During his decade as a KGB spy, Jack Barsky, who defected to the U.S. in 1997, didn’t use gadgets or weapons. Instead, he focused on building relationships. “I was trained to be sort of the intellectual spy,” he told The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper in a segment that aired on Wednesday. “The guy who befriends other people, finds out about who they are—and can they be potentially recruited?”
Klepper sat down with Barsky to pick his brain on Trump’s relationship to Putin, who is himself an ex-KGB agent. Barsky explained that spies don’t seem like spies—they seem like friends. In fact, spying has a lot in common with dating: “You strike up a conversation,” he said. “I will cultivate you over time. We’ll become friends. We’ll play golf, we’ll play tennis, and eventually, you’ll let your guard down.”
That technique seems to be working when it comes to the president. “I think [Trump]’s playing into [Putin’s] hands in some way,” said Barsky. “The end game is to create destabilization as much as you can amongst the Western camp to make Russia relevant again.” That phrase caught Klepper’s ear.
“Make Russia relevant again? You can put it on a hat,” he said. “Wouldn’t even have to change the color.”
