title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Mubarak's resignation was followed by a series of arrests of, and travel bans on, high-profile figures on charges of causing the deaths of 300–500 demonstrators, injuring 5,000 more, embezzlement, profiteering, money laundering and human rights abuses. Among those charged were Mubarak, his wife Suzanne, his sons Gamal and Alaa, former interior minister Habib el-Adly, former housing minister Ahmed El-Maghrabi, former tourism minister Zoheir Garana and former secretary for organizational affairs of the National Democratic Party Ahmed Ezz. Mubarak's ouster was followed by allegations of corruption against other government officials and senior politicians. On 28 February 2011, Egypt's top prosecutor ordered an assets freeze on Mubarak and his family. This was followed by arrest warrants, travel bans and asset freezes for other public figures, including former parliament speaker Fathi Sorour and former Shura Council speaker Safwat El Sherif. Arrest warrants were issued for financial misappropriations by public figures who left the country at the outbreak of the revolution, including former trade and industry minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid and businessman Hussein Salem; Salem was believed to have fled to Dubai. Trials of the accused officials began on 5 March 2011, when former interior minister Habib el-Adli appeared at the Giza Criminal Court in Cairo.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: In March 2011 Abbud al-Zumar, one of Egypt's best-known political prisoners, was freed after 30 years. Founder and first emir of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, he was implicated on 6 October 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: On 24 May, Mubarak was ordered to stand trial on charges of premeditated murder of peaceful protestors during the revolution; if convicted, he could face the death penalty. The list of charges, released by the public prosecutor, was "intentional murder, attempted killing of some demonstrators ... misuse of influence and deliberately wasting public funds and unlawfully making private financial gains and profits".


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions sparked a wave of uprisings, with demonstrations spreading across the Middle East and North Africa. Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Yemen and Syria witnessed major protests, and minor demonstrations occurred in Iraq, Kuwait, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The Egyptian protests in Egypt were not centred around religion-based politics, but nationalism and social consciousness. Before the uprising, the best-organised and most-prominent opposition movements in the Arab world usually came from Islamist organisations with members who were motivated and ready to sacrifice. However, secular forces emerged from the revolution espousing principles shared with religious groups: freedom, social justice and dignity. Islamist organisations emerged with a greater freedom to operate. Although the cooperative, inter-faith revolution was no guarantee that partisan politics would not re-emerge in its wake, its success represented a change from the intellectual stagnation (created by decades of repression) which pitted modernity and Islamism against one another. Islamists and secularists are faced with new opportunities for dialogue on subjects such as the role of Islam and Sharia in society, freedom of speech and the impact of secularism on a predominantly Muslim population.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Despite the optimism surrounding the revolution, commentators expressed concern about the risk of increased power and influence for Islamist forces in the country and region and the difficulty of integrating different groups, ideologies and visions for the country. Journalist Caroline Glick wrote that the Egyptian revolution foreshadowed a rise in religious radicalism and support for terrorism, citing a 2010 Pew Opinion poll which found that Egyptians supported Islamists over modernizers by an over two-to-one margin. Another journalist, Shlomo Ben-Ami, said that Egypt's most formidable task was to refute the old paradigm of the Arab world which sees the only choices for regimes repressive, secular dictatorships or repressive theocracies. Ben-Ami noted that with Islam a central part of the society, any emergent regime was bound to be attuned to religion. In his view, a democracy which excluded all religion from public life (as in France) could succeed in Egypt but no genuine Arab democracy could disallow the participation of political Islam.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Since the revolution Islamist parties (such as the Muslim Brotherhood) have strengthened in the democratic landscape, leading constitutional change, voter mobilization and protests. This was a concern of the secular and youth movements, who wanted elections to be held later so they could catch up to the already-well-organized groups. Elections were held in September 2011, with Liberty and Justice (the Muslim Brotherhood party) winning 48.5 percent of the vote. In 2014 in Upper Egypt, several newspapers reported that Upper Egypt wanted to secede from the rest of the country to improve its standard of living.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Early on New Year's Day 2011 a bomb exploded in front of an Alexandria church, killing 23 Coptic Christians. Egyptian officials said that "foreign elements" were behind the attack. Other sources claim that the bomb killed 21 people only and injured more than 70. Some Copts accused the Egyptian government of negligence; after the attack, many Christians protested in the streets (with Muslims joining later). After clashing with police, protesters in Alexandria and Cairo shouted slogans denouncing Mubarak's rule in support of unity between Christians and Muslims. Their sense of being let down by national security forces was cited as one of the first grievances sparking 25 January uprising.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: On 7 February a complaint was filed against Habib al-Adly (interior minister until Mubarak dissolved the government during the protests' early days), accusing him of directing the attack.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Egyptian women have been participating actively in the revolution, in the same way that they played an active role in the strike movement in the few last years, in several cases pressurizing the men to join the strikes. In earlier protests in Egypt, women only accounted for about 10 per cent of the protesters, but on Tahrir Square they accounted for about 40 to 50 per cent in the days leading up to the fall of Mubarak. Women, with and without veils, participated in the defence of the square, set up barricades, led debates, shouted slogans and, together with the men, risked their lives. Some participated in the protests, were present in news clips and on Facebook forums and were part of the revolution's leadership during the Egyptian revolution. In Tahrir Square, female protesters (some with children) supported the protests. The diversity of the protesters in Tahrir Square was visible in the women who participated; many wore head scarves and other signs of religious conservatism, while others felt free to kiss a friend or smoke a cigarette in public. Women organised protests and reported events; female bloggers, such as Leil Zahra Mortada, risked abuse or imprisonment by keeping the world informed of events in Tahrir Square and elsewhere. Among those who died was Sally Zahran, who was beaten to death during one of the demonstrations. NASA reportedly planned to name one of its Mars exploration spacecraft in Zahran's honour.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The participation and contributions by Egyptian women to the protests were attributed to the fact that many (especially younger women) were better educated than previous generations and represent more than half of Egyptian university students. This is an empowering factor for women, who have become more present and active publicly. The advent of social media also provided a tool for women to become protest leaders.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The Egyptian Armed Forces initially enjoyed a better public reputation than the police did; the former was seen as a professional body protecting the country, and the latter was accused of systemic corruption and lawless violence. However, when the SCAF cracked down on protesters after becoming the "de facto" ruler of Egypt the military's popularity decreased. All four Egyptian presidents since the 1950s have a military background. Key Egyptian military personnel include defense minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and armed forces chief of staff Sami Hafez Enan. The Egyptian military numbers about 468,500 active personnel, plus a reserve of 479,000.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: As head of Egypt's armed forces, Tantawi has been described as "aged and change-resistant" and is attached to the old regime. He has used his position as defense minister to oppose economic and political reform he saw as weakening central authority. Other key figures (Sami Hafez Anan chief among them) are younger, with closer connections to the U.S. and the Muslim Brotherhood. An important aspect of the relationship between the Egyptian and American military establishments is the $1.3 billion in annual military aid provided to Egypt, which pays for American-made military equipment and allows Egyptian officers to train in the U.S. Guaranteed this aid package, the ruling SCAF is resistant to reform. One analyst, conceding the military's conservatism, says it has no option but to facilitate democratisation. It will have to limit its political role to continue good relations with the West, and cannot restrict Islamist participation in a genuine democracy.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The military has led a violent crackdown on the Egyptian revolution since the fall of Mubarak. On 9 March 2011 military police violently dispersed a sit-in in Tahrir Square, arresting and torturing protesters. Seven female protesters were forcibly subjected to virginity tests. During the night of 8 April 2011 military police attacked a sit-in in Tahrir Square by protesters and sympathetic military officers, killing at least one. On 9 October the Egyptian military crushed protesters under armed personnel carriers and shot live ammunition at a demonstration in front of the Maspero television building, killing at least 24. On 19 November the military and police engaged in a continuous six-day battle with protestors in the streets of downtown Cairo and Alexandria, killing nearly 40 and injuring over 2,000. On 16 December 2011 military forces dispersed a sit-in at the Cabinet of Ministers building, killing 17. Soldiers fired live ammunition and attacked from the rooftop with Molotov cocktails, rocks and other missiles.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Foreign governments in the West (including the U.S.) regarded Mubarak as an important ally and supporter in the Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations. After wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 (provoking controversy in the Arab world). According to the 1978 Camp David Accords (which led to the peace treaty), Israel and Egypt receive billions of dollars in aid annually from the United States; Egypt received over US$1.3 billion in military aid each year, in addition to economic and development assistance. According to Juan Cole many Egyptian youth felt ignored by Mubarak, feeling that he put the interests of the West ahead of theirs. The cooperation of the Egyptian regime in enforcing the blockade of the Gaza Strip was deeply unpopular with the Egyptian public.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The 6 April Youth Movement (Arabic: حركة شباب 6 أبريل) is an Egyptian Facebook group begun in spring 2008 to support workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, an industrial town, who were planning to strike on 6 April.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Activists called on participants to wear black and stay home the day of the strike. Bloggers and citizen journalists used Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and other media tools to report on the strike, alert their networks about police activity, organize legal protection and draw attention to their efforts. "The New York Times" has called it the political Facebook group in Egypt with the most dynamic debates. In March 2012 it had 325,000 predominantly young and members, most previously inactive politically, whose concerns included free speech, nepotism in government and the country's stagnant economy. Their Facebook forum features intense and heated discussions, and is frequently updated.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: We are all Khaled Said is a Facebook group which formed in the aftermath of Said's beating and death. The group attracted hundreds of thousands of members worldwide, playing a prominent role in spreading (and drawing attention to) the growing discontent. As the protests began, Google executive Wael Ghonim revealed that he was behind the account. He was later detained for a few days until the government was able to get a hold of certain information that they needed. Many questions were left around that subject, no one really understood what had actually happened or what has had been said. In a TV interview with SCAF members after the revolution, Abdul Rahman Mansour (an underground activist and media expert) was disclosed as sharing the account with Ghonim. Another online contribution was made by Asmaa Mahfouz, an activist who posted a video challenging people to publicly protest. Facebook had previously suspended the group because some administrators were using pseudonyms, a violation of the company's terms of service.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Social media has been used extensively. As one Egyptian activist tweeted during the protests, "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world." Internet censorship has also been extensive, in some cases to the extent of taking entire nations virtually offline.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Facebook, Twitter and blogging helped spread the uprising. Egyptian businessman Khaled Said was beaten to death by police in June 2010, reportedly in retaliation for a video he posted showing Egyptian police sharing the spoils of a drug bust. Wael Ghonim's memorial Facebook page to Said grew to over 400,000 followers, creating an online arena where protestors and those discontented with the government could gather and organise. The page called for protests on 25 January, later known as the "Day of Wrath". Hundreds of thousands of protestors flooded the streets to show their discontent with murder and corruption in their country. Ghonim was jailed on 28 January, and released 12 days later.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Egyptian activist and 6 April Youth Movement member Asmaa Mahfouz posted a video urging the Egyptian people to meet her at Tahrir Square, rise up against the government and demand democracy. In the video, she spoke about four protesters who had immolated themselves in protest of 30 years of poverty and degradation. On 24 January Mahfouz posted another video relating efforts made in support of the protest, from printing posters to creating flyers. The videos were posted on Facebook and then YouTube. The day after her last video post, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into the streets in protest.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Since 25 January 2011, videos (including those of a badly beaten Khaled Said, disproving police claims that he had choked to death), tweets and Facebook comments have kept the world abreast of the situation in Egypt. Amir Ali documents the ways in which social media was used by Egyptian activists, Egyptian celebrities and political figures abroad to fan the protests.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Democracy Now! journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous provided live coverage and tweets from Tahrir Square during the protests, and was credited with using social media to increase awareness of the protests. The role of social media in the Egyptian uprising was debated in the first edition of the Dubai Debates: "Mark Zuckerberg – the new hero of the Arab people?" Amir Ali has argued that, based in part on the Egyptian revolution, social media may be an effective tool in developing nations.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Some protesters discouraged the use of social media. A widely circulated pamphlet by an anonymous activist group titled "How to Protest Intelligently" (Arabic: كيف للاحتجاج بذكاء؟), asked readers "not to use Twitter or Facebook or other websites because they are all being monitored by the Ministry of the Interior".


