spying or using spies to gather information about a rival firm or foreign government's plans and actions
Ex-Kulaks and oppositionists, foreign spies and "enemies of the people" in cahoot with capitalist countries were depicted as a threat to the Soviet Union by Stalin through his secret police. The "proof" needed to indicate the existence of a threat was readily available because to the secret police's enormous network of agents and informers. To create "proof," the police often employed threats and torture.