Putin praises Soviet-era spying

FP’s newest contributor, Vladimir Putin, has made stregnthening Russia’s defenses a centerpiece of his reelection campaign. To that effect, during a recent interview, he praised Soviet-era spying in the United States:  "You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

FP's newest contributor, Vladimir Putin, has made stregnthening Russia's defenses a centerpiece of his reelection campaign. To that effect, during a recent interview, he praised Soviet-era spying in the United States: 

FP’s newest contributor, Vladimir Putin, has made stregnthening Russia’s defenses a centerpiece of his reelection campaign. To that effect, during a recent interview, he praised Soviet-era spying in the United States: 

"You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels," Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass.

"The were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases!"

Ah, the good old days. But who needs suitcases when you have dispersed networks of proxy computers. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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