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Television, particularly live coverage by "Al Jazeera English" and BBC News, was important to the revolution; the cameras provided exposure, preventing mass violence by the government in Tahrir Square (in contrast to the lack of live coverage and more-widespread violence in Libya). Its use was important in order to portray the violence of the Egyptian government, as well as, building support for the revolution through several different mediums. On one front was social media giving minute by minute updates via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and in the other hand was the use of the mainstream media to report to a wider audience about the overall developments occurring in Egypt. The ability of protesters to focus their demonstrations on a single area (with live coverage) was fundamental in Egypt but impossible in Libya, Bahrain and Syria, irrespective of social-media use. A social-media expert launched a network of messages with the hashtag #jan25 on 11 February 2011, when Mubarak's resignation was announced.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Social media helped secure solidarity for the revolutionaries from people outside of Egypt. This is evident through movements like the "March of Millions", "Voice of Egypt Abroad", "Egyptians Abroad in Support of Egypt" and "New United Arab States", who had their inception during the revolution inside the realms of Twitter and Facebook.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Journalism scholar Heather Ford studied the use of infoboxes and cleanup templates in the Wikipedia article regarding the revolution. Ford claims that infoboxes and cleanup tags were used as objects of "bespoken-code" by Wikipedia editors. By using these elements, editors shaped the news narrative in the first 18 days of the revolution. Ford used the discussion page and the history of edits to the page. She shows how political cartoons were removed, and how the number of casualties became a source of heated debate. Her research exemplifies how editors coordinated and prioritized work on the article, but also how political events are represented through collaborative journalism.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: During the early morning hours of 28 January the Mubarak regime shut down internet and cell phone networks in the whole country. This media shutdown was likely one of the reasons why the numbers of protestors exploded on 28 January.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: While the regime disrupted the media, people needed to engage in face-to-face communication on a local level, which the regime could not monitor or control. In such a situation it is more likely that radicals will influence their neighbors, who are not able to see the public opinion displayed in social media, therefore these people are then more likely to also engage in civil unrest.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: This vicious circle can be explained through a threshold model of collective behavior, which states that people are more likely to engage in risky actions if other people inside their networks (neighbors, friends, etc.) have taken action. Radicals have a small threshold and are more likely to form new networks during an information blackout, influencing the people.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: Disrupting the media and communication had 2 main results: it increased the local mobilization of people and empowered radicals who influenced their surroundings, which resulted in an increase in protests.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: During 28 January the increased local mobilization pushed a large amount of apolitical Egyptians into action, either to look after their friends and family in the absence of mobile communication or to complain about the shutdown, resulting in large protests not only in Cairo. Meanwhile, the Mubarak regime was unable to communicate a possible threat to the protestors via social media and was therefore unable to dissuade the crowds through this mean, which spread the protests further.


title: 2011 Egyptian revolution

text: The 25 January Revolution and the fall of Hosni Mubarak the following month ushered in a new artistic era reflecting a changed social and political environment; "the revolution triggered a new public culture". Since its beginning, artists played a significant role in the protests; street art and music ("electro" or "techno sha'bi") were used to craft a public culture. Artists documented and captured the essence of the revolution, distributing their art through online and face-to-face social networks.


title: Mace Windu

text: Mace Windu is a fictional character in the "Star Wars" franchise. Windu was portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the prequel trilogy. Jackson reprised the role in the 2008 animated film "" and with voice only in the 2019 film "The Rise of Skywalker", whilst Terrence C. Carson voiced the character in other projects, such as . The character also appears in various canon and non-canon "Star Wars" media like books, comics, and video games.


title: Mace Windu

text: In-universe, Windu is a Jedi Master and member of the High Council during the final years of the Galactic Republic, who wields a unique purple-bladed lightsaber and is regarded as one of the most powerful Jedi of his time. He is a leading defender of the Old Republic in the Clone Wars, even as the conflict leads him to question his most firmly held beliefs.


title: Mace Windu

text: Several early incarnations of the character who would become Mace Windu were developed in George Lucas's original "Star Wars" drafts as the narrator, Princess Leia's brother and Luke Skywalker's friend. Through the process of redrafting and copyediting, his character was removed from the original trilogy, but was reintroduced in 1994 when Lucas began writing the prequel trilogy.


title: Mace Windu

text: Although his weapon was not seen onscreen until "Episode II – Attack of the Clones", action figures released for "Episode I – The Phantom Menace" paired Mace with a blue lightsaber. During the production of "Attack of the Clones", Samuel L. Jackson asked Lucas if his character could wield a purple lightsaber as a way of making the character easily distinguishable in large battle scenes. According to Jackson, the hilt was engraved with "bad motherfucker", a reference to his role in "Pulp Fiction"; the engraving is not visible in the films.


title: Mace Windu

text: Introduced in "" (1999), Mace Windu is depicted as a master of the Jedi Council, second only to Yoda. The maverick Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn comes before the council and offers to train Anakin Skywalker, believing that the boy is the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy. Windu and the other Council members decline, deeming Anakin too old and full of fear. After the corrupt Trade Federation is defeated and Obi-Wan Kenobi defeats the Sith Lord Darth Maul, who killed Qui-Gon, Windu realizes that the Sith have returned, and he and the Council reluctantly allow Obi-Wan to train Anakin in Qui-Gon's stead.


title: Mace Windu

text: In "" (2002), set 10 years after the previous installment, Windu initially refuses to believe that the assassination attempt on Senator Padmé Amidala on Coruscant was authorized by former Jedi Master Count Dooku, now the leader of a galactic Separatist movement. Having learned of Obi-Wan's whereabouts on Geonosis, Windu arrives to save him, Padmé and Anakin from being executed at Dooku's order. In the ensuing battle, Windu kills bounty hunter Jango Fett, the template for the Republic's army of clone troopers, and leads them and a cadre of Jedi to victory in a battle with Dooku's forces. At the end of the film, with the Clone Wars begun, Windu resolves to keep a closer eye on the increasingly corrupt Galactic Senate.


title: Mace Windu

text: In "" (2005), set three years after the beginning of the Clone Wars, Windu and the other members of the Jedi Council are concerned that the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine, may not relinquish his emergency powers when the Clone Wars end. Their suspicions only grow when the Senate grants Palpatine a vote on the Jedi Council by appointing Anakin as his personal representative. The Council makes Anakin a member, but Windu notifies Anakin that they do not grant him the rank of Jedi Master, infuriating the Jedi Knight and diminishing his trust in the council. Further, the Council orders Anakin to spy on Palpatine.


title: Mace Windu

text: After Obi-Wan kills Separatist leader General Grievous, Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is the Sith Lord the Council had been searching for. Anakin informs Windu that Palpatine is Darth Sidious, the mastermind of the war. Telling Anakin to stay behind, Windu and three other Jedi Masters (Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin) attempt to arrest Palpatine, but the Sith Lord easily cuts down Windu's companions and then duels him one-on-one. Windu gets the upper hand and subdues Palpatine. Anakin, needing Palpatine to teach him the power to prevent his wife Padmé's foreseen death, arrives and pleads with Windu not to kill him. Windu counters that Palpatine is too dangerous to be kept alive and prepares to summarily execute him. However, Anakin intervenes on Palpatine's behalf, disarming Windu by severing his right hand. Palpatine then kills Windu with a blast of Force lightning, sending him falling to his death out of his office's window. Sidious uses Windu's death to brand the Jedi as traitors and to start Order 66 and murder the vast majority of the Jedi.


