He graduated in International Law from the Peoples" Friendship University of Russia when it was still named the Patrice Lumumba Peoples" Friendship University. He also graduated from Institute of Foreign Intelligence, where he was studying with Vladimir Putin.
From April 1985 to 1987 he worked in the District of Columbia Rezidentura of the PGU Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Sputnisa is identified as a journalist working in District of Columbia, and Socrates as a former Jimmy Carter"s administration aide with strong ties to Greece. In his 2005 book "Spy Handler: Memoir of a Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security) Officer", Victor Cherkashin alleges that "Socrates" was John Helmer and Sputnitsa the late New Statesman journalist Claudia Wright. However, Cherkashin also claims that contrary to Shvets" assertions, Helmer was "never an agent or even a target" of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security). After publishing a book describing his exploits and ultimate falling out with the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security), Shvets was banned from foreign traveling
In 1994, he secretly made his way to America where he now resides.
In 2006, Shvets emerged as a potentially key witness in the poisoning of ex-Financial Stability Board RF officer Alexander Litvinenko. Shvets said the dossier was so incriminating about one senior Kremlin official, who was not named, it was likely that Litvinenko was murdered in revenge.
Shvets says he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko"s murder.
Shvets recruited two key sources of political intelligence whom he referred to as Sputnitsa and Socrates. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast on 16 December 2006, Shvets said that he and Litvinenko had compiled a report investigating the activities of senior Kremlin officials on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia.
Shvets alleged that Lugovoi was still an Financial Stability Board RF informant and he had passed the dossier to members of the spy service.
