Deception: Spies, Lies and How Russia Dupes the West

Some of the stories are known, but the author presents facets of the murky world of espionage and counterespionage not analysed in newspaper reports.It would have been exciting as a thriller but the book depicts a chilling reality - the increase of the Russian espionage under Putin's paranoid dictatorial regime to the level URSS used to have before its dissolution.It is frustrating the book was published in 2013. Since then Putin's regime became even more brazen and include media presence and attempts to influence the elections in the West and military aggression in the East.

Very good overview that suffers in tone from the author's obvious bias against the Soviet Union/Russia. I have no trouble with the facts, but could have done with a somewhat less pronounced feeling of sacred fury...

Well written, authoritative and solid. Lucas is no ivory tower resident. Read this!

Very insightful view into the scary and murky world of global politics and the even darker world of the mega billionaires. Even stranger is that the Russian public are probably aware of a lot of this but still put their faith in Putin....

Never understood why Russia is not to be trusted, here you will find out why. well explained indeed . worked in Berlin when the Berlin wall was there and the soviet union was a dark repressive regime , no one trusted no one. seen it myself

Vladimir Putin may have pulled the wool over some Western eyes; but Lucas offers a clear and valid assessment of a political leader who is, perhaps, all the more dangerous for having been so consistently underestimated.

It's a very good book, bravely written I would say, and gives an insight into the workings within the Russian government. A good book if you are interested in foreign affairs - that might even influence this country!

Very interesting read

A minute analysis of Russian politics during the Putin era. Very thorough and cleverly written.This is a must read if you are interested in the link between politcians and Russian intelligence.

In the first third of this “untold story of East-West espionage,” Edward Lucas creates the strong impression that he knows a lot more than he chooses to reveal – both about specific operations and individuals. He lifts the curtain only half way, partly to protect sources, but mainly because of English libel law. To avoid ending up in court, he has prudently decided against naming all the names he could. While understandable, still this makes for a somewhat disappointing start. Yet "Deception" is a book that improves the deeper one goes into it; as Lucas provides more detail, the reader is increasingly likely to find challenges to accepted wisdom. Anna Chapman and the other members of her ring, for example, are routinely treated as something of a joke in the West. After all, they had access to few if any secrets, cost their handlers a lot of time and effort, and had cover stories that were in part risible (one of them, when questioned by a neighbor, claimed to have “a Belgian accent,” which makes little sense when speaking of a multi-lingual country). Lucas himself is withering on Chapman’s lack of professionalism, and strongly implies that she got her assignment mainly because of family connections. All the same, he advises that refusing to take this group seriously, which was the approach adopted by the media at the time, means uncritically swallowing the soft line pushed by US counter-intelligence. The reason? During the heady days of the famous “reset,” Washington was interested in promoting closer ties to Moscow, not in rocking the boat. Presumably if Chapman and her fellow moles were to be uncovered today, they would be presented in a much more sinister light. The Soviet rule of thumb was "one in ten" – that is, they were happy if only ten percent of their sleeper agents in the West turned into useful sources. The percentage might seem low, but it is a realistic figure, based on experience. Measured by this yardstick, the group which included Chapman might well have exceeded expectations, had they been given more time. The final third of the book deals with the Baltic states, a part of the world close to Lucas’ heart. He is scathing about SAS bungling in the post-war years, while expressing admiration for the brave (and mostly doomed) Estonians, whose activities were thoroughly penetrated by their Soviet counterparts.As Arnold M. Silver (not quoted by Lucas) put it so well: "Given the scale of Soviet penetration of the groups, it could not be expected that such operations would benefit anybody but the KGB, and of course for the next four years or so CIA and MI6 suffered one disaster after another. There was not one successful operation…. This did not hinder the careers of the responsible officers." Lucas does hold out the disturbing possibility that the British were not in fact totally incompetent in running their Baltic spies, so many of whom were rounded up. Rather, he suggests the SAS might well have trained, transported and knowingly sacrificed many agents it cared little about, in order to better protect the few it did. We can identify which ones it valued, because they were precisely the ones who managed to survive. In the end, the reader is left wondering whether to believe their British spymasters were clueless or callous. A selection from Lucas’s insights (not all are original with him): What is Russia’s main export? Not oil and gas, but corruption (pg. 79 – this from Don Jensen). A bad intelligence agency is more damaging than none at all (pg. 90). For Russians, ex-Soviet Georgia is like Florida for Americans – a source of countless sentimental holiday memories (pg. 112). The Soviet legacy created a cohort of Trojan horses welcomed with open arms into Western alliances, states, services and agencies (pg. 314). The original hardcover edition covered the period up to September 2011. The postscript for the paperback edition brings the story forward to October 2012, when events such as mass demonstrations in the streets of Moscow were still fresh. The footnotes are extensive and include many useful sources. These can easily be accessed by following the links at [...]

