May 29, 2026 · 38 min · 13 segments
Shortly after taking power in Moscow, Vladimir Putin began consolidating his authority over the Russian intelligence services that had long been deeply embedded in Russian and Soviet politics and a…
John AmbleHostAppreciate, um, all the men and women's service that I know are dialing in from, uh, from, uh, your, uh, your listeners and, uh, glad for the chance to talk about Russian intelligence, something I'm passionate about.
So your name has come across my radar quite a few times recently, and that is because you have a new book that you wrote.
I've heard you interviewed, heard you on podcasts, I've seen your writing, um, and I think that's because there's an appetite, a desire to sort of better understand not just Russian intelligence, but its role in everything Russia is doing, uh, in the world today.
That's, you know, particularly Ukraine, but also its involvement in other regions in the world, its covert work against, uh, democratic elections, for instance, what have you.
And I guess, you know, that's what we're gonna talk about today, and specifically I wanna do so through s- sort of a lens of, of modern war, modern strategy, and modern statecraft.
Before we get to it, um, I guess sort of by way of introduction, I wonder if you can share with listeners a little bit about your background and, and how that led naturally to you writing this book.
Um, so 30 years now, 30 years in, uh, foreign service, defense, and intelligence.
The vast majority of that, I spent 28 years as what we'd say as a staffer, you know? Um, the vast majority of that was with CIA.
I was a case officer or operations officer with CIA, retired as a senior officer and as an expert in our Director of Operations.
Uh, my expertise, I was, I was a senior expert in both Russian intelligence, but also what we call denied area operations, so how we operate in the hardest of environments, places like Russia, China, North Korea, um, Iran, and we have to operate in those places.
As a famous former division chief named Burton Gerber said in the 1980s, "CIA can have no denied areas in the world." We have to be able to operate worldwide.
So that was my focus and my expertise, and that's why the book is focused on tradecraft, um, John.
It's focused on how the Russians do their craft, everything from traditional espionage, ticks and bricks techniques, as we call them, surveillance, uh, all the way through hybrid war, modern techniques that I touch on heavily at the end of the book.
Appreciate, um, all the men and women's service that I know are dialing in from, uh, from, uh, your, uh, your listeners and, uh, glad for the chance to talk about Russian intelligence, something I'm passionate about.
So your name has come across my radar quite a few times recently, and that is because you have a new book that you wrote.
I've heard you interviewed, heard you on podcasts, I've seen your writing, um, and I think that's because there's an appetite, a desire to sort of better understand not just Russian intelligence, but its role in everything Russia is doing, uh, in the world today.
That's, you know, particularly Ukraine, but also its involvement in other regions in the world, its covert work against, uh, democratic elections, for instance, what have you.
And I guess, you know, that's what we're gonna talk about today, and specifically I wanna do so through s- sort of a lens of, of modern war, modern strategy, and modern statecraft.
Before we get to it, um, I guess sort of by way of introduction, I wonder if you can share with listeners a little bit about your background and, and how that led naturally to you writing this book.
Um, so 30 years now, 30 years in, uh, foreign service, defense, and intelligence.
The vast majority of that, I spent 28 years as what we'd say as a staffer, you know? Um, the vast majority of that was with CIA.
I was a case officer or operations officer with CIA, retired as a senior officer and as an expert in our Director of Operations.
Uh, my expertise, I was, I was a senior expert in both Russian intelligence, but also what we call denied area operations, so how we operate in the hardest of environments, places like Russia, China, North Korea, um, Iran, and we have to operate in those places.
As a famous former division chief named Burton Gerber said in the 1980s, "CIA can have no denied areas in the world." We have to be able to operate worldwide.
So that was my focus and my expertise, and that's why the book is focused on tradecraft, um, John.
It's focused on how the Russians do their craft, everything from traditional espionage, ticks and bricks techniques, as we call them, surveillance, uh, all the way through hybrid war, modern techniques that I touch on heavily at the end of the book.
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