CIA Chief Sees Russian Situation as a Chance to Enlist Spies

CIA Director William Burns said continued resentment over Russia’s war in Ukraine provides a rare opportunity to recruit spies.

“Discontent with the war will continue to undermine Russian leadership under the constant diet of state propaganda and practice of repression,” Burns, the former US ambassador to Moscow, said in a lecture to the British Ditchley Foundation in Oxfordshire, England, on Saturday.

“This discontent creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at the CIA, at our core a human intelligence service. We don’t let it go to waste.”

Burns described the recent insurrection by the Wagner Group as “an armed challenge to the Russian state”.

He said that the rebellion is “an internal Russian matter in which the United States participated and will not have a role.”

Since striking a deal a week ago to end the insurgency, the Kremlin has sought to show calm. The 70-year-old Putin discusses tourism development, meets crowds in Dagestan, and discusses ideas for economic development.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Russia will emerge stronger after the failed rebellion, so there is no need to worry about stability in the world’s largest nuclear power.