Trump’s return raises questions over future of CIA’s Russian recruitment drive

There are all sorts of safeguards in place about protecting the identity of any assets within the CIA. But the situation we are dealing with now means Trump can ask for any intelligence he wants, it’s his right,

said Walton

I know for a fact that during the first Trump admin one of the Five Eyes partners was careful about sharing intelligence on Russia that might end up in the White House. Closely allied intelligence services had protections in place for this exact question of Russia-related intelligence being compromised. It’s a fair working assumption to say the same thing will be true in the next administration,

said Walton

I think the Trump administration could be potentially extremely damaging for compromising secrets and protecting sources when it comes to Russia,

said Walton

That was a moment when a number of Russians decided … that it was their time to strike back against the system they were representing,

said Moore

But there are third countries where it is possible to meet these people,

said the source

Russians have a long history of spamming you with double agents. You think you want some information about a nuclear submarine, and the next day someone is offering it up. They still use this tactic, absolutely,

said one recently retired western intelligence source

Cold approaches are rarely successful but you never know. If there’s a 1% successes rate it’s still worth trying.”

Another former senior intelligence source said

There is also the fact that people might look at the Putin regime and wonder how stable it is; they may think, ‘OK, I can last a bit longer, but I need an exit strategy at some point,’

said one source

Our door is always open”.

Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s MI6, used a rare public appearance in 2022 to say

The people around you may not want to know the truth. We want to.”

The video ends with the words

We don’t know for sure whether recruitments have been made, and nor should we know, but it’s certainly been the strategy, and moments of crisis like this in the past have been a golden opportunity for recruitment drives for western services,

said Calder Walton, an intelligence historian at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the author of a recent book on the history of the intelligence battle between Moscow and Washington

Discussions are underway between the UK and France regarding defence cooperation, particularly with the aim of creating a core of allies in Europe, focused on Ukraine and broader European security,

A British military source told French newspaper Le Monde

Pat McFaddencabinet Office minister

We know from history that appeasing dictators engaged in aggression against their neighbours only encourages them

But Mr McFadden told the London conference

Aided by allies including the UK, Ukraine has had to defend itself from crippling Russian cyber attacks on its electricity grid, its airports, and other critical national infrastructure

He added

In a few days, I and the UK's senior national security officials will be sitting down with British businesses to discuss how they can boost their own security and help defend the nation from actors with malign intent – particularly from Russia

He said