“In a place like Moscow, you're under constant scrutiny and surveillance. They bug your houses. They have video in your house. They follow you everywhere. That's not hyperbole. I was there for two years. There wasn't a moment when I wasn't being watched, except for when I was in the safety of our office inside the embassy.”
Mission Implausible · November 2026
Context
The guest asked whether there's one quality every CIA officer needs. John contrasts postings like Africa with Moscow, where officers and their families get extra psychological screening before they go.
Transcript
Yeah, that's true.
…is like film. Ambiguity is because in your new field here, You never really know what tomorrow will bring. You're suited for this. Is there a quality for an officer that you think is vital? Is there something that you both have and others like you have? If you don't have it, you'll never make it.
It is a combination of things because you can be really good at some stuff, but if you can't write or if you can't see surveillance or if you can't... But the simplest things are curiosity, comfort with ambiguity and comfort with foreign cultures and making personal relationships with people across a wide spectrum of things. And there's more to that as well, but intellectual curiosity, interest in cultures.
The one codicil I would add is that even within the operational cadre, people like John and I, there are almost different sort of sets of specialties. So we've got like sub-tribes where people who go off into Africa, they do things that operationally in Africa that people behind the block in Russia…
So in a place like Moscow, you're under constant scrutiny and surveillance. So we know to this day They bug your houses. They have video in your house. They follow you everywhere. That's not hyperbole at all times. I was there for two years. There wasn't a moment when I wasn't being watched or…
They'll poison your pet and shit on your kitchen table, really. But they won't kill you.
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