I hesitate to add to the already rampant coverage of the Russian spies that were swapped today in Vienna, but as someone who cares about our bilateral relationship, I feel a need to weigh in on the topic.
True this is the largest swap of spies in decades and therefore deserves to be observed and reported; however, the media coverage has been fascinating, to say the least. It has ranged from the amusing, such as the Daily’s show coverage (worth watching by the way), to more serious coverage, including a map of the timing of the swap on NPR, and much more. And without a doubt there will be continued analysis of who did what, why the arrests were timed when they were, how the spies are adjusting and what this means for our US-Russian relationship. For me the readiness of both sides to make this swap happen quickly is a clear indication that our increased cooperation and newly “reset” relationship is a priority, which is good news.
Although the Russian spy story has made for interesting and tantalizing media coverage, it has unfortunately stirred up old, cold war feelings of mistrust and suspicion. It is well understood by most Americans that all countries have intelligence services active around the world; however, it seems that Russia holds a very special place in people’s minds. For Russians who live here, this incident has set off a number of reactions so well captured by one blogger, Yuri Mamchur, in his piece: Thanks a lot, Kremlin! For those of us who work to strengthen our economic and community ties, it has been a bit frustrating. There are far more interesting and compelling stories of how Russians and Americans are working together to improve our communities that do not see the light of day in the media.
The bottom line is that the resolve to improve the relationship between our countries is firm and that we have more work to do to help dispel those lingering suspicions.
I don’t think that the spy arrests are very serious for the fundamentals of U.S. Russia relations. Digging around in the neighbor’s garbage is business as usual. I am willing to bet that UK intelligence agencies receive and process intelligence about the U.S. and vice versa. Other than the effort invested in investigating the ten who were traded, they were no serious threat to U.S. security. On the other hand, the people prosecuted in Russia for cooperating with the U.S. (allegedly) sound like serious spies.
Monday morning, the spooks of all sides will be back to their old stuff. In the meantime, the serious leaders will be figuring out what is best for their countries and dwelling on spy scandals is not one of them.