For some time, hope for genuine cooperation between the West and Russia had pervaded the climate of international politics. That all the former communist nations in Eastern Europe had been accepted into NATO, made this hope seem reasonable. In the meantime, however, a covert and desperate rivalry between the CIA and FSB (successor to the KGB) that was never reported in the press had reached new intensity. If an outside observer had been able to look in on a certain clandestine psychic commando base secluded in the deep woods an hour north of Moscow, he would have found its activities and goals to be in complete contradiction to the peace initiatives being outwardly promoted by Russia ‘s new “democratic” leaders.