Spy Thriller

There is a rather surreal B movie aspect to the arrest of the Russian ‘spies’, engaged in information gathering operations in the U.S of apparently non-classified information which any savvy political commentator or  investigative journalist would have access to. False identities and information exchange in the most unsophisticated  but melodramatic circumstances, which if written as a novel would have difficulty getting published, is entertaining. Not only did the F.B.I spot these people years ago, but they even posed as their bosses issuing instructions. The whole episode makes the Russians look rather foolish. The Americans are trying to be dignified while stifling a wry smile.

This is clearly a left over from past times and shows what little understanding existed in the immediate post Soviet era of how open, except for military secrets, western society is. This does not mean that there are not powerful establishments in every western country, but they are very easy to join if you play to their rules and easy to penetrate as an outsider if you want to find out something, without resorting to high collared macs and hollow trees.

There is however a lesson in this episode. To the Russians it is time to move on, but to the Americans and their allies it is surely time to bring the Russians in from the cold and engage with them on a more equal footing. In the world approaching just around the corner, we will need Russia more than we realise.