Russian spies are alive, well

by J Michael Waller, Insight, March 8, 1999 Sleepers, cadre illegals, recruits, emigre agents — by whatever name they are spies and the Russian intelligence establishment has such spooks in place in the United States. Along a rural Virginia road, a Hartsdale, N.Y., photographer no sooner stops his car and tosses something into the leaves than … Read more

Russia’s security services: A checklist for reforms

by J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University, Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), Vol. VII, No. 1, September-October 1997. Protection of human rights, according to Russian law, is the first duty of the security and intelligence services of the post-Soviet state. Even more, the “special services” or “organs,” as they are called, … Read more

Primakov’s imperial line

By J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), January-February 1997. Russian foreign policy has become more consistent and predictable since Yevgeni Primakov succeeded Andrei Kozyrev as foreign minister in January 1996. Moscow’s diplomacy today shows a tendency toward greater integration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the … Read more

Supreme Soviet investigation of the 1991 coup: The suppressed transcripts

In 1995-96 we published the only translated transcripts of the Russian parliamentary investigation hearings on the 1991 putsch. To our knowledge, the transcripts were never published in Russia. Dr Waller edited a selection of the transcripts for Demokratizatsiya. The journal, then published in cooperation with the American University and Moscow State University, is now housed … Read more

Russia’s Great Criminal Revolution: The Role of the Security Services

by Victor Yasmann and J Michael Waller, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, December 1995. Summary Russian law enforcement agencies, security organs, and intelligence services, far from being reliable instruments in the fight against organized crime and corruption, are institutionally part of the problem, due not only to their co-optation and penetration by criminal elements, but to … Read more

The KGB legacy in Russia

by J Michael Waller, Problems of Post-Communism, November-December 1995. The superstructure of the Soviet Communist Party is gone. But the secret police and intelligence agencies have survived the turmoil and remain firmly ensconced in Russian political, economic and social life. They threaten reform and imperil the West. This article was among the first to anticipate … Read more

Who is making Russian foreign policy?

by J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), Vol. V, No. 3, January-February 1995. Undermined politically and with its powers diffused, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Andrei Kozyrev has been eclipsed by the former KGB First Directorate of Yevgeniy Primakov. President Boris Yel’tsin, who built … Read more

KGB: The perils of arbitrary power

by J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), Vol. 2, No. 1, September 1991. “The KGB is everywhere, in everything, and that itself frustrates democracy.” Former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin(1) “We have had as much democratization as we can stomach.” KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov(2) In trying … Read more