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
586.2KViews on collected posts
Последние посты
Ищем новые посты…
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
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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
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@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
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@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
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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
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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
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@shaunwalker7 If you want to sell the book link it with the show The Americans
477 views · 4 likes
· 0 reposts · 1 replies
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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@shaunwalker7 He is a spy. The title could be clearer.
But I understand clickbaiting a bit is acceptable.
Well done.
1.1K views · 19 likes
· 0 reposts · 0 replies
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With thanks to @christogrozev for his sharing his - as usual, breathtakingly good - digging, as well as my colleagues @ashifa_k and @PjotrSauer who helped a lot with the research.
10.8K views · 76 likes
· 11 reposts · 3 replies
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Spent a couple of months working on this longread about Pablo González / Pavel Rubtsov, the Spanish journalist accused of being a GRU spy. Hopefully it goes some way to answering a few of the questions around Pablo.
https://t.co/Q43NrBt48d
197.7K views · 891 likes
· 308 reposts · 43 replies
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На фоне аккаунтов своего размера
6 постов за последние 90 дней рядом с диапазоном 100K–1M подписчиков. показывается большему числу людей, чем аккаунты того же размера.
Медианные просмотры9 190этот аккаунт5 983медиана для 100K–1M
Охват, %4.95%этот аккаунт1.49%медиана для 100K–1M
Вовлечённость, %0.89%этот аккаунт0.93%медиана для 100K–1M
| Показатель | Этот аккаунт | Медиана для 100K–1M | Отношение |
|---|---|---|---|
| Медианные просмотры на пост | 9 190 | 5 983 | 1.54× |
| Охват (просмотры ÷ подписчики) | 4.95% | 1.49% | 3.32× |
| Вовлечённость | 0.89% | 0.93% | 0.95× |
Другие в этом диапазоне → Сравнить с другим аккаунтом → Как считаются эти ориентиры →
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
2.4K7 Jan
2.5K
191.1K
2.5K
6.6K
14.6K
4778 Jan
7.8K14 Jul
103.4K13 Aug
1.3K
2K
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
1.87%7 Jan
1.97%
0.44%
2.09%
1.12%
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 0.93%.
What the audience does
Likes58.8%2 792 in total
Reposts16.9%800 in total
Replies2.6%125 in total
Quotes2.3%109 in total
Bookmarks19.4%920 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.
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