So imagine 400,000 FSB officers across Russia, including about 200,000 paramilitary units like the Border Guards.

And they, again, their number one mission, John, is keeping Vladimir Putin in power.

Nobody is higher in the Russian hierarchy than the intelligence services.

Alexander Bordenakov, the head of the FSB, is a general of the Russian army. He is the

highest rank in the Russian army, along with Krasimov. The FSB had a huge role in the

planning for the Ukraine operation, both in 2014 and in 2022. The point of that whole exercise

was he wanted everybody on the record, on TV, with him in front of the Russian public saying, yeah, we're all for it. We're for the invasion that's happening now in a few days. Hey, welcome back to the MWI podcast. Brought to you with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974. I'm John Amble, and on this episode I'm joined by Sean Wisswesser.

He has nearly 30 years of experience in national security, including as a senior operations

officer with the CIA.

Specifically relevant to this episode, he has extensive professional experience with Russia's

intelligence services.

In fact, he recently wrote a book about those services under Vladimir Putin called

Tradecraft, Tactics and Dirty Tricks.

In the discussion you're about to hear, Sean explains how Putin has managed to make

the intelligence services in Russia personally loyal to him.

The conversation then examines the shadowy but often central role Russian intelligence

services play in Russian activities around

the world, from the war in Ukraine to efforts to gain influence in the Middle East, Africa,

and elsewhere, to Russia's information war against the West.

It's a really insightful discussion, but before we get to it, as always, just a couple

quick notes. First, a very special thank you to the Westmont class of 1974 for their generous support to MWI. And second, what you're here in this

episode are the views of the participants and don't represent those of West Point,

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