title: Mace Windu

text: Samuel L. Jackson makes a vocal cameo as Mace Windu in "" (2019), the final installment of the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy. During the battle between Rey and a resurrected Palpatine, Windu's voice is heard by the former, encouraging her to fight back and finally destroy the Sith.


title: Mace Windu

text: Windu plays a supporting role in the 2008 animated film "", set shortly after the beginning of the Clone Wars. He is depicted as a General in the Grand Army of the Republic, like all other Jedi Masters. Samuel L. Jackson reprised his role from the live-action films.


title: Mace Windu

text: Mace Windu has a supporting role in the animated series "" (2008-2020), set between the 2008 animated film of the same name and "Revenge of the Sith". He is voiced by Terrence "T.C." Carson. Windu is a lead in several story arcs, including taking part in the liberation of Ryloth, having to deal with Boba Fett's attempts to avenge the death of his father Jango, trying to recover a Jedi Holocron stolen by Cad Bane, and rescuing the captured Queen of Bardotta from a cult led by Mother Talzin, with the help of Jar Jar Binks.


title: Mace Windu

text: In the seventh season, released on Disney+ in 2020, Windu and Obi-Wan lead the Republic's ground forces in the Anaxes campaign, and the former manages to deactivate a bomb hidden by Admiral Trench as a contingency plan once he is defeated. Later, during a meeting with the Jedi Council, Windu orders Ahsoka Tano to deliver the captured Darth Maul to Coruscant, and declines to discuss sensitive information with her, as she is no longer part of the Jedi Order. While in the process of delivering Maul, Ahsoka senses Anakin turning to the dark side and helping Palpatine kill Windu; archive recordings of Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu were used for this scene.


title: Mace Windu

text: In 2017, Marvel released "Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic – Mace Windu", a five-issue comic series centered around Windu during the early days of the Clone Wars. The series received negative reviews for both its art and story. It follows Windu leading a small team of Jedi to a remote planet to investigate a Separatist presence. Windu battles a mercenary droid hired by General Grievous, and one of the Jedi turns on Windu after becoming disillusioned with the Order's involvement in war.


title: Mace Windu

text: The 2022 novel "Brotherhood" (focused on Obi-Wan and Anakin) acknowledges Windu's ability to sense "shatterpoints", established in the "Legends" continuity.


title: Mace Windu

text: Windu appears extensively in prequel-era Expanded Universe material. In April 2014, most of the licensed "Star Wars" novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film were rebranded by Lucasfilm as "Star Wars Legends" and declared non-canon to the franchise.


title: Mace Windu

text: Mace Windu is a supporting character in Genndy Tartakovsky's micro-series "" (2003–2005), which is set between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith". In the first chapters, he defends the grasslands planet Dantooine against a large Separatist hovering "fortress", and over the course of the battle, he loses his lightsaber, forcing him to instead use a lethal form of unarmed combat powered by the Force. In the final chapters, Windu and Yoda help defend Coruscant from an attack by General Grievous.


title: Mace Windu

text: The 1999 "" arc of the Dark Horse Comics' , set shortly after "The Phantom Menace", mentions a Jedi exercise in which Windu had swapped his lightsaber with Eeth Koth. However, the lightsaber returned to him is blue, so this does not explain why his saber color changed to purple, as is sometimes claimed.


title: Mace Windu

text: Windu has appeared as a supporting character in Legends/Expanded Universe novels, such as "Cloak of Deception, , Rogue Planet, Outbound Flight, The Cestus Deception, Jedi Trial, " and "Labyrinth of Evil".


title: Mace Windu

text: Mace Windu is the central character of Matthew Stover's 2004 novel "Shatterpoint", taking place six months after "Attack of the Clones". Stover based the novel on both Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness", and its 1979 film adaptation "Apocalypse Now". George Lucas wrote the prologue to the novel, and Jonathan Davis reads the audiobook version.


title: Mace Windu

text: Windu's former Padawan and fellow Jedi Master Depa Billaba has been sent to Windu's homeworld, Haruun Kal, to start a revolution against the Separatist-allied government. Evidence is discovered that Billaba has fallen to the dark side of the Force. Since Windu taught her a special lightsaber combat form, he is sent by the Jedi Council to find her.


title: Mace Windu

text: After a fight, he puts Billaba under arrest, and calls a Republic cruiser. It is attacked by vulture droids and deploys gunships, which battle the droid starfighters with the assistance of clone troopers. Some of the landing craft make it to the surface, and the cruiser defeats the Separatists. Windu uses the gunships to destroy the droid fighters that followed them, then orders the clones to take out a nearby droid control station. The Separatists are forced to surrender to the Republic, and Billaba falls into a vegetative coma. A Republic force stays on the planet to police the unrestful local tribes.


title: Mace Windu

text: The novel explores Windu's unique talent of sensing "shatterpoints", faultlines in the Force which allow him to exploit his enemies' weaknesses. It also explains that Windu is the creator and sole master of a style of lightsaber combat called Vaapad, in which the user skirts dangerously close to the dark side by enjoying the thrill of the fight. All others who attempted to master the form either gave in to the dark side or were unable to properly master the technique. Stover later referenced Windu's unique lightsaber-fighting abilities in his . Vaapad was also acknowledged in the 2010 reference book "The Jedi Path".


title: Mace Windu

text: An action figure was released following the prequel films' release. A Mace Windu action figure was added to the "Star Wars" Transformers toy line in 2006. It was a remold of the toy first used for Obi-Wan Kenobi. He becomes an Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor starfighter with Astromech droid R4-M6.


title: Mace Windu

text: IGN listed Mace Windu as the 27th best "Star Wars" character, stating that he is an important component of the series.


title: Mace Windu

text: Samuel L. Jackson called for Windu's return at "Star Wars" Celebration in 2017, saying that "We all know Jedi can fall from incredible heights and survive, so apparently, I am not dead. Yes, I have two appendages right now, but we know the long and rich history of "Star Wars" characters reappearing with new appendages".


title: Peter Sohn

text: Peter Sohn (born October 18, 1977) is an American animator, voice actor, storyboard artist, and film director. He is known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios as the director of 2015's "The Good Dinosaur" and the upcoming 2023 film "Elemental". He has also been the voice of Emile in "Ratatouille", Squishy in "Monsters University", and Sox in "Lightyear".


title: Peter Sohn

text: Sohn was raised in New York City, where he was born in The Bronx. His parents were Korean immigrants.


title: Peter Sohn

text: He graduated from high school in 1995. While attending CalArts, he landed a summer job working on Brad Bird's animated feature film, "The Iron Giant".


title: Peter Sohn

text: After graduating from school, he worked at The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. before coming to Pixar in the art and story departments for "Finding Nemo". He also worked on "The Incredibles", "Ratatouille" and "WALL-E". Sohn performed the voice of Remy's brother, Emile in "Ratatouille". He made his directorial debut with the short film "Partly Cloudy" in 2009 which he also wrote. "Partly Cloudy" was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2009. Sohn co-directed the English-language version of "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" in 2009 with John Lasseter and Brad Lewis (fellow Pixar workers).


title: Peter Sohn

text: Russell, the boy in "Up", was based off of Sohn's appearance. He voiced Russell in the corresponding short, "George & A.J.", and Squishy in the feature "Monsters University".


title: Peter Sohn

text: Sohn directed "The Good Dinosaur", which was released in November 2015. He voiced its "Styracosaurus" character Forrest Woodbush.


title: Peter Sohn

text: Sohn was set to voice the Marvel Comics character Ganke Lee in the Sony Pictures Animation feature film "", but his lines were ultimately deleted from the final film.


title: Peter Sohn

text: In 2022, Sohn provided the voice of Sox, a robotic kitten, in the Pixar film "Lightyear". That same year, it was announced he was directing Pixar's next original film, "Elemental", which was based on his experience growing up in New York. The film will incorporate the classical elements of fire, water, air, and earth as the sentient residents of a city, and is set to release June 16, 2023 as the 27th feature film made by the Emeryville-based studio. In addition, it will be the only Pixar film that year, before they revert back to two for 2024.


title: Mika Singh

text: Mika Singh (born 10 June 1977) is an Indian singer. His songs include "Bas Ek King" ("Singh Is Kinng"), "Mauja Hi Mauja" ("Jab We Met"), "Ibn-e-Batuta" ("Ishqiya"), and "Dhanno" ("Housefull"). He has released several solo albums and appeared on reality shows. His song "Sawan Main Lag Gayi Aag" was remixed by U.S based singer Pinky Paras.


title: Mika Singh

text: Singh was born on 10 June 1977 as Amrik Singh in Durgapur, West Bengal. He is the youngest of six brothers. Singh and his elder brother Daler Mehndi were inspired by their father, Ajmer Singh, a trained classical musician who used to sing kirtans in Patna Sahib Gurdwara since childhood.


title: Mika Singh

text: In 2014, Singh performed live and sold out in Bollywood Showstoppers at The O2 Arena with Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Jacqueline Fernandez, Shahid Kapoor, Ali Zafar, and supported by Bollywood dance group Bolly Flex, that appeared Sky1's dance competition show, Got to Dance.


title: Mika Singh

text: Singh also performed at his biggest outdoor concert at Danny Singh's Sandwell & Birmingham Mela in 2016 with an overall audience for the duration of the Mela estimated to be 80,000.


