Quote from Timothy Fitzpatrick on November 15, 2025, 21:34

Ayatollah Putin

Former KGB agent Konstantin Preobrazhensky is one of the toughest critics of this organization. Preobrazhensky wrote seven books about the KGB and Japan. His new book is called "The New KGB/FSB Trojan Horse: Americans of Russian Origin&raquo

Former KGB agent Konstantin Preobrazhensky is one of the toughest critics of this organization. Preobrazhensky wrote seven books about the KGB and Japan. His new book is called "KGB/FSB's New Trojan Horse: Americans of Russian Descent".]

- Konstantin Preobrazhensky, thank you for agreeing to give an interview to Frontpage Magazine. Tell us about the probability that Russia will help America with Iran. Should the Obama administration hope for such help?

- Americans can't get rid of the illusion that Russians think the same way they do. For Americans, it goes without saying that Iran is a dangerous country that can harm them with its nuclear weapons. But it's not like that for Russians. They are happy with the current situation. Weakening America is the strategic goal of the modern Russian regime.

This becomes clear if you listen to General Leonid Shebarshin, who semi-officially comments on Russia's point of view on Iran. He used to head the KGB intelligence. Before that, from 1979 to 1983, he headed the KGB mission in Tehran. In 2006, he gave a public lecture at Moscow State University, based on five theses:

[1] Iran wants to get a nuclear bomb so as not to return to its semi-colonial status and dependence on the United States.

[2] The United States specifically publishes erroneous translations of Iranian President Ahmadinejad's speeches about Israel. Americans exaggerate his anti-Israeli rhetoric, which is actually softer.

[3] The United States hates Iran for supporting Hezbollah, which it considers a terrorist organization, but in fact it is a political organization.

[4] If Iran gets closer to America, it will lose interest in cooperation with Russia. American firms will displace Russian companies from the Iranian nuclear industry.

[5] But, fortunately, Americans are not that strong.

Although these five theses were proclaimed three years ago, they still describe the position of the modern Russian leadership, which is not surprising, given that today Russia is ruled by the KGB.

- But isn't Russia afraid that Iran uses missiles to attack it?

- No, she's not afraid.

Similarly, she is not afraid of North Korean missiles.

Iranian missiles are aimed at America and its allies - and Putin knows it very well. I remember how in the 1990s the Russian media expressed concern about Iranian missiles. But in those days, Russia was friends with America. Today's Russia has no reason to worry.

- Well, when it comes to Islamic fanatics with nuclear weapons, there is always a reason to worry.

- Yes, of course, there are no guarantees that Iran will never harm Russia. But the Kremlin has always armed its potential enemies: Nazi Germany in the 1930s and China in the 1950s. Now Russia is arming China again, and it is arming Iran, although Iran has never been a friend of Russia. The Soviet historical model is repeated. That's why it's especially difficult to counteract it now.

The Kremlin has always tried to deceive and manipulate America in connection with the Iranian issue. In 1943, before the Tehran Conference, Moscow successfully launched a worldwide disinformation campaign, which hinted that Hitler wanted to kill President Franklin Roosevelt in Iran. The Soviets convinced Roosevelt to stop at the Soviet embassy in Tehran. This gave Soviet intelligence the opportunity to hear every word of private negotiations between members of an unsuspecting American delegation. Stalin's efforts to manipulate Roosevelt led to the fact that America simply did not understand the criminal nature of the Stalinist regime.

Of course, there are recent examples. For example, in 2007, when Putin tried to mislead Robert Gates (U.S. Secretary of Defense - editor's note). Gates recently recalled a meeting with Putin, who was the president of Russia at that time:

"When I first met President Putin and talked to him about it, he practically rejected the idea that by 2020 the Iranians would have missiles capable of reaching most of Western Europe and Russia. He showed me the map prepared by his scouts. I told him that he needed a new intelligence service."

Gates did not even suspect that Putin was deceiving him, that Russian specialists misinformed him in order to deceive. And that Putin hardly needs a new intelligence service, since the current one copes perfectly with its tasks.

