Announcing the dismantling of a Russian spy network in the United States only a few days after a successful summit that brought together both Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, although said to be aimed at dealing a “blow” to Russian-American relations which had witnessed notable improvement in the past year, an improvement which the summit had addressed, may on the contrary be an indirect announcement of Washington's interference in internal Russian politics, by siding with Medvedev in the Russian presidential race which has effectively started, and in order to confront the possible return of the “Czar” Vladimir Putin to the leadership of the Kremlin once again. It is well known that Putin, who ruled Russia as President from 2000 to 2008, and two years before that from behind the curtain as adviser to an ageing Boris Yeltsin, was the architect of reining in relations with the United States and of the policy of restoring consideration to Russia's role in the world and supporting it with a successful and prosperous economy. Also well known is the fact that he was forced, in spite of overwhelming popular support for him, to abide by the constitution which did not allow him to run as candidate for a third term in office, and thus chose to support his Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as successor, amidst expectations which he perhaps encouraged that he will be returning in 2012, and that he is temporarily placing the presidency in safe hands to carry on with his policies. Nevertheless, Medvedev has so far proven, throughout the past two years of his presidency, that he was different and that he was unwilling to play the role of a puppet-president controlled by Putin. Moreover, he has worked, in a clear departure from the strategy of his predecessor, on gradually changing the country's foreign policy by restoring convergence with the United States and finding solutions to pending issues, whether bilateral or concerning a third party. Thus was reached the START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) treaty to reduce both countries' nuclear arsenals, as well as an understanding over modifying the US's missile shield plans in Europe. Moscow also joined Washington in its stance on the Iranian nuclear issue, which facilitated imposing new sanctions on Tehran. Last week's summit came to stress strengthening economic relations between the two countries and to prepare for a broad array of large-scale trade and investment agreements. Such disparity in defining foreign relations was reflected in the Russian reaction to the announcement of having uncovered the spy network. Indeed, the spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry rushed to condemn what they called “a throwback to the Cold War”, while Putin himself said that US police were “out of control”, suggesting that what happened was an act directed against Obama by the FBI. Yet Moscow modified its stance on the following day, expressing its hope that “the incident linked to the arrest of a group of people in the US on suspicion of spying for Russia will not have a negative impact on Russian-American relations”. Such a split in Russian stances had also appeared after the Security Council adopted the new sanctions against Iran, when conflicting Russian statements were given over whether these new measures would prevent the delivery of S-300 missile systems to the Iranians, until Medvedev ended the debate by publicly asserting that these missiles were included in the UN ban. The assertion by American investigators that the spies were planted on US soil sometime between seven and ten years ago suggests a veiled accusation against Putin as being behind the operation, as it would be unthinkable for it to have taken place without the knowledge of the then Russian President. And who knows, perhaps a Russian intelligence officer who accompanied Medvedev on his recent trip to Washington “let slip” a few suggestive words in front of an American colleague?
