Putin Could Pretend to be Peacemaker in Afghan Conflict

Posted: August 11th, 2017

By Michael Sulick

Michael Sulick is the former director of CIA’s National Clandestine Service and is currently a consultant on counterintelligence and global risk assessment. Sulick also served as Chief of Counterintelligence and Chief of the Central Eurasia Division where he was responsible for intelligence collection operations and foreign liaison relationships in Russia, Eastern Europe and the former republics of the Soviet Union. He is the author of Spying in America: Espionage From the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War and American Spies: Espionage Against the United States from the Cold War to the Present.

Over the last few months, Taliban orchestrated attacks have wreaked havoc across Afghanistan on a near-daily basis, leading to mounting deaths tolls for Afghan and U.S. forces as well as for Afghan citizens. To make matters worse, earlier this year, reports began to circulate in the U.S. that Russia is providing arms to the Taliban as they battle Afghan and U.S. troops. The Cipher Brief’s Bennett Seftel spoke with Mike Sulick, former Director of CIA’s National Clandestine Service, about Russia’s strategy and objectives in Afghanistan and how the U.S. can more effectively counter subversive Russian activities.

TCB: It has been reported that Russia is arming the Taliban as they fight U.S. and Afghan troops in Afghanistan. What do you make of these reports?

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