Mark Galeotti on Russia’s spies
On January 23, Professor Galeotti spoke in Ottawa at the annual symposium of CASIS, the Canadian Association for the Study of Intelligence and Security. His topic was ‘Russia’s Intelligence System,’ and he focused not so much on describing the various agencies so much as considering what was distinctive about how they operate in real life. His conclusions were that the Kremlin ought to beware what it wished for, that it had agencies which were functional in appearance (hence, for example their successes in Ukraine), but politically often counter-productive. In short, that they were technically highly capable, even if sometimes badly tasked, but that they were also staffed by cynical opportunists at home, essentially loyal to themselves, and operated without adequate transparency, accountability or control. As such, while powerful instruments (something Galeotti discussed at the British thinktank Chatham House last year), they now reinforce Putin’s assumptions, rather than inform his world view—leading to dangerous political missteps, such as the intervention into eastern Ukraine—and also reinforce the world’s view of Putinism as essentially hostile and confrontational. The slides from his presentation are available on his blog, In Moscow’s Shadows, here.