JRL NEWSWATCH: “The Cold War roots of Putin’s digital-age intelligence strategy” – Washington Post/ Greg Myre

“Spying may be the world’s second-oldest profession, but … Putin has certainly given it a fresh makeover. To fully grasp what Russia did in the 2016 U.S. presidential election – and hopes to replicate … – … look back to the end of the Cold War. Putin was a young Soviet KGB officer in Dresden, East Germany … as the Berlin Wall teetered, he sought guidance from Moscow. The response: ‘Moscow is silent.’ Putin was stunned … the Soviet empire collapsed in what he has called the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.’ To restore what was lost, Putin has focused on reimagining Russian intelligence – something the United States often underestimated until the last presidential vote. ‘Spies – the threat of foreign ones and the successes of Russia’s own – would be a defining theme for Vladimir Putin,’ Gordon Corera writes in … ‘Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies.’ …”

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