Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸

A transatlantic podcast exploring the world of espionage, terrorism, geopolitics, and intrigue | Co-hosted by @ChrisCarrFilm and @FultonMatt

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

Stephen Long joins Secrets & Spies to explore the CIA and MI6’s failed covert war in Communist Albania, Kim Philby’s betrayal, Cold War espionage, and counterintelligence disasters. #CIA #MI6 #ColdWar #Espionage #KimPhilby #Albania

Links below 👇👇👇

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

Stephen Long joins Secrets & Spies to explore the CIA and MI6’s failed covert war in Communist Albania, Kim Philby’s betrayal, Cold War espionage, and counterintelligence disasters. #CIA #MI6 #ColdWar #Espionage #KimPhilby #Albania

Links below 👇👇👇

[Sean Wiswesser @Wiswesser]

🇷🇺”For Putin, the greatest threat isn't NATO. The greatest threat is any functioning democracy on his border."
&
“Russian intelligence doesn't care which side we/you choose (in our politics). They just want us fighting each other..."

🚨 These were some of my quotes from a great interview out of the UK with YoYo Hamblen on her “Security Circle” podcast released today. Here is the episode summary:

🎙️ EP 180: Russia Wants You Angry: “A Spy's Warning to the West”:

⚠️ What if the greatest threat facing Western democracies isn't a missile, a tank, or even a cyberattack? What if it's distrust?

👉”This week on The Security Circle Podcast, I sit down with former CIA case officer and Russian intelligence specialist Sean to explore the hidden battlefield of modern conflict — information warfare, influence operations, espionage, and the psychological tactics being used to divide societies from within.

👉👉Drawing on nearly three decades in the intelligence community, Sean shares extraordinary insights into how Russian intelligence operates, why democracies remain a target, and what ordinary citizens need to understand about the unseen war being fought every day across social media, politics, and public discourse.

🚨Together we discussed:

🔹 Russian intelligence tradecraft and modern espionage
🔹 Putin's strategic view of the West
🔹 Information warfare and cognitive manipulation
🔹 The weaponisation of social media and division
🔹 The lessons of Ukraine for Western democracies
🔹 Why young people are increasingly targeted by influence operations
🔹 The psychology of betrayal, treason, and recruitment
🔹 Whether the West is winning or losing the intelligence war

✅This is a fascinating conversation about spies, strategy, influence, and the future of democracy itself. Whether you're a security professional, intelligence enthusiast, or simply trying to make sense of an increasingly complex world, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

🎧 Available now on all major podcast platforms and on Apple here:
👉 https://t.co/3bv9gCnish

🙏🏻Kudos to Yolanda Hamblen for a great interview. Security Circle is a production for IFPO the International Foundation of Protection Officers.

#Russia #RussianIntelligence #CogAI #InformationWarfare #FSB #SVR #HybridWar

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

Episode online links

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/iBTpoAGh2C
🎧 Amazon Music: https://t.co/3bZsNzQABe
🎧 Spotify: https://t.co/xg1TqqbS8Q
🎥 YouTube: https://t.co/Eip0CguKCK

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

Stephen Long joins Secrets & Spies to explore the CIA and MI6’s failed covert war in Communist Albania, Kim Philby’s betrayal, Cold War espionage, and counterintelligence disasters. #CIA #MI6 #ColdWar #Espionage #KimPhilby #Albania

Links below 👇👇👇

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

Re-upping from 2022:

Working Group Paper #5

The Case for Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism

The International Working Group on Russian Sanctions

September 28, 2022 https://t.co/47bQUID9eh

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

Ukrainian aircraft arrive to deliver a keynote address at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that opens this morning. Special entertainment for Candace Owens, Andrew Tate and all the other distinguished guests.

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

Truly morally sickening: that anyone should wish all of Ukraine to suffer the fate of Mariupol or Bucha. Russian occupation of Ukraine means random arrests, executions, concentration camps; the destruction of language and culture; mass kidnapping of children. All of these things have been documented in the occupied territories and continue to go on.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

The Taliban are in attendance. Imagine coming to Russia and realizing Afghanistan is safer.

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

Here is the Terrifying Near Future: Xi’s surveillance state seeks to identify future dissidents

https://t.co/dMPQjWrIeQ

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

@Sandbagger_01 Maybe we should apply for sensitive briefings? 😂

[Dr. Dan Lomas @Sandbagger_01]

Another reminder that you don't need to by vetted to receive sensitive briefings. Otherwise, HMG wouldn't be able to speak to a lot of people. #JustSayin 😉

https://t.co/NSvnjco7wQ

[Dave Brown @dave_brown24]

Now that Bill Pulte has been named acting director of national intelligence, it's worth going back to this great profile by @ginaheeb @jdawsey1 and @rebeccaballhaus --->

He’s Called ‘Little Trump,’ and His Tactics Are Rankling White House Top Brass
https://t.co/5HVSdhy63p

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

Wow.

