Russian spy whose story inspired The Americans didn't find the show all that accurate

The Guardian

Elena Vavilova spent two decades posing as a Canadian woman named Tracy Foley, an identity stolen for her by the KGB, Vavilova, who was arrested in Boston in 2010 as part of a sweep of Russian spies and deported back to Russia, has written a new book about her experiences, titled The Woman Who Can Keep Secrets. When asked to weigh in on The Americans, Vavilova responded: "After watching The Americans, I thought: ‘Well, that’s not the real work and that’s not how it’s done.'" The show captured the flashbacks and psychological dilemmas faced by illegals well, she says, but the sex and murder shown were not part of her work. Vavilova says she and her partner never used violence or disguises because the whole point of their job was to be as "normal" as possible. “If one day you come and do something like James Bond, then that’s it and you’re done, you can’t sustain a longer life and work doing that," she says. "People think it’s always on the edge, but actually most of it is very routine and very boring.”