An intelligence officer who operates in a foreign country without the protection of diplomatic immunity, under a new, assumed identity.
The International Spy Museum glossary associates the term with the KGB and the SVR and adds that illegals even took on a new nationality.1
In a criminal complaint of 27 June 2010 against ten people accused of working for Russian intelligence, the US Department of Justice describes SVR illegals as people trained before being sent abroad, living for years under false identities and concealing any links to Russia.2
Sources
- International Spy Museum (Washington, DC), Language of Espionage (glossary)
- US Department of Justice, Criminal complaint against ten people accused of acting on behalf of the SVR, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 27.06.2010
Checked: 4 November 2026