Sarah Smith blogs on the spy swap that occurred in Vienna earlier today.
Headlines around the world for the last week and a half have all harked back to the days of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War. We’ve heard about:
“scenes straight out of spy novel”, ….. “episodes reminiscent of the cold war” listened to descriptions of “tradecraft lifted from the pages of a Le Carre novel”……
The story was of course fed by the pictures of the flame haired femme fatale, modern day Mata Hari or would be Bond Girl who even American intelligence experts described as a character out of “From Russia with Love”. The now infamous Anna Chapman.
But wait a minute. Does any of this really suggest that US – Russian relations are about to return to the deep freeze? Or do the carefully choreographed scenes on the tarmac in Vienna in fact show us the exact opposite?
The pictures of the two planes landing and the spy transfer were meant to send a message to the rest of the world. But not one that was supposed to evoke memories of a snow covered bridge in Berlin in the 1980s. Today’s handover was meant to show the world just how well the two countries are now co-operating. And how even a huge spy scandal cannot derail the famous “reset” in their relations.
The timing of the arrests of 10 people who for spying on behalf of Russia was embarrassing to both countries – coming so quickly after the hamburger summit between presidents Medvedev and Obama in Rays Hell Burger in northern Virginia. But the speed with which they have been able to arrange this swap just shows how eager they both were to forgive and forget.
Some people have expressed shock that Russian still had secret agents hidden inside the US now the cold war is long over. But no one in the American intelligence community was remotely surprised. They fully expect Russia to carry on gathering what secret information they can in America – just as American agents are surely doing the same thing inside Russia today.
The authorities here in the States have been quick to say that their swift actions against the 10 accused will act as deterrent to anyone else tempted to send information from America back to “Moscow Centre”.
But I’m not sure that 11 whole days in detention followed by a free flight home are the biggest deterrent America can come up with. And Russia has promised their spies pensions of $2000 a month, free accommodation and they will probably get their faces on postage stamps. The traditional way Russia honours its secret agents.
In the old days they would never have considered swapping spies who had not had a full public trial and served at least a few years in an American prison.
They are also keen in America to say that the release of four people who’d been convicted in Russia of spying for the West just goes to show that America doesn’t give up on or forget about the people who have helped them.
Is that a hint that anyone who is currently performing espionage inside the Russia on behalf of the UK or the US should not be spooked by this debacle and should carry on spying?
Certainly sounds like it.