Former KGB General Claims Moscow Has Compromising Information On Trump But May Not Have Used It – OpEd

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Because Donald Trump was an important US businessman, the KGB and FSB collected information on him in order to assess his personality and his attitudes toward Russia, and because Trump behaved quite freely with women when he visited Moscow, some of it undoubtedly could be compromising, former KGB General Oleg Kalugin says.

But whether Moscow ever used it to try to recruit Trump or blackmail him is something Kalugin tells Russian-American historian Yury Felshtinsky he simply doesn’t know having defected long ago and not having access to the files (gordonua.com/publications/kalugin-na-trampa-kgb-imel-materialy-tochno-na-kakom-to-etape-mogli-vspomnit-ob-etom-kgb-vsegda-otlichalsya-horoshey-pamyatyu-1231157.html).

That Moscow has compromising information on Trump, the former KGB general says specifically, “I know for certain. But where it has been used is unknown to me.” One point Kalugin hints at but is not explicit about is that what may be effective kompromat in one case won’t be in another, if the target doesn’t view it as such.

Because he felt Kalugin was not being fully forthcoming on this point, Felshtinsky turned to former Vladimir Popov, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who has written a book with Felshtinsky about the Soviet organs.

Any unusual or important American who visited the USSR or Russia would have come within Trump “the field of view of the Soviet-Russian special services,” Popov says; and if he behaved in any way unusually, these organs would have collected information on him. That is how a file on would have arisen – but there are hundreds if not thousands of such files.

Such attention to Americans occurred regardless of whether the KGB or FSB thought they might recruit one of them, Popov says. “For the special services, it is important to clarify the psychological portrait of the individual, his political orientation, his attitude toward the country to which he has come with some goal.”

In Trump’s case, Popov says, there is “a high probability that Trump in the USSR or in Russia was recruited since at the time of his visits there he conducted himself remarkably freely. But a final answer as to whether that occurred requires access to his dossier something neither Kalugin nor Popov has.

Popov adds, however, that Trump’s efforts to meet with Vladimir Putin one-on-one “possibly” can be explained “by Trump’s desire to tell him that his anti-Russian position is for him a condition of survival in the post of US president.”

Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] .

4 thoughts on “Former KGB General Claims Moscow Has Compromising Information On Trump But May Not Have Used It – OpEd

  • September 8, 2019 at 4:40 pm
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    Paul, you’re late with this globe smashing information! In fact not only late but a deep state artifact. Better luck next election.

    Reply
  • September 8, 2019 at 6:33 pm
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    They have one on you as well. Worse, (and this is the point you so snidely left out) this information is subject to change and can include falsehoods at the holders whom at any moment. At least you admitted “they don’t have access”. I’ve got news for you. You are now officially a tool of those very services who provided you with “unverified sources”. They WANT to continue the discord they have so effectively wrought for generations. Welcome to the club bub.

    Reply
  • September 11, 2019 at 10:38 am
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    For such a qualified man, Mr. Goble, you should know that Puting was a KGB officer, not an agent. A KGB agent is what your intelligence people refer to as a “Joe.” As for Kalugin, he is a living example of defector value – current to the date they leave – and then damage assessments are completed. Yes, defectors are well worthwhile but you should know, as well as me, that when the information is dated and thin, then inventive minds come into play and pay

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  • September 11, 2019 at 10:39 am
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    For such a qualified man, Mr. Goble, you should know that Putin was a KGB officer, not an agent. A KGB agent is what your intelligence people refer to as a “Joe.” As for Kalugin, he is a living example of defector value – current to the date they leave – and then damage assessments are completed. Yes, defectors are well worthwhile but you should know, as well as me, that when the information is dated and thin, then inventive minds come into play and pay.

    Edited version

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