# Empire of Spies – An ex-CIA officer exposes Putin’s intelligence state

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/empire-of-spies-an-ex-cia-officer-exposes-putin-s-intelligence-state
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/empire-of-spies-an-ex-cia-officer-exposes-putin-s-intelligence-state.md
Podcast: [The Bunker – News without the nonsense](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382)
Published: 2026-06-16T03:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-bunker/episodes/empire-of-spies-an-ex-cia-officer-exposes-putins-intelligenc
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6a2ad2e9440b9d7bbf6bde6b/e/6a30006a6edea1d9abd6aaad/media.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1913

## Resource

The West’s naivete towards Putin in the 2000s cost us dearly. Now Russia’s tyrant – a creature of the KGB/FSB who has returned his country to its roots as a repressive intelligence state – is attacking us with unprecedented ferocity and deviousness. Sean Wiswesser , ex-CIA station chief in the former Soviet Union, says the “reckless” activity of FSB and GRU agents has reached new heights. But can they be stopped – and can we win the intelligence war? He tells Andrew Harrison how intelligence and dirty tricks are inextricable from Putin’s power; how the old skills of “tradecraft” persist alongside new digital tactics; and what really makes Russian intelligence tick.   • Buy Sean’s book Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War from our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  • Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast   Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.   www.podmasters.co.uk   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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## Transcript

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