title: Mika Singh

text: In 2018 Singh was arrested in UAE after a case was filed against him by a Brazilian teenager model for allegedly sexually assaulting her. After this, he was sent to jail and later on released after the intervention of the Indian Embassy.


title: Mika Singh

text: All India Cine Workers Association (AICWA) on 14 August 2019 banned singer Mika Singh from the Indian film industry for performing at an event in Karachi, Pakistan. The event in Pakistan was organised by former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's close relative. The film body further put an unconditional ban on the singer and boycotted him from all the movies and music contracts with the entertainment companies. The association also sought the intervention of Information and Broadcasting ministry in the matter.


title: Self

text: The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the "self" is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or "selfhood"—should, however, not be confused with subjectivity itself. Ostensibly, this sense is directed outward from the subject to refer inward, back to its "self" (or itself). Examples of psychiatric conditions where such "sameness" may become broken include depersonalization, which sometimes occurs in schizophrenia: the self appears different from the subject.


title: Self

text: The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) sameness and may involve categorization and labeling,


title: Self

text: selfhood implies a first-person perspective and suggests potential uniqueness. Conversely, we use "person" as a third-person reference. Personal identity can be impaired in late-stage Alzheimer's disease and in other neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, the self is distinguishable from "others". Including the distinction between sameness and otherness, the self versus other is a research topic in contemporary philosophy and contemporary phenomenology (see also psychological phenomenology), psychology, psychiatry, neurology, and neuroscience.


title: Self

text: Although subjective experience is central to selfhood, the privacy of this experience is only one of many problems in the Philosophy of self and scientific study of consciousness.


title: Self

text: The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive and affective representation of one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology forms the distinction between the self as "I", the subjective knower, and the self as "Me", the subject that is known. Current views of the self in psychology position the self as playing an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity. Self following from John Locke has been seen as a product of episodic memory but research upon those with amnesia find they have a coherent sense of self based upon preserved conceptual autobiographical knowledge. It is increasingly possible to correlate cognitive and affective experience of self with neural processes. A goal of this ongoing research is to provide grounding and insight into the elements of which the complex multiple situated selves of human identity are composed.


title: Self

text: What the Freudian tradition has subjectively called, "sense of self" is for Jungian analytic psychology, where one's identity is lodged in the persona or ego and is subject to change in maturation. Carl Jung distinguished, "The self is not only the center but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the center of this totality...". The Self in Jungian psychology is "the archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the psyche ... a transpersonal power that transcends the ego." As a Jungian archetype, it cannot be seen directly, but by ongoing individuating maturation and analytic observation, can be experienced objectively by its cohesive wholeness-making factor.


title: Self

text: Meanwhile, self psychology is a set of psychotherapeutic principles and techniques established by the Austrian-born American psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut upon the foundation of the psychoanalytic method developed by Freud, and is specifically focused on the subjectivity of experience, which, according to self psychology, is mediated by a psychological structure called the self.


title: Self

text: For example, facial and pattern recognition take large amounts of brain processing capacity but pareidolia cannot explain many constructs of self for cases of disorder, such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.


title: Self

text: One's sense of self can also be changed upon becoming part of a stigmatized group. According to Cox, Abramson, Devine, and Hollon (2012), if an individual has prejudice against a certain group, like the elderly and then later becomes part of this group this prejudice can be turned inward causing depression (i.e. deprejudice).


title: Self

text: The philosophy of a disordered self, such as in schizophrenia, is described in terms of what the psychiatrist understands are actual events in terms of neuron excitation but are delusions nonetheless, and the schizo-affective or a schizophrenic person also believes are actual events in terms of essential being. PET scans have shown that auditory stimulation is processed in certain areas of the brain, and imagined similar events are processed in adjacent areas, but hallucinations are processed in the same areas as actual stimulation. In such cases, external influences may be the source of consciousness and the person may or may not be responsible for "sharing" in the mind's process, or the events which occur, such as visions and auditory stimuli, may persist and be repeated often over hours, days, months or years—and the afflicted person may believe themselves to be in a state of rapture or possession.


title: Self

text: Two areas of the brain that are important in retrieving self-knowledge are the medial prefrontal cortex and the medial posterior parietal cortex.


title: Self

text: The posterior cingulate cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex are thought to combine to provide humans with the ability to self-reflect. The insular cortex is also thought to be involved in the process of self-reference.


title: Self

text: Culture consists of explicit and implicit patterns of historically derived and selected ideas and their embodiment in institutions, cognitive and social practices, and artifacts. Cultural systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other, as conditioning elements of further action. The way individuals construct themselves may be different due to their culture.


title: Self

text: Markus and Kitayama's early 1990s theory hypothesized that representations of the self in human cultures would fall on a continuum from "independent" to "interdependent". The independent self is supposed to be egoistic, unique, separated from the various contexts, critical in judgment, and prone to self-expression. The interdependent self is supposed to be altruistic, similar with the others, flexible according to contexts, conformist, and unlikely to express opinions that would disturb the harmony of his or her group of belonging. This theory enjoyed huge popularity despite its many problems such as being based on popular stereotypes and myths about different cultures rather than on rigorous scientific research as well as postulating a series of causal links between culture and self-construals without presenting any evidence supporting them.


title: Self

text: A large study from 2016 involving a total of 10,203 participants from 55 cultural groups found that there is no independent versus interdependent dimension of self-construal because traits supposed by Markus & Kitayama to form a coherent construct do not actually correlate, or if they correlate, they have correlations opposite to those postulated by Markus & Kitayama. There are seven separate dimensions of self-construal which can be found at both the cultural level of analysis and the individual level of analysis. These dimensions are "difference versus similarity" (if the individual considers himself or herself to be a unique person or to be the same as everybody else), "self-containment versus connection to others" (feeling oneself as being separated from others versus feeling oneself as being together with the others), "self-direction versus receptiveness to influence" (independent thinking versus conformity). Westerners, Latin Americans, and the Japanese are relatively likely to represent their individual self as unique and different from that of others while Arabs, South-East Asians, and Africans are relatively likely to represent themselves as being similar to that of others. Individuals from Uganda, Japan, Colombia, Namibia, Ghana, and Belgium were most likely to represent their selves as being emotionally separated from the community while individuals from Oman, Malaysia, Thailand, and central Brazil were most likely to consider themselves as emotionally connected to their communities. Japanese, Belgians, British, and Americans from Colorado were most likely to value independent thinking and consider themselves as making their own decisions in life independently from others. On the other hand, respondents from rural Peru, Malaysia, Ghana, Oman, and Hungary were most likely to place more value on following others rather than thinking for themselves as well as to describe themselves as being often influenced by others in their decisions. Middle Easterners from Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Oman were most likely to value self-reliance and consider themselves as working on their own and being economically independent of others. On the other hand, respondents from Uganda, Japan, and Namibia were most likely to consider cooperation between different individuals in economical activities as being important. Chileans, Ethiopians from the highlands, Turks, and people from Lebanon placed a relatively high degree of importance on maintaining a stable pattern of behavior regardless of situation or context. Individuals from Japan, Cameroon, the United Kingdom, and Sweden were most likely to describe themselves as being adaptable to various contexts and to place value on this ability. Colombians, Chileans, US Hispanics, Belgians, and Germans were most likely to consider self-expression as being more important than maintaining harmony within a group. Respondents from Oman, Cameroon, and Malaysia were most likely to say that they prefer keeping harmony within a group to engaging in self-expression. Sub-Saharan Africans from Namibia, Ghana, and Uganda considered that they would follow their own interests even if this means harming the interests of those close to them. Europeans from Belgium, Italy, and Sweden had the opposite preference, considering self-sacrifice for other members of the community as being more important than accomplishing selfish goals.


title: Self

text: Contrary to the theory of Markus & Kitayama, egoism correlates negatively with individual uniqueness, independent thinking, and self-expression. Self-reliance correlates strongly and negatively with emotional self-containment, which is also unexpected given Markus & Kitayama's theory. The binary classification of cultural self-construals into independent versus interdependent is deeply flawed because in reality, the traits do not correlate according to Markus & Kitayama's self-construal theory, and this theory fails to take into consideration the extremely diverse and complex variety of self-construals present in various cultures across the world.


title: Self

text: The philosophy of self seeks to describe essential qualities that constitute a person's uniqueness or essential being. There have been various approaches to defining these qualities. The self can be considered that being which is the source of consciousness, the agent responsible for an individual's thoughts and actions, or the substantial nature of a person which endures and unifies consciousness over time.


title: Self

text: In addition to Emmanuel Levinas writings on "otherness", the distinction between "you" and "me" has been further elaborated in Martin Buber's philosophical work: Ich und Du.


title: Self

text: Religious views on the Self vary widely. The Self is a complex and core subject in many forms of spirituality. Two types of Self are commonly considered—the Self that is the ego, also called the learned, superficial Self of mind and body, egoic creation, and the Self which is sometimes called the "True Self", the "Observing Self", or the "Witness". In Hinduism, the Ātman (Self), despite being experienced as an individual, is actually a representation of the unified transcendent reality, Brahman. Our experience of reality doesn't match the nature of Brahman due to māyā.


title: Self

text: One description of spirituality is the Self's search for "ultimate meaning" through an independent comprehension of the sacred. Another definition of spiritual identity is: "A persistent sense of Self that addresses ultimate questions about the nature, purpose, and meaning of life, resulting in behaviors that are consonant with the individual’s core values. Spiritual identity appears when the symbolic religious and spiritual value of a culture is found by individuals in the setting of their own life. There can be different types of spiritual Self because it is determined by one's life and experiences."


