... Below, a short thread about the book, as well as info on how to pre-order a copy.

View full thread
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I’ve done hundreds of interviews and worked in archives in many countries to put this thing together. The result, I hope, is a series of amazing personal stories and also a shadow history of the last century of Russia/the Soviet Union.

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I’m really excited that my book on the history of Russia’s “illegal” spies comes out soon. It’s taken me years of work and covers a century of Soviet/Russian history... Below, a short thread about the book, as well as info on how to pre-order a copy.

View full thread
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Once they got abroad, they often cracked under the psychological strain of living a double life. Many had breakdowns; some were captured. As time went on, the training became ever more complicated but the espionage gains became increasingly thin.

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

The book starts in 1917 and finishes with the chaos of the 1990s and then the resurrection of the programme under Vladimir Putin, who worked for some years in the KGB as an illegals support officer and is obsessed with the programme.

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

I’m really excited that my book on the history of Russia’s “illegal” spies comes out soon. It’s taken me years of work and covers a century of Soviet/Russian history... Below, a short thread about the book, as well as info on how to pre-order a copy.

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

The illegals training programme lasted years and took place in secret apartments in Moscow or Kyiv (I got some amazing files from the Ukrainian archives). The operatives spent years crafting their language and mannerisms to impersonate foreigners.

Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Latest on Baltic cable saga, as Finns find 100km drag mark on seabed. It all points to deliberate sabotage. Estonian official: "If you’re dragging an anchor, it can’t be that you don’t notice it, because the ship would go off course. It’s not possible." www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

theguardian.comSixty-mile drag mark found near damaged Baltic Sea cable, says FinlandElectricity cable link to Estonia was damaged on Christmas Day in suspected Russian act of sabotage
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Wrote this on Ukraine’s really hard dilemmas as it faces a military personnel shortage. Increasingly older men in the trenches and alarming signs such as trained air defence units being depleted to send people to the front www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

theguardian.comUkraine faces difficult decisions over acute shortage of frontline troopsDepleted army is increasingly made up of older men, but Zelenskyy is reluctant to lower mobilisation age from 25
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

A letter I've signed, along with a few dozen current and former international correspondents of the Guardian and the Observer, expressing alarm over the plans to sell the Observer without consultation, and solidarity with our colleagues there. www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...

theguardian.comWhy foreign correspondents are alarmed and dismayed at plans to sell the Observer | LetterLetter: Current and former contributors to the international pages of the Guardian and Observer respond to an article by Ole Jacob Sunde, chair of the Scott Trust
Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7.bsky.social

First Bluesky post... Spent some time, with @pjotrsauer.bsky.social speaking to people in Kyiv, Moscow and Washington about Trump's plans for peace and how "negotiations" might look: www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

theguardian.comRussia and Ukraine wait warily for Trump transition … and subsequent peace talksPresident-elect’s strategy on ending war is yet to emerge but interviews with Ukrainian officials and Russians suggest a compromise may be hard to find

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