Day: August 16, 2025

Welcome to SpyWeek, our weekly intel news roundup, where we look at news from the intersection of intelligence, foreign policy, and military operations.

Baked Alaska:  Who knows what US intelligence is telling Donald Trump about his aborted summit with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, but Kremlin officials are crowing about it as a big win.  The general consensus globally was the same: “Putin Got Three Major Wins From Trump in Anchorage,” headlined TIME,“ But the Talks Aren’t Over.” Indeed, the New York Times’ Steven Erlanger reported that Trump told European leaders after his meeting with Putin that “he supported a plan to end the war in Ukraine by ceding unconquered territory to the Russian invaders, rather than try for a cease-fire…”— a move Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected. Trump, nevertheless, was ecstatic. “I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along great,” he told Fox’s Sean Hannity.

KGB Mind Games: Putin presented Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff with an award to pass along to a senior CIA official whose son was killed in Ukraine while fighting alongside Russian forces, CBS News reported. The Order of Lenin was meant forJuliane Gallina, whose 21-year-old son, Michael Gloss, was killed in 2024. Gallina is currently serving at the CIA as deputy director for digital innovation.

Read more