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CHAPTER 25

Through the Looking Glass

There’s definitely a deep state. Trust me, I’ve been there.
—EDWARD SNOWDEN, MOSCOW, 2014

WHILE WAITING to hear back from Kucherena’s office, I arranged to meet with Victor Cherkashin, who had been one of the most successful KGB spy handlers in the Cold War. Cherkashin, born in 1932, had served in the KGB’s espionage branch from 1952 until 1991 and now operated a private security firm in Moscow. I was particularly interested in his recruitment of three top American intelligence officers: Aldrich Ames of the CIA, Robert Hanssen of the FBI, and Ronald Pelton of the NSA. I hoped that seeing these intelligence coups through the eyes, and mind-set, of their KGB handler might provide some historical context for the Snowden defection. So I invited Cherkashin to lunch at Gusto, a quiet Italian restaurant, located near the Chekhov Theater in Moscow.

Cherkashin, a tall thin man with silver hair, showed up promptly at 1:00 p.m., wearing an elegant gray suit and dark tie. He walked with a spry step. Because he had served in counterintelligence in the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., for nearly a decade, he spoke flawless English.

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