Overall I agree with Mr. Lucas, though I am sure that he - as I - could name many wonderful Russian individuals. As a system, however, I think he is probably quite accurate. I lived in Russia for several years. I agree that it is "xenophobic yet obsessed with the West." I was once on a bus in Moscow during a traffic jam, due to an accident. The babuski on board immediately blamed it on the 'chornies' - dark skinned people. I once was walking down a street when I heard a strange clinking noise. It was a group of about 200-300 skinheads adorned in chains. I know there are skinheads elsewhere in the world but I have never seen so many skinheads randomly walking down a street as if they own the place.My main beef with this book is that it should have ended at 192 pages. The author sets the stage well, historically, for the discovery and capture of the illegals. Thereafter, the author reverts into a historical treatise on all things Baltic spies. It was basically a completely different book. In fact, Deception should have been developed into 3 books: The first comprising up to and including 192. The second should be the additional historical information and facts about spies in the past as related to the Baltics and the East/West conflict (which he introduces after page 192). The third should be all about the Estonian master spy Mr, Simm (working for the Russians). It just doesn't make sense to force a separate storyline and information into the book after the climax (which was only about half way through).

There is an unsurprising paucity (at least in my world) of contemporary information as concerns the situation we are currently in. It is a replication of the WWI power balance where it is multipolar, not bi polar.Mr. Lucas provided a good and significant picture of the current threats, at least as far as Russia is concerned. The information about the FSB, and GRU activities and the profile of the well mixed business man, thief, and spy are good things for individuals and and elected officials responsible for protecting our necessary secrets.I am a little critical of Mr. Lucas for covering a bit too much of the historical past, but I understand he is implying that the game is little changed.It is sad so many of our leadership are inclined to believe and act on what they want to, and not the reality.Mr. Lucas does us the good turn of closing with common sense methods for the protection of secrets that make a difference in a world where contests for power, are constant, whether or not they are headlines.The study of espionage is valuable to readers, as it enables one to more effectively be able to read between the lines, and Mr. Lucas's book will help anyone be more able to grasp the truth of what is often aimed to stay hidden.

People who follow events in the Baltic states in English have a great source in Edward Lucas.His articles in The Economist, where he is a senior editor, have long provided a view of the Baltics and Russia that is closer to reality than the whitewashed articles in other publications. The view would be closer still if Lucas didn't fear baseless "libel" lawsuits in the UK and elsewhere.I enjoyed the insight Lucas put forth in "The New Cold War" in 2008 and was therefore happy to hear that he published this new book, "Deception," in 2012."Deception" starts off with a description of the modern Russian state including detailed explanations of the Anna Chapman and Sergei Magnitsky situations. Lucas provides valuable analysis regarding the mentality of the agents in the Russian security services.Then, "Deception" provides a historical review of British/American/Russian/German espionage with focus on the years immediately following the 1917 Revolution and World War II. Much of the historical review is about Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.Lucas used many primary sources for his research of the current events and historical events discussed in the book.For me, the most interesting part of the book was about Herman Simm, an Estonian official who was arrested in 2008 for secretly working for Russian intelligence. Lucas gained first-hand information by interviewing Simm in prison. The process by which Simm was recruited, compensated, and operated reveals to Westerners the way in which other officials in Eastern Europe are probably controlled by Russia today.Lucas' warning throughout is that the West is making a mistake by pretending that everything is okay in democratic Russia. In his words, "the West should start exposing corrupt practices by the Russian establishment, whose ability to find havens for stolen funds and leave Russia for comfortable lives in Western nations is one of the regime's pillars of stability." I fully agree.John Christmas, whistleblower from Parex Bank of LatviaNote: "Deception: Spies, Lies and How Russia Dupes the West" is the UK edition and "Deception: The Untold Story of East-West Espionage Today" is the USA edition.

