Russian Sex Spy | The Hidden Third with Mariana van Zeller

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to ⁠http://betterhelp.com/mariana⁠ for 10% off your first month. Aliia Roza says she was trained by Russian intelligence in "sexpionage," or the honeypot program, and that her missions involved seducing high-level criminals to gather intelligence on organized crime networks. She says she later fell in love with one of her targets and made the decision to defect. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Aliia takes us inside a world most people only see in James Bond and Red Sparrow. She describes being handpicked at 18, the psychological training she says broke her down and built her back up, and the moment she says she realized she was being manipulated by her own government. She talks about what she says it meant to seduce a target, the difference she draws between honeypots and hit squads, the criminal networks she says she infiltrated, and how her missions, according to her account, took her to Afghanistan-to-Russia drug pipelines. She opens up about the trauma she says she carries, the price of leaving, and why she now lives publicly in the United States as an author, influencer, and defector. 0:00 Intro 1:17 What "sexpionage" actually is 3:11 Growing up in USSR, bullied as an Asian girl in Moscow 5:02 Perestroika and life in Russia after the fall 8:00 Her father, the high ranking officer who introduced her to guns 12:00 Turning 18 and being sent straight to the academy 15:00 Inside the academy: 80% psychological training 20:00 Raped at the academy and the trauma she carries 25:00 What honeypots actually do: seduce, manipulate, terminate 30:00 The Litvinenko case, mafia targets, and drug trafficking 35:00 Her missions: drug lords and criminal gangs 45:00 Falling in love with her target 50:00 The moment she decided to defect 1:00:00 Escaping Russia and rebuilding her life in Europe 1:15:00 The Times of London article and defending her story 1:25:00 Anna Chapman, Russian spy defectors, and staying safe 1:35:00 Why she came to the United States 1:40:00 Life now: influencer, author, and always watching her back 1:45:00 What she wants people to understand about the profession 🎙️ From Emmy and Peabody Award–winning journalist Mariana van Zeller comes THE HIDDEN THIRD, a weekly dive into the underground markets that quietly power a third of the global economy. Every episode, Mariana sits down with people who know these worlds firsthand - the hustlers, smugglers, scammers, kingpins, and those trying to shut them down. The series reveals how they function, why they endure, and the profound ways they impact us all. 🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday. THE HIDDEN THIRD: YouTube:    / @marianavanzeller   Instagram:   / thehiddenthirdpodcast   Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3n1BBoj... MARIANA: TikTok:   / mariana_vanzeller   Instagram:   / marianavz