Spike in US Intel Ops Against Russia Signals Relations at ‘Point of No Return’

Friday, September 16, 2016
By Paul Martin

SputnikNews.com
16.09.2016

On Wednesday, US media reported that America’s intelligence agencies have expanded the scope and breadth of their operations against Russia to Cold War levels. Commenting on the news, Russian experts have said this is the clearest indication yet that Washington has shifted Russia’s status from a ‘geopolitical rival’ into an outright ‘enemy’.

On Wednesday, sources cited by the Washington Post confirmed that US intelligence agencies are in the process of expanding their operations against Russia to the largest levels since the Cold War. The “mobilization,” involving the CIA, the NSA, and other intelligence services and assets, is seeing a shift of resources committed to terrorist threats and US war zones back to Russia.

According to the paper’s sources, while terror remains a major concern for US intelligence, Russia, for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, has again become a top priority in the eyes of the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. US intelligence agencies are now spending roughly 10% of its total $67.9 billion budget on Russia, that figure jumping substantially in the last two years, but still less than the 40% committed to watching the USSR and its allies at the height of the Cold War. Admittedly, the threat posed by radical Islamist terror was also lower at the time.

According to US analysts speaking to WP, even the present spending amounts are still not enough, since “US spy agencies have struggled to anticipate Moscow’s moves.”

Asked to comment on the story, Sergei Ermakov, a senior expert at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, suggested that the surging focus on Moscow is yet another indication that Washington is “reviewing Russia’s status, and now regards us not just as a geopolitical rival, but an outright enemy.”

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