Ukrainian conflict an “Opportunity” for the CIA says director William Burns

 

By Lucas Leiroz (Journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant)

SouthFront

At the same time, Ukrainian President emphasizes there is “no secret” between the Ukrainian government and the US main intelligence agency. 

US authorities no longer hide their anti-Russian ambitions in Ukraine. In a recent statement, CIA Director William Burns said the Ukrainian conflict would be a “unique opportunity” for Washington. The case shows how Western strategists really want to destabilize and harm Russia as much as possible, with no intention of peace or diplomatic goodwill.

The head of American intelligence revealed in a lecture at the Ditchley Foundation in the UK on July 1 that his agency plans to explore the possible opportunities for infiltration that would arise from the weaknesses of a Russian society allegedly dissatisfied with the conflict in Ukraine. This would be, according to him, an appropriate occasion to advance anti-Russian plans in the intelligence sector.

    “Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression (…) That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA, at our core a human intelligence service. We’re not letting it go to waste”, he said.

In this regard, Burns also made it clear that the CIA is already taking steps to advance its projects. According to the official, the agency launched a recruitment channel on Telegram in May, showing “business” proposals for Russian officers, military, government representatives and scientists who want to provide information from Moscow to American forces.

    “We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business,” he added.

Two days later, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky went public to reveal that his regime is constantly in cooperation with the CIA, and there are no secrets between them. Recently, Zelensky and Burns met during a director’s visit to Kiev. On the occasion, the neo-Nazi leader talked to the US official about many “important things”, such as what Ukraine “needs” to keep the proxy war on Russia. 

   “My communication with the CIA chief should always be behind the scenes. We discuss important things – what Ukraine needs and how Ukraine is prepared to act (…) We don’t have any secrets from the CIA because we have good relations and our intelligence services talk with each other (…) The situation is pretty straightforward. We have good relations with the CIA chief, and we are talking. I told him about all the important things related to the battlefield that we need”, Zelensky said.

According to an anonymous source linked to the American government interviewed by CNN, Burns’ visits to Kiev are frequent, despite the fact that media outlets often do not pay attention to these events:

    “Director Burns recently traveled to Ukraine, as he has done regularly since the beginning of Russia’s recent aggression more than a year ago (…) As with other trips, the director met with his Ukrainian intelligence counterparts and President Zelensky, reaffirming the US commitment to sharing intelligence to help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression”, source said.

 

Indeed, Burns’ words about the CIA seeing the conflict as an “opportunity” show that American intelligence wants to take advantage of events in Eurasia to generate instability in Russian society, fomenting frictions in the government, military and civil institutions. Burns exposes the plans very clearly and does not hide his intentions, which makes the US hostile stance towards Russia public.

The CIA director’s regular visits to Kiev are actually part of these anti-Russian plans. American intelligence actively interferes in the conflict, manages the activities of its proxy state directly from the battlefield, acting as a true belligerent party. This high level of information sharing and strategic integration shows that there is certainly American participation in all crimes committed by the neo-Nazi regime, including terrorist attacks and murders of civilians in the undisputed territory of the Russian Federation.

However, it remains to be seen whether the US anti-Russian plans will really be effective. The director is mistaken in his assessment of the Russian scenario when he says that there is “disaffection” and growing frictions in Russia as a result of the conflict. Vladimir Putin’s popularity and Russian national unity have been greatly strengthened by the progress of the special military operation, contradicting Burns’ claims.

Also, it is unlikely that any incursion attempt by American intelligence will be successful, considering that Russian security forces are on high alert for this type of threat, having occurred repeated operations focused on neutralizing infiltrated foreign agents and terrorist networks. Moscow is aware that the real enemy side in the current conflict is the US-led West, which is why it is acting cautiously to protect itself.  

Furthermore, Burns’ words about an alleged public CIA recruitment of Russian citizens through Telegram sounded unconventional. This type of strategy sounds amateurish and ineffective in terms of security, since Telegram is an easily accessible network and Russian forces could act against citizens who search for the CIA there – in addition to infiltrating their own counterintelligence agents in the process of recruitment.

Either Burns made this announcement as a bluff to try to “scare” Russia by demonstrating that it was advancing intelligence operations, or in fact the CIA is desperate in its search for agents on the ground in Russia and is making basic strategic mistakes. In both cases, it is clear that American intelligence does not seem prepared to defeat Russia.