The Moscow rules

For the Daniel Silva novel, see Moscow Rules (novel).

The Moscow rules are rules-of-thumb said to have been developed during the Cold War to be used by spies and others working in Moscow.

The rules are associated with Moscow because the city developed a reputation as being a particularly harsh locale for clandestine operatives who were exposed. The list may never have existed as written.^{[citation needed]}

The rules

CIA officer Tony Mendez wrote:

Although no one had written them down, they were the precepts we all understood for conducting operations in the most difficult of operating environments: the Soviet capital. By the time they got to Moscow, everyone knew these rules. They were dead simple and full of common sense.^[1]

In the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the Moscow Rules are given as:^[2]

• Assume nothing.
• Never go against your gut.
• Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
• Do not look back; you are never completely alone.
• Go with the flow, blend in.
• Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
• Lull them into a sense of complacency.
• Do not harass the opposition.
• Pick the time and place for action.
• Keep your options open.