Aleksandr Talanov is an agent of the KGB.
He is also an agent with the CIA.
He was the former for quite a few years before deciding to be the latter.
As an excellent synopsis provided by his chronicler explains"
"Since his youth, Talanov was destined to be part of the [KGB] - or the internal security and foreign intelligence agency of the old Soviet Union. His father, Mikhail Ivanevich Talanov, was reportedly killed when he was an infant, with his addict mother, Nina, dying from a narcotics overdose when he was four. Alex was subsequently handed over to his elderly maternal grandparents, who lived in a ninth floor Moscow flat. The grandparents, however, couldn't cope, so he was turned over to State minders, who immediately noticed his athletic and educational abilities and placed him in the Komsomol - the Communist Youth Organization - where he would be taught the fighting and philosophical skills needed to advance him to the KGB. It was here that he was taught Combat Sambo, where he rose to the rank of Black Belt, his instructor preferring the traditional belt system of rating over the cumbersome "razryad" system most sambists employed. It was also here that he learned how love was a weakness and vulnerability that an enemy could exploit. It was here, at age sixteen, that he became known as Ledyano chelovek - the "ice man" - cold, calculating, charming and capable, yet possessing an unusual idealism about fairness, which his minders fed with Communist propaganda about the evils and decadence of the West.
"Feeding on their words like a carnivore feeds on flesh, Talanov was rewarded with entrance into the Surveillance College in Leningrad, where his achievements resulted in an appointment to the analysis section of Directorate 7 (responsible for the monitoring of Soviet nationals and foreigners). His contributions in the area of surveillance and security soon led to a promotion to Directorate 9 (the KGB Protection Service, which included the 40,000-man uniformed bodyguard for Party leaders and families, as well as the protection of government installations, especially those containing nuclear weapons). In Directorate 9, he was mentored by the great Dimitri Lazovic, who chose him to coordinate the physical protection of Party leadership. It was here that Talanov came to the attention of Yuri Andropov, whose appreciation for saving his life resulted in his being selected for the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. After graduating, he was promoted to the rank of colonel - the youngest in KGB history - and assigned to The First Chief Directorate, which was responsible for foreign espionage and KGB operations abroad. Segmented into eleven geographical regions, the First Chief Directorate saw to the placement of intelligence officers in legal positions in embassies and elsewhere abroad. Talanov oversaw those assignments as well as provided analytical support to various sub-directorates and services, as well as personal assistance to Andropov on a number of secret assignments."
It looked like Talanov was set for life in his career path. But that would change. As he tells his wife at the time, "Communism on paper is what attracted my idealistic hopes: equality for all, freedom from oppression...that sort of thing. But over time, I became aware of all the things I had not been taught: that communism outside the classroom was really state capitalism... the government's elite taking from others what they wanted for themselves. It's why communism can never work, and why I began helping the CIA bring it down...not that anyone in Washington cared."
That is the Talanov we are able to follow. He was a very good agent. He became an even better double agent. He explains elsewhere why he is so good at his work with "You want to catch a rat, you need to think like a rat and go where he goes but get there ahead of him. The old cats upstairs don't know how to do that. They've been in the house too long. They give their advice and meow when they're told and when everything falls to shit they blame it on somebody else. That's why I do things my way. I'm an alley cat. No one likes alley cats but alley cats know how to get the job done when it comes to rats."