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Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Sergey Rogov died earlier this week. Because he was far better known in Russia as a keen strategist and student of the United States and Europe, only a handful of Americans -- senior officials engaged in national security in and out of government -- will know of him and his passing. For 50 years, Rogov was an integral part of the USSR's and Russia's leading think tank, known as the Institute for the Study of the U.S. and Canada, or ISKRAN.
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Rogov was what many Americans probably would imagine as a typical Russian intellectual and academic. A large, unkempt man indifferent to stylish dress and with a pronounced Santa Claus-like mustache, Rogov would amble into a room, usually smoking a nasty Russian cigarette. But appearances are deceiving.
Possessing a keen, indeed brilliant intellect, Rogov had an encyclopedic arsenal of knowledge that he never held back in discussion and debate. We first met in 1971 as doctoral students attending a conference in Cambridge, Mass. That began a friendship that lasted until Monday.
Smoking may have been his downfall. Often, when he came to dinner at my home, my wife would not tolerate his smoking. So, on too many inclement evenings, I would find myself shivering in the rain or cold on our patio deck, discussing great matters of state while Rogov enjoyed his cigarette.
Above all, Rogov had great integrity. How he managed to rise so quickly among the Soviet elite and then in the Russian Federation, while still keeping his objectivity, was remarkable. That did not mean he thought or acted like an American. But he forcefully made his case when he believed the United States was wrong by using logic and fact and not propaganda that was too common in the superpower dialogue.
Over the past few years, Rogov put in place the NATO-Russian dialogue that brought together specialists in the fields of national security from all points of the compass to discuss and debate how to improve this relationship. After Russia's second invasion of Ukraine in 2022, managing relations with the West became more vexing. Yet, to a surprising degree, Rogov tried to depoliticize the agenda when East-West relations were deteriorating.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rogov was on a plane to America to see what ISKRAN could do to support the United States. I remember we were both scheduled to see Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, but at different times, to discuss Afghanistan. I suggested to Rumsfeld's executive assistant that we might save time by combining the meetings. He agreed.
Rumsfeld, who was quick with a flip phrase, said we were attempting to double-team him. Rogov replied that he hoped so. And then he went on to describe to Rumsfeld what a mess the Soviet Union had made in its nearly decade-long intervention into Afghanistan. Rumsfeld was grateful for the warnings and gave the impression that the U.S.-led coalition was not going to repeat those errors. He was dead wrong.
The last time I saw Rogov in Moscow was just before the COVID-19 pandemic, when he arranged a meeting for me with Sergey Shoigu, then Russian defense chief. Rogov drove me to a building where we were to meet and said he would collect me later. But I was confused.
Instead of facing a building rife with soldiers, guard and defenses, as the Pentagon would become, I looked down a long alleyway, perhaps 100 yards to a guard post manned by a single figure. As I approached, I saw the sentry was armed only with a knife. The building was virtually empty as the minister's aide escorted me to his office.
Afterward, I asked Rogov how he was able to set me up with this obviously contrived display of indifferent security. He protested that this was the way things were. And until I was able to walk up unescorted to the Foreign Affairs headquarters, did I believe him.
Rogov was a great friend, colleague and comrade. He will be sorely missed. And I do not know who will replace him as trying to span the divides that separate his country and mine.
Harlan Ullman is UPI's Arnaud deBorchgrave Distinguished Columnist, senior adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with General The Lord David Richards, former U.K. chief of defense and due out late next year, is Insanity: The Absence of Strategic Thinking in a Dangerously Combustible World. The writer can be reached on Twitter @harlankullman.
