service. we had similar rips when i was in government, and they re not necessarily relationships of close cooperation, but you want to at least look for areas where you can cooperate, share interests, and you want to maintain an open contact with them for just this purpose, to deliver a a message. when i was in moscow as a visiting scholar, i made the same point with members of the kremlin staff, and as john brennan experienced, they denied any involvement and blew it off. so i suspect that is the kind of reaction you re going to get, but what he did was within the realm of what you would want a cia direct tore do. he certainly hung tough when