“Tass Is Authorised to Declare...”: American Spies, Lonely Writers and Other “Traitors”

This article combines two approaches: ontological security studies and intertextual analysis of espionage in popular films and television series. It explores the intertextual resonance between cinematic representations of late Cold War Soviet foreign affairs anxieties and the political management of ontological security in contemporary Russia. The article focuses on representations of espionage in the form of American spies and Russian traitors in the television series “Tass Is Authorised to Declare...” (1984), based on the book and screenplay by Yulian Semenov, and how these representations have suddenly been revitalised in contemporary Russian official discourse after 24 February 2022.