A former senior CIA operations officer says NATO’s response to Russian sabotage has been “empty deterrence” — and that the alliance is not ready if Moscow decides to test Article 5 in the Baltics.
Sean Wiswesser spent 30 years in U.S. national security and intelligence, much of it working against Russia, and is the author of “Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War” (Naval Institute Press, 2026). In an interview with Independence Avenue Media’s Kiryl Sukhotski, he argues that the Leipzig drone attack, the Rheinmetall assassination plot and the Baltic cable cuts are acts of war that have gone unanswered, that “Putin won’t dare” is not a strategy, and that the West should respond the way President John F. Kennedy did in 1962 — with consequences Moscow can’t absorb.
Wiswesser lays out what those consequences could look like, from Taurus and ERAM missiles for Ukraine to seizing 50 billion in frozen Russian assets for every new attack. He also explains why he thinks a cease-fire in Ukraine would raise, not lower, the risk to the Baltics; why the Suwałki Gap remains the alliance’s weakest point; and why Putin’s eventual successor will come from the same security services that run Russia now.
Recorded Sept. 24, 2026. Edited for length and clarity. Wiswesser’s views are his own and do not represent the CIA or the U.S. government.