title: Self

text: Human beings have a Self—that is, they are able to look back on themselves as both subjects and objects in the universe. Ultimately, this brings questions about who we are and the nature of our own importance. Traditions such as Buddhism see the attachment to Self is an illusion that serves as the main cause of suffering and unhappiness. Christianity makes a distinction between the true self and the false self, and sees the false self negatively, distorted through sin: 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?' (Jeremiah 17:9)


title: Self

text: According to Marcia Cavell, identity comes from both political and religious views. She also identified exploration and commitment as interactive parts of identity formation, which includes religious identity. Erik Erikson compared faith with doubt and found that healthy adults take heed to their spiritual side.


title: Illegals Program

text: The Illegals Program (so named by the United States Department of Justice) was a network of Russian sleeper agents under unofficial cover. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) culminated in the arrest of ten agents on June 27, 2010, and a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States on July 9, 2010.


title: Illegals Program

text: The arrested spies were Russian nationals who had been planted in the U.S. by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (known by its Russian abbreviation, "SVR"), most of them using false identity. Posing as ordinary American citizens, they tried to build contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to intelligence. They were the target of a multi-year investigation by the FBI. The investigation, called Operation Ghost Stories, culminated at the end of June 2010 with the arrest of ten people in the U.S. and an eleventh in Cyprus. The ten sleeper agents were charged with "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation."


title: Illegals Program

text: The suspect arrested in Cyprus skipped bail the day after his arrest. A twelfth person, a Russian national who worked for Microsoft, was also apprehended about the same time and deported on July 13, 2010. Moscow court documents made public on June 27, 2011, revealed that another two Russian agents, who Russia alleges were known to the FBI, managed to flee the U.S. without being arrested.


title: Illegals Program

text: Ten of the agents were flown to Vienna on July 9, 2010, soon after pleading guilty to charges of failing to register as representatives of a foreign government. The same day, the agents were exchanged for four Russian nationals, three of whom had been convicted and imprisoned by Russia on espionage (high treason) on behalf of the US and UK.


title: Illegals Program

text: On October 31, 2011, the FBI publicly released several dozen still images, clips from surveillance video, and documents related to its investigation in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.


title: Illegals Program

text: Using forged documents, some of the spies assumed stolen identities of Americans, enrolled at American universities, and joined professional organizations as a means of further infiltrating government circles. Two of the individuals used the names of Richard and Cynthia Murphy and resided in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1990s, before purchasing a nearby home in suburban Montclair. Another couple named in court documents were journalist Vicky Peláez and Mikhail Vasenkov (using the alias Juan Lazaro) in Yonkers, New York. The court filings allege that couples were arranged in Russia to "co-habit in the country to which they are assigned," going as far as having children together to help maintain their deep covert status.


title: Illegals Program

text: The criminal complaints later filed in various federal district courts allege that the Russian agents in the U.S. passed information back to the SVR by messages hidden inside digital photographs, written in disappearing ink, ad hoc wireless networks, and shortwave radio transmissions, as well as by agents swapping identical bags while passing each other in the stairwell of a train station. Messages and materials were passed in such places as Grand Central Terminal and Central Park.


title: Illegals Program

text: The Russian agents were tasked by "Moscow centre" to report about U.S. policy in Central America, U.S. interpretation of Russian foreign policy, problems with U.S. military policy, and "United States policy with regard to the use of the Internet by terrorists".


title: Illegals Program

text: According to the media reports, planning by the FBI to have the "illegals" arrested began in mid-June 2010, but the action was hastened reportedly by some members of the group intending to travel outside the US as well as by Anna Chapman's growing concern about having been exposed. Vladimir Guriyev was planning to travel to France and possibly Russia, Bezrukov was planning to travel outside the US with his son, and Chapman, in a telephone call to her father the day before the arrest, said she suspected that she may have been discovered and planned to leave for Moscow in mid-July 2010.


title: Illegals Program

text: U.S. authorities arrested ten of the agents involved on June 27, 2010, in a series of raids in Boston, Montclair (New Jersey), Yonkers, and Northern Virginia. They charged the individuals with money laundering and failing to register as agents of a foreign government. No charges were made that the individuals involved gained access to classified material, though contacts were made with a former intelligence official and with a scientist involved in developing bunker buster bombs.


title: Illegals Program

text: One of the suspects using the name of Christopher R. Metsos was detained on June 29, 2010, while attempting to depart from Cyprus for Budapest, but was released on bail and then disappeared.


title: Illegals Program

text: There was no evidence that the convicted agents knew each other beyond their respective spouses; military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer believed that they consequently did not constitute a "spy ring".


title: Illegals Program

text: Shortly after the arrests, "The Guardian" commented: "The FBI operation represents the biggest penetration of SVR communications in recent memory. The FBI read their emails, decrypted their intel, read the embedded coded texts on images posted on the net, bugged their mobile phones, videotaped the passing of bags of cash and messages in invisible ink from one agent to another, and hacked into their bogus expenses claims. [...] The tradecraft used by the alleged SVR ring was amateurish, and will send shivers down the spine of the rival intelligence organisations in Russia. This was bungling on a truly epic scale. No secrets about bunker-busting bombs were actually obtained, but the network was betrayed. [...] To have a spy ring uncovered before they could actually do any serious spying is doubly embarrassing."


title: Illegals Program

text: Coinciding with the day of the prisoners' swap, the death of the prominent Russian defector Sergei Tretyakov, who died in the US on June 13, 2010, was reported on July 9, 2010. A Florida medical examiner's report, released on September 20, 2010, cited an accident and a tumour as the cause of death. In response to allegations in the media that he might have tipped off the US authorities about some of the "illegals", Tretyakov's co-author Pete Earley, citing anonymous "well-informed" sources, said in July 2010 that Tretyakov had not been privy to the case of Russian "illegals".


title: Illegals Program

text: The November 11, 2010, issue of "Kommersant," Russia's broadsheet, carried an article that, with reference to unnamed Russian government sources, contained allegations that the "illegals" were fingered by a senior SVR officer named "Colonel Shcherbakov" (according to an unnamed ex-CIA source, his full name may be , '). The latter, according to the newspaper's sources, headed the "American" unit of the SVR department in charge of "illegals" and left Russia for the U.S. "three days prior to Dmitry Medvedev's June visit to the U.S." According to other media outlets' sources, the name "Shcherbakov" was fictitious, and a number of experts and commentators judged many allegations in the article to be dubious or improbable. Nevertheless, some comments made the following day by Russian president Medvedev were interpreted as an indirect confirmation of a high-level defection in the Russian intelligence apparatus. On November 15, 2010, "Interfax" cited unnamed sources within Russian intelligence as alleging that the real name of the defector who was primarily responsible for uncovering the ten convicted agents was Aleksandr Poteyev (reportedly, his full name is , '), who was a colonel in the SVR and was deputy head of the American department within Directorate "S" of SVR ("S" oversees illegals). According to "Interfax"s unnamed source, a person called Shcherbakov had indeed held a senior position in the SVR and "defected about two years ago."


title: Illegals Program

text: Anna Chapman—maiden name ()—was arrested with nine others in 2010. According to U.S. authorities, her former name is Anya Kushchenko, and she is a Volgograd native. (According to some reports, she was born in Ukraine.) Her father was employed in the Russian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her master's in economics degree from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow. She later worked in London at NetJets, Barclays Bank, and other companies.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 5, 2010, One India reported that Chapman may have been recruited to become an agent when she was in the United Kingdom, citing Oleg Gordievsky and Alex Chapman as sources, and that an urgent probe was underway in the UK to ascertain whether Chapman organized sleeper cells in the United Kingdom.


title: Illegals Program

text: Her LinkedIn social networking site profile said she was CEO of PropertyFinder Ltd, a website selling real estate internationally. Chapman posted photos of herself on the Odnoklassniki ("Classmates") social networking website in Russia where she stated "Russia, Moscow. My favorite place on earth, my native capital!" She also posted photos and profiles on the Facebook and LinkedIn social networking websites.


title: Illegals Program

text: Chapman's prior meetings with her Russian handlers were on Wednesdays; not face to face; solely to pass information via encrypted private computer networks at Barnes & Noble or at Starbucks. Thus her suspicion was aroused when an FBI informant, posing as a Russian consular officer named "Roman", on Saturday, June 26 asked her to come to New York from Connecticut, where she was spending the weekend. Her suspicions increased when "Roman" turned out to be a man she didn't know who asked her to deliver a fake United States passport to another sleeper agent in a face-to-face meeting. The task of transferring a fake US passport to another Russian agent in a face-to-face meeting was beyond anything that the Moscow Center had previously assigned to her.


title: Illegals Program

text: After the meeting with "Roman," Chapman bought a new cell phone and two telephone cards. She called her father in Moscow and another individual in New York, both advising her not to transfer the passport. The FBI monitored the calls.


title: Illegals Program

text: Chapman turned in the passport to the 1st Precinct police station in New York but was questioned by the FBI and arrested.


title: Illegals Program

text: According to her American lawyer, Robert Baum, while in the US jail, she feared she would be deported. When her deportation became imminent, she said she would go to live in London on her UK passport, but it was subsequently revoked. After her deportation to Russia, in July 2010, Robert Baum reiterated that his client wished to stay in the U.S. He also said that she was "particularly upset" by the revocation of her UK citizenship and exclusion from the country.


title: Illegals Program

text: On August 8, 2010, the United Kingdom's tabloid "Sunday Express" cited an unidentified "source close to MI6" as saying, "There was a deal on the table just before she caught her connecting flight to Moscow. The secret service intercepted her on her flight back from America to Vienna, where her plane landed to refuel. MI6 were keen to know about other ‘illegals’—Russian spy cells—hiding in the United Kingdom, so they made her an offer. In return they offered to give her back British citizenship and allow her to settle in London. Anna was having none of it though and told them in no uncertain terms that she wished to return to Russia."


