Western diplomats describe surveillance and isolation in wartime Moscow

Five Western diplomats who served in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine have told the BBC that they worked under constant surveillance, were cut off from Russian society and faced pressure from Moscow's security services comparable to the Cold War.

Lynne Tracy, who represented the United States in Moscow from 2023 to 2025, described the posting as "probably the hardest assignment of my career". Her 30-year career included service in Pakistan, where she survived an armed attack in 2008. She said that even under constant physical threat, her Peshawar posting felt easier in one respect. "There, I still felt that there were things within my control. What made Moscow more difficult were the high levels of uncertainty."

The uncertainty came mainly from Russian counterintelligence, she said. One former European diplomat recalled the warning received before leaving for Moscow: "Expect listening devices, expect cameras in every single room of your house." The diplomats compared the pressure to the Cold War, when Western embassies were monitored through physical surveillance, listening devices hidden in gifts and "spy dust", a near-invisible chemical agent used to track officials.

Recruitment attempts and intimidation

Another former ambassador said the embassy was forced to dismiss two Russian employees after the FSB, Russia's domestic security service, tried to recruit them and demanded they report on everything at the diplomatic mission. The pair told the embassy instead and were let go, otherwise they could have faced criminal prosecution.

Russians who might normally build relationships with diplomatic staff, including those in academia and culture, were also intimidated into avoiding contact, according to the diplomats. One former ambassador said his guests were "tailed" by FSB agents right up to the doors of the embassy.

Hundreds of Russian diplomats were expelled from European countries and the US after the war began in 2022, and Moscow responded in kind, declaring hundreds of Western diplomats persona non grata and leaving many embassies short-staffed. Russian officials have openly accused diplomats from "unfriendly countries" of espionage.

Fewer contacts, higher stakes

Russian journalist Alexei Venediktov told the BBC that Moscow had effectively banned most Russian officials from speaking to Western embassies, which he said had worsened relations with the West. He recalled telling Russian officials that they were being misunderstood precisely because of their own actions. One former European ambassador said there were now "no calls, no meetings at ministerial level".

The diplomats argued that this made their role more important. "Generals prove what they can do during a war. The same is true for diplomats," one said. Tracy left Moscow in 2025 believing her primary mission was accomplished: that the US embassy had held firm. She said she was also proud of work to maintain connections between Americans and ordinary Russians, ties she said would be there to help speed any future improvement in government-to-government relations.

Source: BBC World.