Former Russian sex spy says she was trained as a ‘master manipulator’
After charming her targets as a “master manipulator,” Aliia Roza is breaking her silence.
The former Russian citizen who claims to be an ex-spy is revealing her tales of sexpionage in a new podcast from Tenderfoot TV and iHeartPodcasts, “To Die For.”
The podcast claims to be the first time an alleged Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)-trained “seduction agent” is speaking out about her “training, techniques, targets and missions,” Deadline.com reported.
It was launched by Neil Strauss, author of “The Game” who also wrote “The Dirt” about rock band Mötley Crüe.
“It’s been over two decades that I’ve stayed silent,” Roza told Fox News Digital. “But for a few reasons, I couldn’t keep my silence. I couldn’t live with this pain anymore, even though I’ve been through all this trauma. … If it was not me [speaking out], then who would speak out?”
In the podcast, listeners will discover how Roza managed to flee Moscow with her young son. Roza said she wanted to give her child a better life.
“It’s been over two decades that I’ve stayed silent.”
“The biggest achievement of my life is becoming a parent,” Roza explained. “I wanted to experience that. I wanted to create a family. I wanted to have kids. And I was not allowed to do that. And then I realized, ‘Wait a minute. I live only one life. I don’t want to spend my life sacrificing for something I don’t believe in anymore.’ That was the moment when I looked for possibilities to escape.”
Roza was born into a Kazakh-Tatar family of a high-ranking military officer in the Soviet Union. Her grandfather fought the Nazis during World War II, and her father is a high-ranking officer of over 45 years. As a child, Roza said, she was involved in a special government program for children of high-ranking officers.
Roza described how she once had big dreams to pursue fashion design. But it was her father, she said, who warned her, “There’s no other option.”
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“I was trained from a very early age to do different things like martial arts, physical activities,” Roza claimed. “I learned you cannot give up, you cannot be vulnerable, you cannot be weak, you cannot cry. Nobody can enter this program. If you don’t have a family member who is a high-ranking officer, it’s impossible.
“I never thought I would [later] enter a sex program.”
“I never thought I would [later] enter a sex program.”
At age 18, Roza said, she was chosen out of 350 students to participate in a top-secret program developed by former KGB psychologists and high-ranking officers. There, Roza said, she studied how to use seduction and persuasion to get information from enemy targets.
“It’s not just sex – it’s very far from sex actually,” Roza explained. “It’s all about the art of communication. We’re taught how to dress up, how to put on makeup, how to present yourself, how to speak with your targets, how to make your targets believe in you and trust you. … It’s about the psychology of people, of criminals, of men. … It’s about understanding the perspective of men and what exactly they want.”
“When you seduce, it’s … as simple as starting with good compliments,” she continued. “It’s not just, ‘I like your jacket.’ It has to be something really specific and appropriate from that moment. This will make people really attracted to you. They’ll start to like you. And when you know how to lead a conversation, people will become very open to you. They will become very friendly. … You learn how to be polite, friendly, respectful in society.
“And there are the sex techniques,” she teased. “This is really hardcore. But it’s making your target become obsessed with you. That’s a completely different game.”
Roza said it took “many years” for her to later realize she was “brainwashed” as a “master manipulator.”
“It’s making your target become obsessed with you.”
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“I was made to believe that I was a hero fighting against human and drug trafficking, saving all of these underage kids that were … kidnapped from their families,” she said. “I would see all the parents coming to our department crying, begging us to help.
“We as agents had this very low salary. … We had like $100 a month working six days a week. … But I felt patriotic. I felt like a hero saving someone’s life. And I felt very powerful. I felt that nobody could do anything to me. I was sacrificing my body doing all these missions. So, I just detached my emotions from my body.
“At the end of the day, when I saved someone’s life, I felt good about it,” Roza shared. “But I never asked myself how I felt being in a body that was constantly abused and raped by random men. … One former FBI agent said I was a broken toy, that I was sex trafficked myself. … But all my classmates, we didn’t feel this way. We felt patriotic. We were ready to sacrifice and do anything for our government. That’s how I felt.”
Strauss told Fox News Digital that, at first, it was difficult to believe Roza’s story. But after doing research and speaking to sources, it was difficult to ignore her claims.
“I only covered the story of Aliia’s time in Russia,” he explained. “But there’s a whole other world, a whole other story. There are very intense experiences, trauma, PTSD. … It goes in a place no one expects.
“I remember the first time I was introduced to Aliia over dinner,” Strauss recalled. “When she started speaking, everyone stopped what they were doing. They only listened to her. She held the floor for the rest of the meal. That’s all I could think about afterward. … There was a story here that needed to be told. And it was also the way she told her story. I never heard anything like it before.”
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In 2004, Roza fell in love with a man she was meant to gather intelligence on, the New York Post reported. According to the outlet, the man’s associates discovered she was a spy. With the help of her lover, Roza fled Moscow and eventually laid down roots in Los Angeles.
Roza has not returned to Russia for more than a decade, she said. She assumed a new name, one she still uses today.
Roza said despite working to stop human and drug trafficking as a spy, she also felt “used” by the Russian government.
“I saw all these other female agents who reached a certain age, like 56,” she said. “They were so miserable, so lonely. They were not allowed to have private lives. They couldn’t have families. … I couldn’t allow that to happen to me.”
Today, Roza teaches her tips on seduction not to agents-in-training, but to women eager to boost their self-esteem. She has over a million followers on Instagram.
She described being “disappointed” by the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Putin started the war,” she said. “All of these innocent people have died for no reason. … It’s awful. We need to speak out about it because it’s not over. … Who will speak out against this evil? What is happening in the world? I do hope my story will encourage women to be inspired, support each other and share their stories. I hope we can unite.”
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Strauss is hopeful the podcast will encourage other former female spies to come forward.
“What stood out to me? Most people are afraid to talk,” he explained. “And if the Russian intelligence program is so widespread, why are so few people willing to come forward? And I think a lot of people don’t understand what it’s like for a woman growing up in the Russian military intelligence community, the lack of rights, the lack of agency, the abuse and horror that goes on there.
“I can tell you from researching Aliia’s story … it doesn’t go well for anyone,” he added. “The agents are as exploited as the targets. I think there are no winners here when you’re using sex and love as weapons of war.”