title: Illegals Program

text: In September 2010, German magazine "" reported that Chapman said the SVR had forbidden her from saying anything about her activities in the US.


title: Illegals Program

text: Vicky Peláez, a Peruvian national and US citizen, and (, alias Juan Lazaro), a Russian citizen, were arrested at their home in Yonkers, New York. Both admitted being Russian agents. The couple have a son together, and Peláez also has a son from a previous marriage.


title: Illegals Program

text: According to a report by "The Wall Street Journal" in early August 2010, the real Juan Lazaro died of respiratory failure in 1947 in Uruguay at age 3, with Vasenkov having presumably used the dead toddler's birth certificate to build a persona. According to a file kept by the Peruvian Interior Ministry that "The Wall Street Journal" cited, Vasenkov flew on March 13, 1976, from Madrid to Lima on a Uruguayan passport in the name of Juan Jose Lazaro Fuentes. He bore a letter on a Spanish tobacco company's stationery that said they had hired him for a market survey in Peru. Two years later, he submitted copies of the passport and a 1943 Uruguayan birth certificate with a letter asking Peru's military dictator Francisco Morales Bermúdez (the country was then run by a US-friendly junta) for Peruvian citizenship, which Peru granted in 1979.


title: Illegals Program

text: In 1983, "Juan Lazaro" married Vicky Peláez. Peláez was a television reporter in Peru, and a columnist at "" in New York City. In her writings, Peláez often criticized US policy in Latin America, and supported liberation movements in those countries. In 1985, Peláez and "Lazaro" moved to New York with her son from a previous relationship.


title: Illegals Program

text: "Juan Lazaro" wrote a 1990 article for a European publication that spoke "glowingly" of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. He was described as a "journalist and anthropologist" in the 1998 book "Women and Revolution: Global Expression", for which he was a contributing author. Vasenkov studied at the New School for Social Research and taught a class on Latin American and Caribbean Politics at Baruch College for one semester during the 2008–2009 school year as an adjunct professor. According to "The New York Times" June 29, 2010, report, Vasenkov was a vocal opponent of American foreign policy in class: "He maintained that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a money-making ploy for corporate America. He praised President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and disparaged President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia as a pawn for paramilitary groups that have broad control over drug trafficking." At least one student complained about Vasenkov's teaching and he was let go at the end of the semester. The department chairman reported that Vasenkov's instruction was not up to standard resulting in his teaching for only one semester but that he recalled no controversy over any anti-American views.


title: Illegals Program

text: US officials reported that on June 27, 2010, Vasenkov confessed to being a spy and that "Juan Lazaro" was not his real name, though he declined to give his true identity. He additionally stated he was not born in Uruguay, and that Peláez delivered letters to Russian authorities on his behalf. It was later reported that Lazaro's real name is Mikhail Vasenkov. In November 2010, Russian broadsheet "Kommersant" published Russian anonymous sources' allegations that while in US custody, Vasenkov had three ribs and a leg broken by investigators trying to extract more information from him – a claim assessed by experts as highly improbable. The "Kommersant" article also cited unnamed RF government sources as saying that Vasenkov was presented with the SVR personal file on him obtained through a senior SVR defector ("Colonel Shcherbakov"), whereafter he was forced to own up to his real name.


title: Illegals Program

text: On August 7, 2010, "The Wall Street Journal" cited Vasenkov's American lawyer, Genesis Peduto, as saying that his client indicated to him on the phone that he wanted to leave Moscow for Peru: "He doesn't want to stay in Russia. He says he's Juan Lazaro and he's not from Russia and doesn't speak Russian. He wants to be where his wife is going, to her native country, where it will be easier for Juan Jr. to visit. His family comes first."


title: Illegals Program

text: Andrey Bezrukov (, alias Donald Howard Heathfield) and Yelena Vavilova (, alias Tracey Lee Ann Foley) admitted being both Russian citizens and Russian agents. The agents have two sons, Alexander and Timothy, who were, at the time of their parents' arrest, aged 16 and 20. The sons are adamant that they had no inkling of their parents' real identities; unnamed US officials say, without providing evidence, that the parents had revealed their true identities to the elder son long before the arrest.


title: Illegals Program

text: Bezrukov and his cover wife Yelena Vavilova had a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Heathfield earned an M.P.A. degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was described as a "joiner". Heathfield claimed to have been the son of a Canadian diplomat and to have studied at a school in the Czech Republic. A fellow graduate of the Kennedy School noted that Heathfield kept careful track of his nearly 200 classmates, who included President of Mexico Felipe Calderón. The couple was arrested on June 27, 2010.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 16, 2010, after his arrest and deportation, Harvard revoked Heathfield's degree on grounds of his misrepresentation of his identity on his application.


title: Illegals Program

text: Bezrukov was a professional member of the World Future Society, described by the "Boston Herald" as "a think tank on future technologies that holds conferences featuring top government scientists". Former Al Gore National Security Advisor Leon Fuerth spoke at the World Future Society 2008 conference in Washington, D.C., along with George Washington University professor William Halal. In a July 2, 2010, "Wall Street Journal" article, Fuerth is quoted acknowledging he met Heathfield after a speech he gave. In the same article, Halal described his relationship to Heathfield as benign; "I would bump into him at meetings of Federal agencies, think tanks, and the World Future Society. I have no information that's of any security value ... Everything I gave Don was published widely and readily available on the Internet". Bezrukov was chief executive of Future Map, a consulting company involved in government and corporate preparedness systems.


title: Illegals Program

text: Bezrukov's cover wife, Yelena Vavilova, worked for Redfin, a real estate firm in Somerville, Massachusetts. She claimed she was from Canada, but also traveled on a British passport.


title: Illegals Program

text: In July 2012, referring to "current and former U.S. officials," "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the couple had groomed their son, Tim Foley, for a future spy career. He was 20 when his parents were arrested, and had just finished his sophomore year at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He and his younger brother traveled to Russia in July 2010 to meet their parents after their deportations. Both were unable to return to the US. The sons, while born in Canada and considering themselves Canadian, and not feeling at home in Moscow, were unable to regain their Canadian citizenship, have been denied visas for Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, and consequently been unable to take up university places they were offered. By 2018, both sons won court cases in the Federal Court of Appeal to affirm their Canadian citizenship; the ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada on December 19, 2019. The decision, "Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov", set an important administrative law precedent. In March 2018, Alexander (going by his mother's surname Vavilov) received a Canadian passport and moved back to Canada, while awaiting the Supreme Court verdict.


title: Illegals Program

text: As of August 2019, the couple was living in Moscow; Bezrukov was teaching at a university and doing consulting work for an oil company while Vavilova "also has a consultancy role at a company", according to an article published by The Guardian.


title: Illegals Program

text: Vladimir Guryev (, alias Richard Murphy) and Lidiya Guriyeva (, alias Cynthia Murphy) were Russian agents in New Jersey.


title: Illegals Program

text: Lidiya Guriyeva attended school in the United States, receiving two undergraduate degrees from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. In 2009, Cynthia Murphy developed contacts in New York City financial circles as a means to obtain details about the global gold market. Lidiya was trying to cultivate a relationship with Alan Patricof, a venture capitalist who co-chaired Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, with her handlers telling her to "try to build up relations little by little." Lidiya Guriyeva was Vice President of Morea Financial Services in New York.


title: Illegals Program

text: Vladimir Guryev supplied money and equipment to Kutsik (see below) in a 2004 meeting in Columbus Circle, New York and 2009, where $150,000 and a flash drive were given. When the computer program was inoperative, Guryev supplied Kutsik with a laptop computer that Guryev brought from Moscow.


title: Illegals Program

text: Vladimir and Lidiya Guriyeva were arrested at their home at 31 Marquette Road in Montclair, New Jersey. The couple have two young daughters, aged 11 and 9 at the time of their parents' arrest. Vladimir Guriyev used a false birth certificate that claimed he was born in Philadelphia, while his wife said that she was born in New York City as "Cynthia A. Hopkins." The two earlier lived in an apartment in Hoboken after arriving in the United States in the mid-1990s. They then purchased a suburban Montclair home for $481,000 in 2008. When they purchased it, the couple argued with their handlers as to who would officially own the house, with the ultimate decision being that it would be owned by "Moscow Center."


title: Illegals Program

text: Professor Nina Khrushcheva, who served as Vladimir's faculty adviser at The New School for three years starting in 2002, said in July 2010 that she found it difficult to figure out the purported Philadelphia native: "I was always puzzled by the inconsistency between a completely American name and completely Russian behaviour. [...] He had a thick Russian accent and an incredibly unhappy Russian personality."


title: Illegals Program

text: Vladimir Guryev was criticized by his wife for his poor information gathering; she suggested that he pursue individuals with connections to the White House. The couple was also tasked with obtaining information about US policy in Afghanistan, the nuclear program of Iran, and the latest Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty talks. Shortly after the couple's arrest, one of their neighbors quipped: "They couldn't be spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas."


title: Illegals Program

text: Mikhail Kutsik (; cover name Michael Zottoli) and Natalya Pereverzeva (; cover name Patricia Mills) were agents in Seattle, Washington, and, later, Arlington, Virginia. They appear to be in their 40s. Kutsik came to the US in 2001, and Pereverzeva came in 2003, according to the FBI. He claimed to be American but had a thick accent and she claimed to be Canadian but neighbors said she sounded Yugoslavian. They lived in the Seattle, Washington, area for about two years and both attended the University of Washington, Bothell, where they earned bachelor's degrees in business. Zottoli worked for several different jobs over the years including telecom company accountant, car salesman, and teleconference firm employee. Pereverzeva was a stay-at-home mom who cared for their toddler son named Kenny; a second son was born in late 2009. After Kutsik lost his job in 2009, they moved with their children to Arlington, Virginia, later that year. After their parents were arrested, arrangements were made to send the children to Russia.


