The Moscow rules
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The Moscow rules are rules-of-thumb said to have been developed during the Cold War to be used by spies and others working in Moscow.
The rules are associated with Moscow because the city developed a reputation as being a particularly harsh locale for clandestine operatives who were exposed. The list may never have existed as written.
The rules
[edit]Agent Tony Mendez wrote:
Although no one had written them down, they were the precepts we all understood for conducting operations in the most difficult of operating environments: the Soviet capital. By the time they got to Moscow, everyone knew these rules. They were dead simple and full of common sense.[1]
In the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the Moscow Rules are given as:[2]
- Assume nothing.
- Never go against your gut.
- Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
- Do not look back; you are never completely alone.
- Go with the flow, blend in.
- Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
- Lull them into a sense of complacency.
- Do not harass the opposition.
- Pick the time and place for action.
- Keep your options open.
References
[edit]- ^ Mendez, Antonio; Mendez, Jonna; Henderson, Bruce (2003). Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations that Helped Win the Cold War. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 36. ISBN 9780743434584.
- ^ "Moscow Rules". The Spy Museum. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
Further reading
[edit]- Whidden. Glenn H. A Guidebook For Beginning Sweepers. Technical Services Agency