Former intel operative: Russian-diplomat eviction only scratches surface of spy network
...However, pushing out Russian intelligence officers is only part of the spy equation – it doesn’t account for their cultivated assets. Did these diplomats have assets who were engaged in espionage on behalf of Russia?
As a former double-agent who spent three years working undercover for FBI counterintelligence as a Russian spy, it is a question that concerns me.
Unlike in the movies, the job of a Russian intelligence officer is not to actually spy; it is to recruit and manipulate assets to do the spying for them. Furthermore, successfully recruiting an asset to spy is more akin to running a sales campaign then it is to spying. It becomes a numbers game, with intelligence officers speaking to many potential assets to find the few that have both the ability and willingness to spy.