title: Illegals Program

text: Kutsik and Pereverzeva pleaded guilty to "conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country." They appeared to be an ordinary married couple with two young children. However, US authorities allege that they had both been spying for Russia in the US since at least 2004. They received specially coded radio transmissions at their high-rise Seattle apartment, and the FBI secretly entered their home, where they found random numbers used to decode the "radiograms". Kutsik received money from Guriyev (Murphy) in Columbus Circle, New York in 2004 while Pereverzeva stood as lookout. In 2006, the FBI photographed them visiting the area of Wurtsboro, New York, where they dug up a bundle of cash in a field that Metsos placed there two years earlier. Kutsik visited New York again in 2009, where he evidently received $150,000 in cash and a flash drive from Murphy. Kutsik communicated with the SVR using a laptop that Guryev brought from Moscow after the computer program supplied to him did not function.


title: Illegals Program

text: Kutsik and Pereverzeva were arrested on June 27, 2010, at their Arlington, Virginia, home. Both had family living in Russia and prosecutors argued that bail be denied under the circumstances.


title: Illegals Program

text: On January 13, 2011, Russia's oil pipeline monopoly, Transneft, confirmed that Natalya Pereverzeva was appointed an adviser for foreign economic relations to the company's president, Nikolai Tokarev.


title: Illegals Program

text: Mikhail Semenko () was one of the two agents who "operated under their true names." He is reported to have studied for one year at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He also attended school and received graduate degrees in the United States at Seton Hall University, one of the degrees being from the Whitehead School of Diplomacy. He is fluent in English, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. He later worked for the Conference Board in New York City in 2009, and for 2009–2010 reportedly worked at Travel All Russia, an Arlington, Virginia, travel agency, helping Chinese and Hispanic travelers plan trips. He appeared to be in his late 20s; his neighbors said that he was a stylish man who drove a Mercedes S500 car and spoke Russian to his girlfriend.


title: Illegals Program

text: Semenko was first noted by the FBI on June 5 when he used a computer in a restaurant to send encrypted messages, presumably to a car parked in the restaurant lot that had Russian diplomatic plates and was driven by a Russian official who was known to have transferred money to other Russian sleeper agents in 2004.


title: Illegals Program

text: On or about June 26, 2010, Semenko met with an undercover FBI agent purporting to be a Russian agent and accepted $5,000, which he delivered to a drop site in an Arlington, Virginia park. The drop was made at 11:06 am and Semenko was arrested at his residence in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, later that day.


title: Illegals Program

text: The man known by the name of "Christopher Metsos" was alleged to be the money man and main go-between behind the Illegals Program and the SVR.


title: Illegals Program

text: On June 29, 2010, acting on an Interpol notice, police arrested the 55-year-old man at the Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus as he was about to board a jet for Budapest. He was released after posting €27,000 (equivalent to US$33,777) bail and told to report to a police station thereafter but skipped out and apparently fled the country.


title: Illegals Program

text: According to the information from US authorities shortly after his flight, "Metsos," who traveled on a Canadian passport and claimed to be Canadian, regularly traveled to the US to deliver money to his fellow Russian spies; he would typically drop off money at New York City area locations including a coffee shop, restaurant and subway station. According to his Cypriot lawyer, "Metsos" had no discernible Russian accent and described himself as a Canadian resident who divorced 15 years prior and had a son living in Paris.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 26, 2010, it was reported by the media that Passport Canada, upon conducting a review, revoked the travel document issued to Christopher Metsos.


title: Illegals Program

text: Late in July 2010, Russian political commentator Yulia Latynina voiced a theory that "Christopher Metsos" might have been a double agent and was probably now in the US; she did not cite any sources.


title: Illegals Program

text: A court verdict read in Moscow on June 27, 2011, identified “Metsos” as Pavel Kapustin (), a Russian espionage professional, who was exfiltrated upon being released on bail in Cyprus.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 13, 2010, the US government disclosed that a 12th, previously undisclosed, person was being held in custody and was said by the media to be implicated in the same federal probe. Later that day, the person was identified as Alexey Karetnikov, a 23-year-old former entry-level software tester at Microsoft, who was apprehended on June 28, 2010, in Seattle. He was charged with immigration violations and consented to deportation in lieu of further court proceedings; he was sent to Russia on July 13, 2010. Law enforcement officials said on the day of his deportation that Karetnikov had no direct ties to the other deported persons, although his name came up in the broader investigation.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 22, 2010, "Newsweek" published the comments of Karetnikov's fellow dormitory resident, who said that Karetnikov impressed him as "very oily" and "very Russian"; according to the anonymous source, Karetnikov spoke surprisingly poor English but was "sophisticated" and knew a lot about Microsoft.


title: Illegals Program

text: The Russian agents used private Wi-Fi networks, flash memory sticks and text messages concealed in graphical images to exchange information. Custom steganographic software developed in Moscow was used where concealed messages were inserted into otherwise innocuous files. This program was initiated by using the Control-Alt-E keys and entering a 27-character password, which the FBI found written down. Coded bursts of data sent by a shortwave radio transmitter were also used. Other methods included employing invisible ink and exchanging identical bags in public places.


title: Illegals Program

text: In January 2010, Anna Chapman used her laptop at a New York coffee shop on 47th Street to electronically transfer data to a Russian official driving by. Two months later, Chapman used a private Wi-Fi network, possibly at a Barnes & Noble store on Greenwich Street in New York, to communicate with the same Russian official, who was nearby. Chapman used a range extender for her laptop.


title: Illegals Program

text: On June 27, 2010, FBI Special Agent Amit Kachhia-Patel submitted a sealed complaint alleging a violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 951 (conspiracy to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government). An arrest warrant was issued for Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko by Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis.


title: Illegals Program

text: As of July 6, 2010, "The New York Times" reported that federal and local prosecutors were seeking a rapid conclusion to the case, to avoid a trial that might disclose sensitive information about information-gathering techniques. The proposed deal would have the defendants deported to Russia after pleading guilty to lesser charges.


title: Illegals Program

text: On the morning of July 7, Reuters Moscow correspondent Guy Faulconbridge broke the news of the spy swap. He reported that Igor Sutyagin—jailed in 2004 for passing secrets to a British company that Russian prosecutors said was a front for the CIA—was to be swapped as part of a deal with the United States to bring home the Russian agents.


title: Illegals Program

text: In a hearing held in federal court in Manhattan on July 8, 2010 before Judge Kimba Wood, all ten defendants pleaded guilty to a single charge each of secretly conspiring to act as agents of the Russian government. While the charge could carry up to five years in prison, "The Washington Post" described the pleas as a first step in what could be the largest prisoner swap between the United States and Russia since the days of the Cold War. Under the plea agreements, the defendants also disclosed their true identities and all except for Vicky Peláez admitted that they were Russian citizens.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 9, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder said none of the ten defendants passed classified information and therefore none were charged with espionage.


title: Illegals Program

text: All the defendants were sentenced to time already served. According to the "New York Times", political leaders of the two nations made the deal even before the indictment—with U.S. prosecutors and the defendants' lawyers playing a minimal role.


title: Illegals Program

text: Reuters reported on July 7–8, 2010 that the U.S. and Russia reached a deal under which the ten individuals arrested in that country as part of the Illegals Program would be deported to Russia in exchange for individuals who Russia convicted of espionage on behalf of the US and UK. Igor Sutyagin, Alexander Zaporozhsky, Sergei Skripal and Gennadiy Vasilenko were included in the exchange. All four served a considerable time in Russian prisons; at least three of the jailed individuals in Russia were convicted of spying for either the United Kingdom or the U.S.


title: Illegals Program

text: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly said on July 8 that President Barack Obama approved the swap deal. An administration official was quoted as saying that Obama had not spoken to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the spy swap but was "fully briefed and engaged in the matter." Broad agreement in the US was reported to exist that the agents were being deported swiftly as neither government wanted the case to damage attempts to reset their relationship.


title: Illegals Program

text: Shortly before the swap deal was reached, nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, one of the Russian prisoners included in the deal, was moved to a Moscow prison from a facility near the Arctic Circle and then flown to Vienna as part of the exchange.


title: Illegals Program

text: Under a U.S.–Russian agreement, the Russian government agreed to release the Russian prisoners and their family members for resettlement. The Russian prisoners had served a number of years in prison and some were in poor health.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 9, all ten suspects were deported. A government-chartered jet from Vision Airlines left New York's LaGuardia Airport and flew to Vienna International Airport via Bangor, Maine for refueling and then for the swap around midday of July 9 (local time). Returning from Vienna were the four Russian prisoners – Sutyagin, Zaporozhsky, Skripal, and Vasilenko. The aircraft landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England, to drop two of the exchanged Russian nationals and proceeded to Washington Dulles International Airport on the afternoon of July 9. The Russian government Yakovlev Yak-42 jet returned to Moscow's Domodedovo airport where, after landing, the ten spies were kept away from local and international press.


title: Illegals Program

text: Later that day the Russian ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the exchange of four convicted people for ten Russian citizens citing "humanitarian considerations and constructive partnership development."