Did Hitler invite tourist groups from the US to see their churches during World War II?

[Sean Wiswesser @Wiswesser]

🔥While I was in a Russian-troll created blackout…Romania got hit by a Russian drone, NATO citizens again put at risk… what will be our response?

🇷🇴My interview with Romanian news LIBERTATEA gained over 50K views and reads in less than a week! They are keen on the Russia threat, they see it in their headlines!…

🚨In Eastern Europe the fight against Russian aggression and malign influence is tougher than ever for our NATO allies.

👇Below is link to an interview with Denis Grigorescu with LIBERTATEA, one of Romania's largest news services and papers, thus helping counter the Russian Intelligence services (RIS) and their narrative.

✅Here are a few excerpts of my quotes from discussions:

👉On NATO and the threat from Russia: "I think (hybrid war) is an unprecedented challenge for NATO and our allies, because as democracies, we don't think the same as them, the (RIS). They are not constrained by laws. There is no constitutional democracy in Russia. They do what they want, as long as their great leader agrees.

⚠️And now, more than ever, the Russian intelligence services are increasingly reckless, intensifying their aggression against Europe because of the war in Ukraine."

👉On the use of proxies or so-called "one-time agents" by the FSB/GRU: "The RIS are increasingly targeting the marginalized in society…dissatisfied, angry teenagers (for whatever reason) ...And the Russians take advantage of that, offering them money to go and take, at first, a photo of a railway line, telling them that they will pay them $1,000.
Then the Russians will ask for more. They'll say, "Well, you took a picture. Now we're going to give you a device, we just want you to leave it there." …a trap, for those who don't really know what they're getting into, and it's quite effective.

☢️In the case of real intermediaries, organized crime and intelligence services, the Russians have been doing this for decades, since the Cold War. It is not something new.

⚠️"But I want to make a distinction when it comes to really important cases, infiltrations in NATO and in our governments; They know how to conduct professional intelligence operations. They remain formidable adversaries who know how to run penetrations of governments, for instance, with the best tradecraft."

✅Finally, on why we are still winning and will win!:
"Smart Russian intelligence officers are fed up. They don't want to have anything to do with it. They want a better life for their children. They want a better life for their families and for themselves. And so, this message will always resonate in the West. We can give them a better life. Democracies work.
We know that, within their services, the message resonates. We know that there will always be Russian intelligence officers willing to work with us and cooperate with the West. So this is our greatest strength."

👏For more, click on below link and hit Google or other translate!

https://t.co/q3Iuys10Qf

Thank you to Denis and LIBERTATEA.

#Russia #Romania #NATO #RussianWar #HybridWar #UkraineWar #GrayZone

🚨Link to my book (see why gaining intern attention where it matters!):
https://t.co/JY6dzXAFSi

[Dr. Dan Lomas @Sandbagger_01]

Britain fears Ireland is a ‘back door’ for Russian spies

https://t.co/1Dkz3Hvgso

[Dr. Dan Lomas @Sandbagger_01]

Russian spies are aggressively seeking Western technology as sanctions bite, officials say
https://t.co/tSg0zRZVcZ

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

Ukraine's fortunes are markedly improving on the battlefield, as Kyiv now kills more Russians per month than Russia recruits. So Moscow has threatened to expand its war in Europe, even as it struggles to win the one it started. The result is panic, hype and alarmism. Never mind that Russia has already been attacking Europe for a decade and a half, with impunity, all while Europe pretended no state of conflict existed.

A few thoughts from me on the trap the West falls into during these periods of provocation.

And a preview on how the GRU is adapting its tradecraft for a new phase in Russian state terrorism. Recruiting amateurs and gig saboteurs remotely is old hat. Now they're talent-spotting foreigners -- particularly in Latin America and Africa -- for recruitment and training inside Russia, luring them under the cover of soft power initiatives and university scholarships. Foreigners with combat experience in Ukraine are also obvious targets for recruitment. "Wet work" is being internationalized again, as it was the twenties and thirties. And a new generation of Ramón Mercaders is coming.

That prospect, more than "little green men" in Narva, is what should worry the West the most.

[Colin P. Clarke, Ph.D. @ColinPClarke]

How Iran’s military harnesses ChatGPT https://t.co/T1iZX8Jw0y via @ft

[Paweł Wójcik 🦋 @SaladinAlDronni]

Major development - for the first time, Islamic State claims attacks in Nigerian North-West on behalf of Islamic State Sahel, with multiple clashes against the Nigeria aemy reported from Kebbi and Sokoto provinces. #Nigeria

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

Check out our latest podcast

[Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸 @SecretsAndSpies]

Tulsi Gabbard resigns. Trump and Xi meet in Beijing. Chinese intelligence targets Capitol Hill. Russia trains cyber operatives. Plus Oleg Gordievsky’s final years in Surrey. Chris & Matt unpack the latest in espionage and geopolitics.

Links below 👇👇👇