But Gates said that the Russians have recently changed their assessment of the Iranian threat. "The Russians came back to us and admitted that we were right in assessing the proximity of the Iranian missile threat, and they were wrong," he said.

But I'm afraid that this is just a new stage of the game that Russia is playing with America. They may soon declare that they have changed their minds again. Do you remember that sad story with the American base in Kyrgyzstan?

Let me ask you: is it really possible to imagine that Putin did not know something about the Iranian nuclear program in which Russia itself participated? Imagine that the GRU military intelligence did not know the truth? Or that the "T" department, which employs 1000 people in charge of scientific and technological intelligence of the SVR, could not correctly assess the Iranian missile program?

No. Russian intelligence was well aware of everything that was happening in Iran. Suffice it to say that in 1985, the head of Iranian intelligence Hossein Fardoust was accused by the Iranian Revolutionary Tribunal of being a Russian spy. Fardust was a childhood friend of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, under whom the KGB recruited many agents in the country.

Spying on neighboring Iran is a long-standing Russian tradition. In addition, Russia has a rich experience in infiltrating the Islamic world. Russian intelligence has assets in all Islamic countries, and it can send agents to Iran. There are many specialists in Farsi and other oriental languages at the SVR headquarters. There are so many of them that the SVR had to open its own branch of the Alumni Association of the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Moscow State University. I studied there.

- And what do you know about Russian-Iranian cooperation today?

- Today, it seems that the intelligence services of Russia and Iran are working as partners. According to the Russian website Agentura.ru, the former head of Iranian intelligence Ali Younesi "paid special attention to the development of cooperation with the CIS special services, especially Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. In September 2000, he held talks with the then head of the Security Council Sergei Ivanov on cooperation in Afghanistan and the fight against radical Sunni organizations, and in September 2001 he held talks with the Azerbaijani Minister of Security Abbasov.

Of course, it's just the tip of the iceberg. The main information is kept secret. But what does the published information tell me, a professional intelligence analysis specialist? She tells me that the intelligence services of Russia and Iran cooperate. Not only about Afghanistan, but also about America. And also about Armenia, Azerbaijan and the internal situation in Russia.

The late Alexander Litvinenko told me that all the anti-American rhetoric of President Ahmadinejad was suggested to him by Putin.

- Summarize for us some details of the Russian-Iranian rapprochement.

- Russia's rapprochement with Iran is not accidental. It is dictated by the internal situation in Russia: the reduction of all conceivable freedoms and the return of a totalitarian state. Every day Russia resembles an eastern despotic state more and more. Therefore, every day it is getting closer to Iran and moving further away from America.

Many people today openly call the Russian national leader "Ayatollah Putin". In 2007, Putin met with the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran. The correspondent of the Russian newspaper "Kommersant" wittily noted that the role of Khamenei suits Putin very well. He noticed that Putin went there to gain experience from Khamenei and see what this role is.

At the end of the meeting, Khamenei expressed hope that Putin would continue to come to Iran. "We will come, with God's help," Putin said unexpectedly. As the correspondent of "Kommersant" noted, he did not understand that this can be translated as "if it is the will of Allah".

Russia's rapprochement with Iran is also based on Putin's anti-American philosophy. Why do you think the Kremlin elites appointed an unknown KGB lieutenant colonel to rule Russia? Because in the 1990s, American democracy came to Russia. Ordinary people have become too brave. They began to ask the authorities difficult questions, and even members of President Yeltsin's family were threatened with investigation and possible prosecution. Yes, it's normal in America, but in Russia? No, we couldn't and can't allow it.

I was in Moscow at that time, and my journalist friends told me that the Kremlin elites were especially frightened by the case of Monica Levinsky. If the President of the United States was summoned for interrogation on such an insignificant (in their eyes) reason, then what was waiting for them? They were used (as they are now) to unlimited sexual freedom. There have always been a lot of "Monic Levinsky" in Russia, but they all keep their mouths shut. If at least one of them opens its mouth, it can become a source of many troubles. An infinite number of Monic Lewinsky may appear. This threatens the Russian ruling elites, and has become an important factor distancing Russia from America.