title: Illegals Program

text: Igor Sutyagin was an arms control researcher with the Institute for US and Canadian Studies (ISKAN) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was arrested in 1999, and sentenced in April 2004 to 15 years hard labor on high treason charges. He collected open-source data on Russian nuclear submarines and missile warning systems, analysed and provided it to a British consulting firm. He steadfastly denied using any classified information and ISKAN is said to have no access to Russian classified materials. Sutyagin maintained his innocence throughout his trial and conviction, but had to plead guilty shortly before the swap to qualify for a Presidential pardon. The U.S. Department of State and Amnesty International classified Sutyagin as a political prisoner, not a spy. The "Washington Post" commented that Sutyagin's case differed from the other released prisoners, and that his original arrest might have been to warn Russians not to cooperate with Western companies and think tanks.


title: Illegals Program

text: According to his relatives, Sutyagin phoned home on his arrival in the UK, saying that he was placed in an undisclosed location in a London suburb and that British authorities were in the process of granting him a UK visa. Later his lawyer confirmed that Sutyagin was granted leave to remain in the UK.


title: Illegals Program

text: Sergei Skripal was a colonel in Russia's Military Intelligence Service (GRU), who was arrested and convicted of high treason in Russia in 2006, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. According to the prosecution, he had spied for the United Kingdom's MI6 as a double agent. After the prisoner exchange in 2010, he moved to the UK and in 2018 Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England. Three unrelated people were accidentally poisoned as well, one of them fatally.


title: Illegals Program

text: Alexander Zaporozhsky was an operative in Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. He was sentenced in 2003 to 18 years for secret cooperation with the United States. He was released as part of the swap after serving seven years.


title: Illegals Program

text: Gennady Semyonovich Vasilenko () is the only person swapped from the Russian side who was not convicted on espionage (high treason) charges. He was a KGB officer who worked for external intelligence and counter-intelligence departments during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988, presumably having been fingered by a Russian mole in the FBI, Robert Hanssen, he fell under suspicion of being a double agent. Vasilenko was not convicted but instead sacked from the KGB. He was arrested in 2005 and charged with an attempted murder. Due to lack of evidence this charge was dropped. Instead, he was sentenced to three years on possession of illegal firearms and explosive materials. In 2009, Vasilenko was convicted and sentenced again for allegedly trying to bribe facility officials.


title: Illegals Program

text: According to media reports (which cite anonymous sources in Russian intelligence), Vasilenko was included in the list for the swap due to a personal request from a CIA officer who knew Vasilenko when he was posted in the U.S. under diplomatic cover from 1976 to 1981.


title: Illegals Program

text: Alexander Sypachev () was a colonel in the Russian intelligence service who was arrested after delivering a report to a secret location in 2002. He was sentenced to eight years for spying for the CIA. He was reported to have been considered for a swap but was not among the four Russians released.


title: Illegals Program

text: While there was speculation that the arrests of the alleged spies, which occurred barely 72 hours after President Medvedev's White House visit, might cast a shadow over President Barack Obama's effort to improve relations between the US and Russia, on June 30, 2010, the US administration said that it would not expel Russian diplomats and it expressed no indignation that Russia had apparently been caught spying on it.


title: Illegals Program

text: On June 29, 2010, "The Guardian"s comment said: "Revelations about spy rings are the last thing a politician like Medvedev, who presents himself as a moderniser, needs"; in its July 1, 2010, issue, "The Economist" wrote: "The revelations have caused embarrassment in Moscow, not so much because Russia was caught spying on America, but because it did it so clumsily. Old KGB spies this week lamented the decline in professional standards. But the scandal has rather more serious domestic implications too. It punctures the mystique that helped allow the security services to gain such clout under Vladimir Putin, Russia's former president and present prime minister and a former KGB spy. The story discredits him and his circle of siloviki, the former and present members of the security services. Being laughed at is worse than being feared."


title: Illegals Program

text: On February 1, 2011, Ireland's cabinet made a decision to expel a Russian diplomat from the country – the first time since 1983, after the Irish government, based on an investigation conducted by the Garda Síochána Special Detective Unit (SDU), concluded that the Russian security agent based at the Russian embassy in Rathgar gathered details from six genuine Irish passports that were then effectively cloned in Russia for the US-based spies. Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs said, "The Government, by today's action, has once again made clear that it will not tolerate the fabrication and use of forged Irish passports by agents of a foreign State." On February 4, 2011, the Irish press identified the expelled diplomat as Alexander Smirnov, first secretary in the Russian embassy's consular section. On February 2, 2011, Russia threatened retaliation.


title: Illegals Program

text: After the Russian agents were returned to Russia, they were delivered to the SVR headquarters. They were not technically arrested, and relatives could visit them. However, they were not allowed to leave the facility until after the debriefing process, which took several weeks, as the Russian authorities appeared to suspect that betrayal—by any of the agents themselves or not—could be a plausible explanation for their exposure.


title: Illegals Program

text: According to her lawyer, Vicky Peláez was placed in a Moscow apartment provided by Russian authorities. She turned down a 2,000 USD per month offer from the Russian government and planned to return to Peru.


title: Illegals Program

text: On July 13, 2010, Russian intelligence sources were quoted as saying that the deported Russian agents would undergo a rigorous series of tests, including a lie detector, to establish whether any of them acted as a double agent.


title: Illegals Program

text: The spy affair attracted media attention, including Chapman being described as "glamorous" and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden joking shortly after the swap on a television chat show to comedian Jay Leno when asked "Do we have any spies that hot?" by saying "Let me be clear. It wasn't my idea to send her back." Joe Biden also said of the Russian agents: "And the ten, they've been here a long time, but they hadn't done much."


title: Illegals Program

text: In July 2010, while visiting Crimea (Ukraine), Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin told reporters, without specifying the date, that he had had a meeting with the agents, specifically acknowledging that Chapman was among them; he said that they had had "a tough life" and been turned in as a result of "betrayal"; he also sang with the agents to live music some songs, including "From Where the Motherland Begins" (What the Motherland Begins With or What Does the Motherland Start With). Putin declined to evaluate their work saying that it was not up to him to evaluate but up to specialists and the "ultimate consumers of the information of such type, the Supreme Commander – the president of the Russian Federation."


title: Illegals Program

text: The defector former GRU agent, Viktor Suvorov, was scornful of both the agents and the agencies that sent them.


title: Illegals Program

text: In mid-August 2010, Sir Stephen Lander, Director-General of MI5 (1996–2002) voiced an opinion that the very existence of a ring of Russian "illegals" was no laughing matter: "The fact that they're nondescript or don't look serious is part of the charm of the business. That's why the Russians are so successful at some of this stuff. They're able to put people in those positions over time to build up their cover to be useful. They are part of a machine. ... And the machine is a very professional and serious one."


title: Illegals Program

text: In October 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized those "Intelligence agents who worked in the United States and returned to Russia in July" together with other members of the Russian "SVR" for their service to the motherland in ceremonies held at the Kremlin.


title: Illegals Program

text: In November 2010, an unidentified Kremlin official told "Kommersant" that an assassination plan for the alleged defector "Colonel Shcherbakov" was already in the works: "We know who he is and where he is." The source added that "a Mercader" was sent after Shcherbakov—a reference to assassin Ramón Mercader who murdered Leon Trotsky in Mexico with an ice axe in 1940. The newspaper article's author later said that the statement could have been made in jest ("spy humour"). On November 13, 2010, U.S. intelligence analyst David Wise suggested that, assuming Shcherbakov was in the US, he must be under FBI protection.


title: Illegals Program

text: In November 2010, the Interfax news agency cited an unidentified "Russian intelligence source" as saying that "Colonel Alexander Poteyev, a former deputy head of the U.S. division of Directorate S (illegal intelligence) within the SVR" was the subject of both internal and criminal investigations, with the criminal case likely to have been opened as per Article 275 of the RF Criminal Code (high treason). Poteyev's identity (full name: "Александр Николаевич Потеев") was confirmed by other ex-KGB and ex-SVR sources. The revelations in the Russian media about the 'treachery' within the SVR were seen by commentators as a sign of an ongoing struggle within the RF top bureaucracy for control over the administratively autonomous agency that had been part of the USSR KGB.


title: Illegals Program

text: On December 1, 2010, commentator and researcher Bill Gertz quoted a "former intelligence official close to the National Security Agency" (NSA) as saying that the FBI and the NSA were conducting a counterintelligence probe at the NSA Fort Meade, Md., headquarters in a top-secret hunt for a Russian agent, believing that the spy ring was likely acting as conduits for information coming from "one or more Russian spies that NSA is convinced reside at Fort Meade and possibly other DoD offices, like DIA". Bill Gertz's report prompted the Russian intelligence expert Andrei Soldatov to question the quasi-official version about Poteyev's responsibility. In a "Larry King Live" interview, aired by CNN about the same time, Russian prime minister Putin maintained that the Russian agents "deserved unconditional respect"; according to him, no harm had been done to U.S. interests, and that they would only become operational "in crisis periods, say, in case of a breakup of the diplomatic relations."


title: Illegals Program

text: On December 16, 2010, prime minister Putin, when answering the question during a televised call-in show about whether he ever signed assassination orders, said that hit squads had long been abolished in Russia; speaking specifically of the turncoat allegedly responsible for exposing the ten sleeper agents, he denounced him as a "brute" and a "pig" saying that "the traitors will croak all by themselves", adding that a traitor's life is miserable and regrettable.


title: Illegals Program

text: On May 3, 2011 in Moscow, Alexander Poteyev was indicted on high treason and desertion charges and later put on trial "in absentia". On 27 June 2011, he was found guilty "in absentia" on both charges and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment; the judge's verdict said that Poteyev was recruited to the CIA in 1999. His court-appointed advocate said that Poteyev's remuneration from the US government might have reached $55 million.