This is a great book for anyone that is a physicist, contractor in the military defense or aerospace and that worked at NASA, Federal Government labs, or in Houston Texas and heard about Alexander Fishenko and the Ana Chapman group and their interest in start-ups, venture capitalism, and that dealt with "sex espionage" and use of money, or narcotics and blackmail in exchange for engaging in start ups that are run by foreign agents of Russia, Lybbia, Canada, China, India, etc. Good information. Informative. Granted it fails to discuss any short-sighted naturalist endeavors in foreign countries where restricted areas are usually penetrated under the pretext of hunting for butterflies and photography and natural history drawings, as in engaging in the best of cloak-and-dagger traditions.

This is a selective history of espionage during the cold war, focusing on the Baltic countries. It is also a general discussion of the approaches to information gathering used by the current Russian regime. The author points out that a broad and almost casual effort produces good results. He also argues that NATO powers have lost a defensive edge, and too readily accept weakly vetted personnel.

For anyone who is curious to get to know more about (post cold war) east-west espionage, this is your book. The author gives an in-depth overview, explaining the development and position of the different intelligence agencies as well as describing in depth analysis of remarkable events, including the recent case of Anna Chapman but also operations most of us never heard about before. The information that you as reader are provided with is well researched and therefore very interesting and shows how the author wanted to do more than writing a book based on exciting espionage stories and clichés.What actually makes the book such a good book is not only the balanced and well researched information, but also the exciting way how it's written which makes it enjoyable to read while preserving the quality of the content.

Lucas' DECEPTION is an exciting read. He combines his journalistic experience in Eastern Europe and the USSR with his years of interest and research to bring us a frightening view of intrigue in the Baltic and USSR. I was pleased to read my friend Harry Rositzke's work had been included. The SIS and CIA did not, as many of us had thought, always have an upper hand in clandestine operations. Great Britain and the U.S. lost spies and agents secretly being run by the KGB after WWI and WWII. Lucas points out that what we read in the paper about the apprehension of spies in this country, and recently about the illegals caught in 2010, is not always the full story. Our spymasters deliberately report only what is necessary. This limits exposing information about FBI and CIA technology and methods and the level of probable damage to our country. Lucas includes details of horrendous deaths, details we don't really like to think about, but that happen to agents and our spies who are caught. Horrible deaths, of being put into a flaming furnace, and of unspeakable tortures.Lucas brings details of operations that misfired, such as Hungary; and of Baltic states' efforts to free themselves from the USSR in 1989 and 1990, just as they had earlier tried to regain independence from the constant German/Nazi and Russian advances across their territory. The Baltic is more important as a fertile ground for gathering information about Eastern Europe, Russia, and former USSR states than I had realized. I am convinced that we must remain alert to what is currently going on in Russia. The espionage of the communist state continues in its new guise today.

Worth reading to expand ones perspective on the world current affairs and estimate possible trajectory of events. I personally fully subscribe to authors assertion that we significantly overrate the stability and sustainability of our current lifestyle, although I wouldnt necessary place Russia on the top of the list of possible risks.

Really intriguing book. I find so little time to write that I am still reading it.

The book starts well with an excellent discussion of the current leadership in Russia. There is then a middle section describing scattered vignettes of spy craft from WWII and the Cold War. Finally there is the more recent story of an Estonian spy. At times it is engaging and at times it feels full of supposition. For the most part not a compelling read.

A good book which raise eyebrowes regarding the new face of Russian hide and seek game....Well structured and written. A must for anyone interested to understand the real threat posed by today's Russia.I hope the naive european politicians will read this book....and not only them.

I am afraid this is an absolutely exact and objective description of reality, definitely not "far from unbiased journalism".The autor's sympathy with the Baltic peoples is easy to understand, there are not many nations defying such a tragic history.

Well-written, well-researched, very thoughtful. An important work --- Greg Rushford (editor, www.rushfordreport.com)