CIA recruits agents in Russia, program at risk with Trump?

Trump’s arrival in the White House? It troubles the nights of those who operate as double agents from within Russian power. The British newspaper ‘Guardian’ wrote about it, explaining that Over the past three years, the CIA has conducted an “unusually bold” outreach program, aiming to recruit Russian citizens from within the country’s government or security services.among those who clearly disagree with the choices of Vladimir Putin’s regime, including on Ukraine. An opportunity to be seized in the name of a patriotic choice, so proclaimed the “recruitment videos containing instructions on how to contact the CIA safely”. Come January, however, the Russians who answered these calls will face a very different geopolitical realitywith Trump’s return to the White House. With the fear that the newly elected president will remain faithful to the line started during his first mandate, trying to get closer to Putin’s Russia.

And the choice of Tulsi Gabbard as the next director of National Intelligence, whose past statements on “Russia’s legitimate security concerns as a contributory cause of the war in Ukraine” are remembered, seems to confirm this.

The Trump unknown, what agitates the agents recruited by the CIA

What might risk sleepless nights for possible double agents inside Russia could be not only a drastic political change on the Ukraine issue, but also the consolidated disinterest shown by President-elect Trump in the security of confidential information, says the newspaper, alluding to the affair of the documents classified prisoners ended up at Mar-a-Lago.

“We do not know with certainty – however, Calder Walton, an intelligence historian at the Kennedy School at Harvard and author of a recent book on the history of the intelligence wars between Moscow and Washington, is keen to point out to the newspaper – whether recruitments were carried out, nor should we know it, but this was certainly the strategy, and phases of past history similar to the present one were a golden opportunity for recruitment by Western services”.

How many Russians are there working for the West?

How many Russians have agreed to work secretly for the West in recent years – excluding false double agents, i.e. those who present themselves as ‘defectors’ but in fact play into Moscow’s hands in disguise – is highly confidential information, kept secret and also compartmentalized within the agencies themselves to avoid leaks of information. “There are all sorts of safeguards to protect the identity of any asset within the CIA,” Walton explains.

Several European security and intelligence sources have confirmed in interviews released in recent months that Western agencies have intensified their recruitment attempts. Many – within the Russian elite – are horrified by the invasion of Ukraine and the country’s resulting pariah status, but it is a long leap to decide to pass secrets to a foreign power. In the current situation, recruitment within Russia is considered too risky and most Russian officials can no longer travel to Europe. “But there are third countries where it is possible to meet these people,” the source said.

Potential recruits’ motivations may include financial need, ideological disaffection, or personal grievances, and it is often a combination of all three. Often, agreements with potential double agents involve the source agreeing to stay in place for a period of time, and then being made an offer of resettlement under a new identity. “There’s also the fact that people might look at Putin’s regime and wonder how stable it is; they might think, ‘I can hold on a little longer, but I need an exit strategy at some point.'”

Trump’s potential damage

For the ‘defectors’, therefore, the impending political changes in the United States could be a source of concern. “I think the Trump administration could be harmful due to the risk of compromising confidential information and protection of sources on Russia”, he says again speaking to the Walton newspaper, which describes Gabbard’s possible appointment as “extraordinarily alarming”. As national intelligence chief, he would oversee 18 agencies, including the FBI and CIA.

Long-standing concerns about ties between Trump and Russia led some allies to share less intelligence with the United States during Trump’s first presidency, even within the close alliance of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand , known as Five Eyes: “I know for a fact that during the first Trump administration one of the Five Eyes partners was wary of sharing information about Russia that could end up in the White House. Closely allied intelligence services had put in place protections precisely for this problem of compromise of intelligence linked to Russia It’s a fair working hypothesis to say that the same thing will be true in the next administration,” Walton concludes.