" In the early and mid 80s I was in the Analytic Department of the KGB, and there was concern about military-political pressure from the West, from the Americans especially. There was competition in space, the oceans and in the military area. To assess all this properly, you have to look at events in the early 70s. What I mean is, of course, the war in Vietnam. Moscow drew a simple conclusion from that war. The conclusion of the Soviet General Staff was that the Americans could be defeated on the battlefield without recourse to nuclear arms. For that we only needed a Third World country, armed and trained by ourselves, and a good proletarian party with a strong leader."
This was the formula for controlled capitalism in Russia. In this manner, explained Kalashnikov, the Russian Communists used the process of “privatization” to make themselves into a business class that could make deals with the West. “The Russians,” he said, “needed to gain legal status for their companies in the West. So again, the Russians are putting the West in a dire strategic position, because of al Qaeda, because of a new dependence on Russian gas and oil, because sections of the Western business community are collaborating with Russia in commercial ventures; and this will allow Moscow to expand its military-political endeavors across the globe. Russia today has resources it could only dream of during the Cold War. They need not spy on British Petroleum, since they are helping British Petroleum. The same is true of the Western media, finance, etc., etc. The field of intelligence has changed, and different tactics are being used. So the nature of spying has changed. It is not less than before, but even more intense.”
So ended a remarkable monologue by a retired KGB official on how and why the Cold War never came to an end. It is not something you will find in academic journals. This story will not be told by television news outlets, or by prominent politicians. However, it better explains what we see today.
I think he was telling me the truth.
https://jrnyquist.blog/2020/07/16/no...cers-insights/
Always considered the collapse a fantasy, the bold text I find most interesting of all however and unexpected to find in a story on the supposed collapse of the Soviet Union.
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