Shaun Walker ✓

@shaunwalker7 · Warsaw, Kyiv, London · joined 08 Apr 2009

Central & Eastern Europe Correspondent, The Guardian. The Illegals - a History of Russia's Most Audacious Spies (out April 2025) shaun.walker@theguardian.com

185 565Followers

3 111Following

1 931Posts total

376.7KViews on collected posts

Against accounts of the same size

7 posts from the last 90 days, next to the 100K–1M follower range. shown widely, but few of those viewers react.

Median views7 769this account6 139median for 100K–1M

Reach, %4.19%this account2.61%median for 100K–1M

Engagement, %0.82%this account1.39%median for 100K–1M

Metric	This account	Median for 100K–1M	Ratio
Median views per post	7 769	6 139	1.27×
Reach (views ÷ followers)	4.19%	2.61%	1.60×
Engagement rate	0.82%	1.39%	0.59×

Others in this range → Compare with another account → How these benchmarks are built →

Growth & engagement

How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.

Views per post

191.1K7 Jan

2.5K

2.4K

6.6K

2.5K

14.6K

4778 Jan

7.8K14 Jul

103.4K13 Aug

1.3K

429

16.4K17 Aug

25.2K23 Aug

Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.

Engagement rate per post

0.44%7 Jan

1.97%

1.87%

1.12%

2.09%

0.60%

1.05%8 Jan

0.33%14 Jul

0.82%13 Aug

2.07%

1.40%

0.23%

0.95%17 Aug

0.68%23 Aug

Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 100K–1M accounts is 1.39%.

What the audience does

Likes59.6%1 806 in total

Reposts15.9%481 in total

Replies2.6%79 in total

Quotes1.6%47 in total

Bookmarks20.3%615 in total

Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.

The follower curve appears once this account has two daily snapshots — we take one a day, and this one is on its first.

Latest posts

If any Polish journalist covering tomorrow’s protest over the absurd time authorities taking to make residency permit decisions for foreigners wants to hear my own 14-month unresolved and infuriating story trying to get a permit here I’ll be happy to moan to you. 🤣 Email in bio. 25.2K views · 148 likes · 9 reposts · 12 replies 23 Aug 2026 ICYMI last week: my long spy yarn on Russian opposition activist convicted in Poland as an FSB spy It’s a look at the murky world of the Russia/Ukraine shadow war, with a colourful cast of characters and plenty of drama - both espionage and marital… https://t.co/AXRafUHauc 16.4K views · 109 likes · 39 reposts · 4 replies 17 Aug 2026 @shaunwalker7 Świetny tekst. 429 views · 1 likes · 0 reposts · 0 replies 13 Aug 2026 @shaunwalker7 Great read and yes it does cast suspicion on all the Russians in Europe. Seems he got caught purely by accident in a Ukrainian plot. His wife knew he was working for the FSB too. 2K views · 24 likes · 4 reposts · 0 replies 13 Aug 2026 @shaunwalker7 Let's be clear on one point: there's no ruZZian opposition. It doesn't exist. 1.3K views · 24 likes · 1 reposts · 2 replies 13 Aug 2026 My longread about the case of Igor Rogov, Russian opposition activist arrested in Poland as an FSB spy. It's a crazy story full of twists that reveals a lot about espionage, exile, the shadow Russia/Ukraine war and the long arm of the FSB... https://t.co/AXRafUHauc 103.4K views · 605 likes · 222 reposts · 6 replies 13 Aug 2026 My story on the increasingly bitter fall-out between Poland and Ukraine over WW2 history. https://t.co/puDX0lEaEw 7.8K views · 15 likes · 8 reposts · 1 replies 14 Jul 2026 @shaunwalker7 If you want to sell the book link it with the show The Americans 477 views · 4 likes · 0 reposts · 1 replies 08 Jan 2025 Please pre-order the book if it sounds interesting! I would be super grateful – these early sales are apparently very useful and important. UK amazon link here: https://t.co/NpNzDzjehI US preorder links here: https://t.co/U1KOaaxCev 14.6K views · 61 likes · 13 reposts · 11 replies 07 Jan 2025 The book starts in 1917 and finishes with the chaos of the 1990s and then the resurrection of the programme under Vladimir Putin, who worked for some years in the KGB as an illegals support officer and is obsessed with the programme. 2.5K views · 41 likes · 11 reposts · 1 replies 07 Jan 2025 I’ve done hundreds of interviews and worked in archives in many countries to put this thing together. The result, I hope, is a series of amazing personal stories and also a shadow history of the last century of Russia/the Soviet Union. 6.6K views · 60 likes · 10 reposts · 3 replies 07 Jan 2025 Once they got abroad, they often cracked under the psychological strain of living a double life. Many had breakdowns; some were captured. As time went on, the training became ever more complicated but the espionage gains became increasingly thin. 2.4K views · 35 likes · 6 reposts · 1 replies 07 Jan 2025 The illegals training programme lasted years and took place in secret apartments in Moscow or Kyiv (I got some amazing files from the Ukrainian archives). The operatives spent years crafting their language and mannerisms to impersonate foreigners. 2.5K views · 39 likes · 8 reposts · 1 replies 07 Jan 2025 I’m really excited that my book on the history of Russia’s “illegal” spies comes out soon. It’s taken me years of work and covers a century of Soviet/Russian history... Below, a short thread about the book, as well as info on how to pre-order a copy. https://t.co/i8ACrDIoSR 191.1K views · 640 likes · 150 reposts · 36 replies 07 Jan 2025