Every few months, a rumor or prediction suggests Vladimir Putin is finally cornered — a purge, a battlefield setback, a grim Victory Day parade. Former senior CIA officer Sean Wiswesser, author of Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks, says the West keeps mistaking Russia's elite infighting for weakness. Drawing on his recent Foreign Policy and Cipher Brief essays, he joins Matt to map the authoritarian machine Putin built to survive exactly these moments — the layered security state, the loyalty he fosters rather than assumes, and why the 2023 Wagner mutiny revealed his regime's strength rather than its cracks. Then the question the survival playbook never answers: what happens the morning Putin is gone, and why the West is watching the wrong people.
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Order Sean’s book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War: https://www.amazon.com/Tradecraft-Tactics-Dirty-Tricks Intelligence/dp/1682476014/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0
Follow Sean on X/Twitter: https://x.com/Wiswesser
Connect with Sean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-wiswesser
Read Sean’s writing on Putin’s regime
"Don’t Fall for Rumors of Putin’s Weakness" in Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/12/russia-putin-opposition-war-ukraine-fsb-security-services-dissidents-dissent-dictator-authoritarianism/
"After the War and After Putin: Three Potential Succession Scenarios for Russia’s Modern Tsar" in The Cipher Brief: https://www.thecipherbrief.com/after-the-war-after-putin
"Confronting Putin's continual escalation — between deterrence now or greater conflict later" in Tomorrow's Affairs: https://tomorrowsaffairs.com/confronting-putins-continual-escalation-between-deterrence-now-or-greater-conflict-laterTake our audience survey: https://forms.gle/eFx59XntNtiKzNQa8
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Music by Andrew R. Bird
Photo by Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Reuters, Alexander Nemenov/AFP, Sean Wiswesser
Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.
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