Creating a new identity is perhaps the most crucial concern of Russia's so-called "illegals" — the Kremlin's intelligence operatives who work underground.
Constructed step by step, without rushing to arouse suspicion and with attention to every detail, it is this cover story — in intelligence circles known as a "legend" — that will allow them to fit in and go unnoticed in the social environment in which they are deployed to fulfil a mission, whatever it may be.
