By June 2014 the Kremlin had already dispatched two Russian agents, Aleksandra Y. Krylova and Anna V. Bogacheva, to the United States for a three-week recon tour. The two women bought cameras, SIM cards, and burner phones and devised “evacuation scenarios” in case American officials grew wise to the real impetus for their trip. Altogether the women visited nine states—California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Texas—to “gather intelligence” on American politics.
