It has been revealed that a team of Five Eyes officials delivered a dramatic and unprecedented warning to a Kremlin official about the consequences Moscow would face for invading Ukraine, days before the start of its all-out invasion.
An account of the February 2022 meeting was first revealed to Richard Kerbaj The Defector: The Untold Story of the KGB Agent Who Exposed the CIA and Saved MI5, recently published in Canada.
The meeting involved five people – each representing a member of the Five Eyes – who joined together to deliver a face-to-face message to the Kremlin ambassador who is known to be the official representative of the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.
Five representatives of the intelligence-sharing alliance met at his place, at the Russian mission in New York City. About a week later, on February 24, Russia went ahead and launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine.
“I compared it … to displaying baseball bats in chess,” said Kerbaj, spy historian and investigative reporter, who cited two accounts from senior FBI officials in his report.
Mike Driscoll, former assistant director of the FBI office in New York, attended the meeting of the Americans.
In an interview with CBC News, Driscoll said the meeting provided an opportunity to convey two things at once: the official message read at the meeting, and a demonstration of “the strength of the relationship” between the five Eyes members, which include the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Kerbaj in the interview said that the sending of spies to deliver a message like this was not an accident.
“This was done deliberately to bypass the diplomatic process,” he said, noting that this followed earlier warnings from Western leaders. over Russia’s intentions in Ukraine.
However, Driscoll said “governments find many ways to communicate with each other, through public statements and working groups.”
That could include messages being passed from intelligence to intelligence, he said.
Five Eyes is visible first
Alan Kohler, a former FBI intelligence officer, helped organize the meeting but did not attend. He told CBC News that from Five Eyes’ perspective, there is “some benefit” to letting the other side know that coalition members are working together.
Kohler and Driscoll both said they knew of no other instance in which the Five Eyes had engaged with an enemy like this one – against the head of intelligence, in his communications role, with such a group.
“As far as I know, it was the first time it was done that way,” said Kohler.
Driscoll said he was not aware of the same old episode. “I think this incident was unique,” he said.
Kerbaj said that it was the first time that the members of Five Eyes took this step in this way talking about the type of signatures that would be required for the meeting.
“That operation would have been authorized from the top,” said Kerbaj, who is also the author of a previous book on the history of the intelligence community.
His book reports that US-based members of the Five Eyes agencies – including a representative of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) – attended the meeting along with then-FBI Driscoll.
When contacted by CBC News, the organizations involved declined to comment, or confirm their participation, in the meeting. The Russian diplomatic mission did not respond to a request for comment.
Phil Gurski, a former senior strategic analyst at CSIS, said the Five Eyes operation described in the book speaks to the apparent power of the intelligence community and the need for aid organizations to “send a message to the Russians.”
He said the Five Eyes may “take the ball back” in relation to Russia, compared to where things were before.
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“No one has done more to promote Five Eyes cooperation than Vladimir Putin,” Kohler said.
According to Kerbaj’s account of the meeting in A rebela message presented in New York made it clear that “the Five Eyes intelligence operation will be conducted against Russia” if it continues its attack plans. What happened next has not yet been revealed, he said.
Although CSIS did not comment on Kerbaj’s reporting, the intelligence agency provided a brief description of what a Five Eyes intelligence operation would typically involve: “an activity or issue in which each country … contributes jointly to a problem or intelligence question.”
In the shadows
Kerbaj said the Five Eyes network has continued to publicly demonstrate its cooperation with threats from adversaries and abroad.
He pointed to a conference held in California in 2023, where the Five Eyes gathered to discuss the use of adversaries. technology and threats to innovation and research. The event was hailed as the first public appearance of intelligence leaders.
Earlier that year, Five Eyes issued a warning related to a state-sponsored cyber threat linked to China.
In 2024, the RCMP and CSIS joined Five Eyes partners in highlighting concerns about youth empowerment, citing “the increasing prominence of young people and children in counter-terrorism cases. “
Earlier this month, Five Eyes members warned about the threat posed by Chinese military intelligence on social media.
CSIS highlighted some of these joint efforts, telling CBC News that the “Five Eyes” unity and common purpose is essential” and that Canada maintains strong ties with all member organizations in the intelligence network.
Driscoll, a former assistant director of the FBI, said it was his experience that the Five Eyes collaboration was “always there,” whether the public saw it or not.
