No Russian Agents in Ukraine

In the 11th of March issue of the Wall Street Journal, Philip Shishkin [How Russian Spy Games Are Sabotaging Ukraine’s Intelligence Agency]  writes an intriguing story about the Russian's ability to infiltrate the internal National Security Services of the Ukraine.  The Russians, of course, deny any such thing, just as they deny having troops or sending weapons into the country: 

"The Kremlin, for its part, has disavowed any role in the war. 'We do not interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last year. ' There are no Russian agents there.' ”  He also said there were no Russian troops in Ukraine, but we know the truth of that one.  

The story begins with a trio of Ukraine's finest being sent on a mission to the east to capture a Nationalist and bring him in.  Instead, they are captured, compromised by somebody inside their own organization.  They are paraded around in their underwear in front of the Russian news media.  The rest of the story is well worth reading.  

This kind of work is always dangerous, but it is not as dangerous in most places as it is in Ukraine, where the services were allowed to keep their Russian officers, who were as friendly with Russia as the U.S. is with the U.K.  A series of attempted purges of those officers were not very successful and when Viktor Yanukovych took over as President, the Russians had someone in power who would cooperate.  Now that he is gone, it is time for another purge, this time a long-lasting one.