Let's be honest – Russia is well ahead of Nato, says former CIA station chief
"Russia is ahead of Nato" – that's the verdict of former CIA Station Chief Sean Wiswesser.
In an interview with BFBS Forces News, he warns that British troops could get caught up in a second front if Putin attacks Nato territory.
As a veteran defence and security professional with a long-standing focus on Russia, Sean Wiswesser speaks with passion and urgency – his assessment is Ukraine has the edge over Russia, but Nato countries lag dangerously behind Moscow.
"Let's be frank and honest: Russia is well ahead of Nato, including my country, the United States, when it comes to electronic warfare and drone warfare in particular
"This is important that we get it right and realise how far behind we are... we can get there if we make a dedicated effort, but we need to be in a hurry. We need to be in a rush. We need to feel the urgency of catching up to this new type of warfare."
Mr Wiswesser has recently published a book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin's Secret War.
Drawing on years of CIA field experience, he sets out to expose the tactics, tradecraft, and mindset of the Russian intelligence services, he told me he worries Russia may calculate that with the US tied up in Iran, it's a good time to hit Nato territory without serious consequences.
"What if Russia decides to act in a limited fashion, take a small piece of land in the Baltics? Might China also decide 'Well, now is our moment with US interceptor stocks as low as ever?'"
And if Russia and China were to engineer a so-called poly-crisis with the US responding to Chinese action in the Taiwan Strait, would Nato and the UK-led Battlegroup in Estonia be left to respond to an assault on the Baltic?
And there's also the question over whether Moscow would even favour conventional attack?
In the last two years alone, Russia has been implicated in drone incursions across Europe, exploding parcels on planes and here in the UK, and an arson attack on the former Prime Minister's home.
Critics like Mr Wiswesser argue that Nato's weak response invites escalation.
"These are acts of war, and what has been our response? It has largely been talk. It hasn't been a credible deterrent. A credible deterrent has teeth.
"We have to hit back. We have to be willing to risk war in order to prevent it. That's not being a hawk. That's facing the reality."
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