Across the world, spies have their own inside jokes and references, which give them a shared sense of belonging. Those can in turn shape the public's image of the intelligence world. In Russia, a writer shrouded in secrecy attracts the adoration - and occasionally the wrath - of the country's intelligence community, which he portrays with his own particular brand of subtle audacity.
Fans of Victor Pelevin mulled over a familiar conundrum on the occasion of the famous Russian novelist's sixtieth birthday in November 2022: where is this secretive novelist? Rumour is that he's hiding out in Thailand, but the author, whose fans come from across the political spectrum, has given no interviews since the 1990s, and no recent photos of
