Liaison is an important key to overall U.S.-Russian relations, said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University at a 17 May 2010 Kennan Institute talk. Having spent 23 years as a CIA intelligence officer in various domestic and international posts, Mowatt-Larssen discussed the role of intelligence in the U.S.-Russia relationship, the history of the two countries' intelligence liaison, and areas of cooperation for the future.

Mowatt-Larssen outlined several ways in which intelligence plays an important role for decision makers. First, an exchange of information, which is useful in its own right, also yields diverging viewpoints which can be even more valuable than like-minded analysis. Intelligence liaison also offers the opportunity for joint operations, although this is the most difficult task for two agencies to carry out together. Most importantly, and underrated according to Mowatt-Larssen, is the influence intelligence liaison has on the overall relationship between the two countries as well as on regions where both parties have clout.

Liaison between the two countries began in the 1980s with the Gavrilov channel, which the KGB initiated in order to establish a "deniable connection." This channel was used to deal with problems created by espionage and hastened the relationship between the U.S. and the Russian Federation after the fall of the Soviet Union. According to Mowatt-Larssen, when CIA Director Robert Gates visited Moscow in 1992, he was uncomfortable as an old "Cold Warrior" in legitimizing the KGB and CIA working together, but knew it was imperative at the time.

Mowatt-Larssen recalled that Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Yevgeni Primakov lamented that the two organizations' officers did not want to work together for fear it would taint their careers; Primakov devised for the two agencies to pursue a common goal in parallel rather than in a joint operation. Although this was never executed, U.S. and Russian intelligence did join forces in a "highly successful venture" involving debriefing sources with information on threats to President Yeltsin's life.

Mowatt-Larssen nevertheless maintained that the relationship between U.S. and Russian intelligence agencies (now the SVR and FSB) will be competitive and sometimes adversarial for the foreseeable future; in some ways, "we are still in the throes of the Cold War." Even though "espionage really is the center of everything" in how old foes still eye one another, the two sides must find a way to make the relationship work. The security of the U.S. and Russia is tied to the willingness of their intelligence communities to cooperate more closely to thwart common threats, especially terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S.-Russia relationship is no longer a zero-sum game, said Mowatt-Larssen, and even though intelligence cooperation opportunities were missed after the fall of the Soviet Union and after 9/11, the two agencies must work together for common interests. If we can find a way to collaborate and bridge trust deficits on an intelligence level, concluded Mowatt-Larssen, it will positively influence the U.S.-Russia relationship as a whole.


By Larissa Eltsefon
Blair Ruble, Director, Kennan Institute