What is the most interesting aspect of Ms. Kruscheva's involvement is that Murphy never acted in a manner which in any way showed an interest in her from the standpoint of espionage. It therefore reasonable to conjecture that she was in no way a part of his mission; that his connection with her was either purely coincidental; or, if premeditated, personal. Perhaps Murphy was, as a Russian, interested in getting to know the great granddaughter of a man he admired; perhaps he was curious as to what she might say to him without encouragement. Perhaps when Ms. Khruscheva has taken more time to reminisce, rather than simply pushing out an article when the times indicated it would be more easily publishable, she might remember things in her conversations with him that might have been more inquisitive than she thinks at this moment. If she chooses to write more on this, I hope she'll delve more into her perception of the Russian espionage establishment, and let us know if, after further consideration, she still thinks Mr. Putin so shallow that he would consider the characters created by Fleming and Clancy as role models for his espionage establishment, former or present. My guess is that the group of sleepers had no duties at all assigned them over and above integrating themselves into the society and waiting for further instruction. If that was the case, I can think of no better way to be situated for later action than with a solid set of Facebook friends.

Ms. Krushcheva's article doesn't answer the question posed in the title: Why is Russia spying on her? Indeed, it doesn't even answer the question IF Russia is spying on her.

Maybe such a provocative title is unsuited for the article? Maybe the article itself doesn't say much worth saying? It seems to mostly be an account of some lazy hours spent chatting.

P.S. Please monitor and remove the horrible spam comments that are ruining the comment boards here.

Nice commentary.

Can someone do something about the spam?

Edward Lucas's The New Cold War - Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West, suggests a less rosy picture than that espoused by Professor Khrushcheova.

I would also recommend Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya, a journalist and an outspoken critic of Putin's Chechnya policies, was gunned down in October 2006.

As for "Not that the FBI needed help with those incredibly inept spies, who were under surveillance almost from the moment they arrived in America.) Instead, I heard along with everyone else about the spy ring and slowly put the pieces together about my former advisee."

I may be wrong but it was my understanding that these spies may have been outed by a spy who worked at the UN and defected in the 2000's. The defector died of a heat attack recently, just after the White House was informed of the spy ring.

Not pretending to belong to high "rings": my eyebrows raise. In LIVE reality husband and wife today kiss each other, tomorrow divorce.

This article is a joke as the first poster pointed put and nina is even more of a joke. It's a shame for the Kkrushchev family that she 'represents' them.
Other than your last name, there is nothing Russian about yout nina.

The game of sending spies to other countries has been going on for yours. We must not forget that these spies were living in America for years.
Just has Russian spies were caught in America, I am sure there are many American spies in other countries.
Just hope that countries treat the spies humanly when they are caught.

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