Perhaps the highest-profile visit came in June 2013, when Sergun invited Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, for a three-day visit to Moscow. ....On 1 Februar 2016 Defense One published an article[18] written by the U.S. defense attaché to Russia in 2012-14, a retired Army brigadier general Peter Zwack, who noted:
"I learned that even as Sergun relentlessly directed global intelligence operations against our interests, he—paradoxically—also viewed constant confrontation with the U.S. and West as not in Russia's best long-term interest." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sergun -- "died unexpectedly on 3 January 2016, aged 59"
Mr. Zwack summarized the article with:
"Nations, especially ones that are traditional confrontational competitors that can existentially threaten each other, must constantly and intensively communicate via different channels and echelons, including sensitive military and intelligence conduits. This is hardly weakness or supplication; rather it displays strength, confidence and prudence, and it shows we are comfortable in our own skin. Certainly we collectively can learn that much from the complex Colonel General Sergun".[19] .