Is the case of Monica Lewinsky possible in Iran? Oh, no, not at all. And this lack of freedom within Islamic despotism attracts Russian elites. Ideas coming from Iran do not threaten the Russian oligarchy. Iran will not put dangerous ideas in the heads of the Russian people and in the heads of Monica Lewinsky, will not tell them that they have individual rights, and that they deserve freedom of thought, equality, the right to vote, respect and other things.

And that's why Russia has very close relations with Iran. So close that in 2003, on the eve of the war in Iraq, Russia planned to move its embassy in Baghdad to Tehran. They considered this city very safe for Russian secrets. And two armed units of the SVR even secretly arrived in Baghdad a few hours before American troops entered there to carry out this mission.

Putin's task was to destroy the first sprouts of Russian democracy, to burn the very spirit of American democracy from Russian political life. And now the United States wants him to help America with Iran? Didn't it even occur to the Americans that he might prefer help to Iran? And maybe that's why Russia is doing it now. They even formulated an ideological justification for this!

- Could you tell us a little about this ideological justification?

- Russia has developed a special ideology for its alliance with Iran. It's called "theory of Eurasia". This teaching is primitive and unconvincing. It claims that Russia, being the main country of Eurasia, is doomed to confront America, based on the geographical situation. Eurasia is a "land power", and America is an "Atlantic".

This so-called theory was authorized by the quasi-philosopher Alexander Dugin, the leader of a political party based on this theory called the "Eurasian Movement".

Of course, in fact, this is not a theory, but rather a "symbol of faith" for Russian expansionism and anti-Americanism. In addition, it is a symbol of patriotism of the Russian ruling elites. If you share Dugin's views, you are a real Russian patriot, and you can get a higher post. Your career in the Russian government will be successful, as it was in Soviet times with loyal communists.

Yes, Dugin borrowed the postulates of communist ideology: hatred of democracy, human rights and America. And he also declared Iran the most natural ally of Russia in its fight against America.

In his recent article, "The West is afraid of friendship between Russia and Iran", Alexander Dugin wrote the following: "The United States and its Western allies fear that the creation of strong strategic ties between Moscow and Tehran will not allow them to isolate Iran on the basis of its nuclear ambitions. America is in a hurry to strengthen in Georgia to prevent an alliance between Russia and Iran, so Russia and Iran must hurry to unite."

Think about it: Alexander Dugin is a frequent guest on Kremlin-controlled Russian television. However, he can't even speak Russian properly. He was allowed to lecture at the General Staff Academy. All students of this academy have the rank of general. How reliable do you think they will be as America's allies in a future war?

Why do you think Dugin gets all these extraordinary privileges? The answer is simple: Russian intelligence supports the "Eurasian Movement". Its real organizer is SVR officer Colonel Peter Suslov. In the 1990s, Dugin's lectures were attended by a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer Sergei Ivanov, who later became the Minister of Defense of Russia, and is now the First Deputy Prime Minister. By the way, he is my former classmate at the KGB school in Minsk, where we studied in the late 1970s. Besides, he is a very close friend of Putin.

They say that Sergei Ivanov actively promotes rapprochement with Iran in the military sphere in defiance of the United States.

But where we see Ivanov, we also see Putin. In fact, Sergei Ivanov is just a shadow of Putin. If he attended Dugin's seminars, it means that Putin also admires the "Eurasian Movement". After Putin came to power, the "Eurasian Movement" received the support of the Kremlin. The SVR and the GRU assisted Alexander Dugin in a long-term joint project to create a Eurasian bloc, in which the anti-American partnership between Russia and Iran plays a key role.

- What can America do about it?

- America may try to revive Russian democracy again.

Source: https://vlasti.net/news/58769