Podcast Episode 41: Former Russian Secret Agent Aliia Roza- “People Think That the World of James Bond, Salt, and Red Sparrow Is Glamorous, But It’s Not”

 Aliia Roza was born in the USSR into a Kazakh-Tatar military serving family. She was raised to be patriotic with the understanding that she would protect civilians and protect the Russian motherland. So, at 18 years old, Aliia was sent to a secret military academy of internal affairs in Russia, where she was chosen from 350 students to participate in a special secret program developed by former KGB psychologists and high-ranking officers and agents, called sexpionage. Her training is in the art of seduction, persuasion and neuro-linguistic programming in order to get information from targets and to recruit. But in her training Aliaa was raped by her superiors.

As a way to heal from her time as a secret agent, Aliia has found ways to give back | Photo provided by Aliaa Roza

Her last mission with a drug lord was a dangerous one, and the growth and healing that has come from leaving Russian espionage has been a challenging one. Since leaving her secret agent life, she has found it rewarding to give back and spends a lot of her time serving others. She founded a Women's Empowerment "Roza club" that has organized more than 30 humanitarian events and assisted underprivileged children and women in the London and Paris areas. Brands from Cartier, Rolls Royce, Damiani, Roberto Cavalli, House of Garrard have supported her events. She is ambassador to Best Beginnings Charitable Foundation where she met the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III.  She was awarded the Woman Empowerment Activist influencer by Forbes magazine in 2019 during the Cannes Film Festival, and also at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. And she was crowned Miss Asia 2017. She has also been featured in Vanity Fair, Tatler, Forbes, and TMZ to name a few.

In this episode we get into a lot from what it was like growing up in the former USSR, to working in Russian espionage, to why she became a Christian, and why fashion is her passion.