Bezrukov Andrei

Soviet and Russian illegal intelligence officer, retired colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service since 2010, advisor to the President of Rosneft, professor of the Department of Applied Analysis of International Problems at MGIMO University

Born in 1960 in the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, he graduated from school in the city of Kyzyl. From 1978 to 1983 he studied at Tomsk State University, majoring in history.

Under the name Donald Howard Heathfield together with his wife Elena Vavilova (under the English name Tracey Lee Ann Foley) lived outside Russia for more than 20 years, engaged in illegal intelligence activities. According to legend, Heathfield was the son of a Canadian diplomat (in fact, he died in 1962 at the age of 7 weeks), and graduated from school in the Czech Republic. Vavilova, according to her legend, was born in Montreal in 1962.

From 1992 to 1995 he studied at York University in Canada, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in international economics. From 1995 to 1997 he studied at the Paris National School of Bridges and Roads, receiving a Master's degree in international business. Since 1999 he has lived in the USA. In 2000, he graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with a master's degree in government and public administration.

From May 2000 to May 2006 he was a partner in the consulting company Global Partners Inc., whose clients were, in particular, such companies as Alstom, Boston Scientific, General Electric and T-Mobile. From May 2006 to December 2010 he led another consulting company, Future Map, specializing in government and corporate strategic forecasting and planning systems, which had branches in Paris and Singapore. Bezrukov was also a member of think tank “World Future Society”. Thanks to this, Heathfield -Bezrukov was able to acquire important acquaintances: in particular, with former national security adviser to Vice President Al Gore Leon Fuert and George Washington University management professor William Halal, who participated in the World conference Future Society in 2008.

Bezrukov and his wife lived in Cambridge (Massachusetts). Elena Vavilova had graduated from McGill University by that time and lived in France before settling in the United States. She worked for the Redfin real estate agency in Sommerville, Massachusetts, and also organized custom wine tours to France.
Among many other spies, Bezrukov was exposed by a defector, former colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service Alexander Poteev. In June 2010, Bezrukov was arrested in the United States, and in July 2010, in Vienna, together with 9 other illegal Russian intelligence officers, he was exchanged for four Russian citizens arrested in the Russian Federation on charges related to espionage.

After returning to Russia, Bezrukov was appointed advisor to the president of Rosneft.

He is a member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and an expert at the Valdai Discussion Club (Vladimir Putin regularly takes part in its meetings), as well as a professor at the Department of Applied Analysis of International Problems at MGIMO University.

President of the organization "Security Export Association", member of the Board of Trustees of DOSAAF RF, co-chairman of the Russian public organization "Analytical Committee".

In 2017-2018 wrote a column in the Izvestia newspaper, is a frequent guest on Russian TV shows, and usually promotes theses of a “jingoistic nature” in the media:

• “Russia is an exporter of security and stability. We are the guardian of the Eurasian continent from everything bad that can happen. It sounds a little pretentious, but in fact it is so. If we weren’t there, this continent would have burned twice already”;

• “Putin is the most respected person [of the leaders of the BRICS countries], with the greatest government experience, who has been in power for 24 years”;

• “It was they who were the conquerors in the West, they had poor colonies and rich metropolises, but we did not have colonies and metropolises, we always had a single country, equally rich or poor”.

Awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, Order of Courage, and medals.

In 2022, the series “Russians” was filmed about the life of Bezrukov and Vavilova, commissioned by NTV.

Bezrukov is the author of the books “Russia and the World in 2020. Contours of an alarming future" (co-authored with A. Sushentsov) and "Networking for intelligence officers. How to benefit from any acquaintance” (co-authored with E. Vavilova).

Wife: Elena Vavilova, illegal intelligence officer, retired colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service (since 2010). Currently works at PJSC Norilsk Nickel. In 2019, she published the book “A Woman Who Can Keep a Secret” (the presentation took place at the TASS press center).

Children - Tim (Timofey) (born 1990) and Alex (Alexander) (born 1994); received Russian passports, but attempted to regain their Canadian citizenship, and in December 2019, the Supreme Court in Ottawa confirmed their Canadian citizenship.

Propaganda of the aggressive war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

After his exposure and return to Russia in 2010, Andrei Bezrukov took his place among the numerous pro-Kremlin “political experts”, apparently thus receiving (in gratitude for his long service in intelligence) a kind of sinecure that not only supports his well-being, but also, apparently, helps him feel in demand and “in business.”

It should be noted that this “expert” activity of Bezrukov is expressed, among other things, in the broadcast of propaganda messages, including those containing a justification for a full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

Bezrukov refers to this war itself (and Putin’s foreign policy in general) as, in particular, “liberation from colonial oppression” and insists that “we are obliged to win the war, and this can only be done by gathering around the authorities, the state. There is no other way”."

In other statements on this topic he goes even further, in particular:

“We are leaving behind the [terrible] period of the 1990s, and starting to become a normal country. This can be seen everywhere, in investments in the new generation, science... In connection with the military operation, we have a whole class of kshatriyas - warriors who are ready to lay down their soul and heart for our country. And these people, of course, don’t do this for money. And if previously these people were in second or third roles, now they will take first place. Because they won this right with their blood.”

Bezrukov is under sanctions from Ukraine .

Thus, as one of the outspoken propagandists of the regime of Vladimir Putin and the full-scale war unleashed by him against Ukraine, Andrei Bezrukov bears direct responsibility for the actions that are carried out by its state machine - including for crimes related to the full-scale aggressive war unleashed by the Kremlin in February 2022 of the year.