FBI Fails in Key Task – USA Gov Policy

Something is amiss when FBI agents are forced to resort to using Google to interview suspected Russian spies. Unlike China’s American-based Confucius Centers which support its spy operations in the US, few in the American public are familiar with Russia’s version – the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of the US (known colloquially by its Russian acronym KSORS). For several years the FBI has been investigating people connected to this diaspora group, including conducting searches of their homes and offices. The ongoing investigation, apparently opened before 2018, is looking at Russian funding of the organization across the entire United States. Foreign influence operations in the US are not uncommon. What is troubling are the amounts and types of resources Russia is pouring into its clandestine influence operations in the US while at the same time the American intelligence community is constrained by limited funding and legal restrictions that hamstring its efforts to protect the country. Russia’s President Putin, a former intelligence officer, is well aware of how the United States operates and is employing that knowledge in a soft power campaign against Washington.

Alexander Reid Ross, writing in The Daily Beast, notes one KSORS interviewee said: “Yes! People from the FBI came to me. But it was not very serious. They did not take a translator and we used Google. That was funny.” It’s outrageous that pro-Russian intelligence elements do not view our efforts seriously at a time of heightened tension between the two countries! National security risk increases when America’s foreign adversaries feel safe ignoring our military strength and political leadership. This, however, is not the first instance. In 2014, during the Obama Administration, Russia occupied the Crimean region of the Ukraine. The Russian government, at the same time, decided to enhance its active measures against the United States by creating a “Fifth Column” in this country. It forcefully inserted personnel into KSORS who agreed to work with the Russian Embassy in Washington to advance the Kremlin’s interests. They, in essence, took over the organization to create an expansive subversive, clandestine network operating freely across the United States.

“Critics among Russian-speaking diaspora groups in the United States claim that KSORS became increasingly adversarial amid the escalation of tensions during Russia’s occupation of the Crimea” says Ross. Former KSORS chair Igor Baboshkin was forced to leave the group when he refused instructions to sign a statement supporting the Russian invasion of the Crimea. According to Kseniya Kirilova, of the Jamestown Foundation, at issue is how to differentiate Russian propaganda and misinformation operations from true cultural exchange programs. You Tube has footage of a Sacramento, CA area camp run by KSORS members who are teaching children military-style training . Another related Russian language You Tube video taken in Pine Bush, New York shows American children and adults involved in KSORS celebrating Russian military victories in Soviet uniforms and with weapons. It is not an innocent cultural exchange organization. Recently many KSORS members, including several of it 10 council leaders, sold their homes in the US and returned to Russia, citing a myriad of reasons, although none admitted its was due to the FBI’s investigation of the group.

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President Putin has made no secret of the fact that he intends to return Russia to a position of global glory, power and leadership. He views the United States as the greatest threat to his country and to his goal. The United States needs to recognize that not all threats to this country come from a military action on our soil. Long ago the Soviet communist leadership predicted that it would take America from within without raising the barrel of a gun.

According to the Robert Lansing Institute, Putin also “is seeking to set up alternative interaction channels with the West via the European monarchies” in a great power competition that is increasing in intensity over the last few years. It notes that “The Federation of Russian Parties in Europe includes four existing Russian parties of the EU (Association for Human Rights in United Latvia, Union of Russians in Lithuania, Russian Party of Estonia, Party for the Defense of Russophonia of France). All those “parties” were created by Moscow to further its interests in Europe and exist solely due to its financial support.” This is a coordinated effort by Moscow inside western democracies and needs to be recognized as such as it is not a benign movement.

Daria Novak provides insights on Russia each Thursday.

Quick Analysis

Russia Expanding Aggression

President Putin is using more than one pathway to enter Europe and undermine the West. While most of the world watches the conflict he initiated in Ukraine, the Russian government is actively pursuing a second front in a little noticed campaign in Cyprus. Although the corrupt Cypriot government ended its issuance of “golden passports” in 2020, Russian intelligence is functioning quietly there to transform this EU country into a Russian beachhead of illicit economic activity aimed at penetrating the capitalist West, according to Paul Goble of the Jamestown Foundation. Cyprus is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor does it receive as much attention as those countries who are member states. That adds to its allure as a prime location for Russia to attempt to gain a European foothold. Last week a NATO report, cited in the European Daily Monitor, noted that Russian intelligence agents have been plotting to destroy European infrastructure across the continent to disrupt states supporting Ukraine. It further suggests that Putin’s immediate goal is to lay the framework for a future move against the security organization’s members. Hungary, in particular, is another country garnering Moscow’s attention as it opposes the Western response to Russian aggression. Russia is focusing its intelligence efforts on other European, non-NATO member countries in addition to Cyprus, including Austria, Malta, and Ireland. The NATO report suggests that Moscow has had success in disseminating the Russian political narrative in these states to advance its campaign against the West. The island of Cyprus is proving to be a good target for Moscow as it is an ethnically divided island that is part of the EU since 2004. Northern Cyprus, officially called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that is only recognized by Turkey. The division precludes it from joining NATO. As Goble suggests, “it offers Russia troubled waters in which to fish.” Over the last 20 years, he points out, Cyprus’ challenges have opened it to a massive influx of Russian citizens, who now comprise approximately 10 percent of the island state’s population. Over 2,900 residents are Russians who entered until the “golden passport” program that allowed wealthy or well-connected Russians to move to Cyprus. It also provided them with documentation to travel freely throughout Europe! Although less visible on the world’s radar than the war in Ukraine, Moscow is also being helped by Cyprus’ banks opposition to seizing Russian assets and its support in evading Western sanctions. Russia has placed tens of billions of US Dollars there for money laundering. It has been more than two years since a single Russian “diplomat” has been deported and, in fact, the Embassy has grown to over 300 staffers on this tiny island state of only 1.2 million people. The Russian embassy in Nicosia has advanced communications antennae on its roof and opened a consulate on the northern end of the island. Moscow’s Ambassador, Mura Zyazikov, is a lieutenant general in the FSB with no diplomatic experience. The FSB, SVR (Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service), and GRU are actively using the island as a base of operations against NATO Member states, Israel, and other Western allies. Moscow backs pro-Russian political parties who in turn influence Cypriot decisions on education, language, and other issues. “Dmitry Khmelnitsky of the Dossier Center says that its findings should be of concern not only to Cyprus but to the West as a whole. Those who ignore what Moscow is doing because Cyprus does not follow the EU sanctions regime are missing something critical,” says Goble. “Cyprus does not seek to get rid of Russian agents and does not interfere with their work,” Khmelnitsky concludes, “despite the fact that what the Kremlin is doing is so clearly visible.” This has an impact not only on the small island but on the EU, NATO, and the West in general. Earlier this year the Moscow Times reported that when the FBI became more interested in Russian business and oligarchs in Cyprus, at least 10 of the major Russian businesses operating there left. Despite the government of Cyprus’ vow to implement plans for new sanctions against Russia, it continues to ignore Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine and to shield the wealth of the 50,000 wealthy Russian citizens and oligarchs residing there. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay