In March, Russia retaliated for the US expulsion of Russian diplomats with the closure of a US consulate, and the expulsion of 60 American diplomats. US officials were quoted in the New York Times on Friday confirming that this included a number of US spies.
Exactly how many spies were expelled from Russia in this closure is not clear, but the officials quoted said that the loss of intelligence officers has “hurt collection efforts” for the intelligence community.
This was apparently a substantial blow to the US spies operating inside Russia, and combined with increased counterintelligence efforts by Russia, they say the CIA and other US spy agencies are increasingly in the dark about Russia’s intentions.
And while that’s certainly interesting in and of itself, the admission is more startling, as it is a de facto admission that US officials in Russia as diplomatic agents were illegally operating as spies against their hosting country.
While there have been reports in the past that the US uses its embassies and consular offices as secret spy posts, and at times uses diplomatic immunity to get spies into other countries with legal protection, this is not what embassy staff are supposed to be doing.
Yet expelling 60 diplomats from Russia not only swept up US spies, it swept up so many spies as to at least partially cripple the US spying operations in Russia. That suggests the practice is widespread, perhaps more than previously imagined.
It’s also difficult to argue this isn’t the administration’s fault. Given Russia’s penchant for identical retaliatory measures, the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats could’ve been predicted to lead to 60 American diplomats getting booted, which is exactly what happened.
This is complete bullshit. Please do not post pentagon propaganda
“Kremlin Sources Go Quiet, Leaving C.I.A. in the Dark About Putin’s Plans for Midterms” sez NYT
Try being a little less naive, Jason. Sending spies into foreign nations disguised as diplomats is as old as the hills, and most countries do it. The reason is obvious — if they are caught, their diplomatic immunity means they can only be expelled rather that executed. It’s a cinch at least half of the personnel at the Soviet embassies in DC and the UN were KGB agents.
It’s no secret that Russia’s intentions are to break away as many countries as possible from allying with the US, and to ally with US enemies, as a reaction to the stupid US sanctioning of Russia for no good reason. It’s working, too, as US enmity toward Russia increases.
So spooks are worthless when they are working for a senseless government. But you’ll never read that in the New York Times or the Washington Post, who have no information “collection effort” of their own but rely upon government handouts.
How stupid, childish and arrogant of you to think Russia should not protect it’s interests.
When we had a chance to do right after 1989, we screwed the world for our interests
Here is a little secret, unlike the CIA, the Russians don’t disguise their agents as mild manner diplomats working in the embassies.
The joke in Latin America is that the only reason the U.S. government has not been overthrown in a coup is because there is no U.S. embassy here. Pretty sure these viewpoints go beyond Latin America.