Mikhail Vasenkov
Mikhail Vasenkov was a freelance news photographer, adjunct professor, and Russian spy. Little is known of his early life, but in “Russians Among Us,” Gordon Corera writes that he was “born in Moscow in 1942.” Vasenkov “had been selected for the KGB’s Directorate S, deep in the Cold War.” Once his training was complete, Vasenkov spent a few months in Spain building a legend – a new identity. He then traveled to Peru in 1976 on an Uruguayan passport in the name of Juan Lazaro. “The real Juan Lazaro was a toddler who had died aged three of respiratory failure in 1947.” Vasenkov “used his cover as a photographer to travel and carry out missions for the KGB,” and he continued this work when he moved to the U.S. in 1985. In June 2010, Vasenkov, his wife Vicky Peláez, and eight others were arrested by the FBI for allegedly carrying out long-term, deep-cover assignments in the U.S. on behalf of Russia. The FBI had monitored Vasenkov and Peláez for years, noting his use of invisible ink for intelligence reports; Moscow’s unhappiness with some of his reporting; and trips to Peru to collect money from Russian embassy employees. The ten illegals pleaded guilty in July 2010 and were deported to Russia as part of a spy swap. Following his death in April 2022, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service praised Vasenkov in an obituary: “he created and headed an illegal residency, which obtained valuable political information, which was highly appreciated.” The agency added that he was “arrested by American intelligence agencies due to [Aleksandr] Poteyev’s betrayal.”