2999 1 Cold war: A defector like Mitrokhin had to please his hosts to stay useful for his settlement in a foreign country. iStock Vappala Balachandran Ex-Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat On March 7, a leading Indian columnist quoted KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin’s ‘Archives’ (1999-2005) to say that India is the most ‘penetrated’ country since the days of Indira Gandhi. He was making this reference while ridiculing the NDA government’s paranoia over the alleged anti-India ‘conspiracy’ by three young women and Indian farmers. Yet, he said, our government is unable to detect clear signs on what constitutes the real national danger, such as China’s hacking of our power plants. While agreeing with his conclusion, I am doubtful whether we should consider Mitrokhin’s version as true since his chief Leonid Shebarshin, who was handling India-Pakistan during 1964-77, had denied it. In December 2001, he told Vlast, a Russian weekly, that while Indira Gandhi valued the Soviet Union’s friendship, she was “not a friend” as she took her own decisions.