“Everybody steals everybody's secrets,” the spokesman for the Russian Intelligence Service, Yuri Kobaladze, once told the Associated Press. “There are friendly states, but not friendly intelligence services.” That would certainly seem to be the case with the prisoner swap between the US and Russia after some ten “sleeper” operatives were discovered to be living in the US and were arrested. The original discovery sparked vivid memories of the Cold War period when such operations were believed to be prevalent and, in the end, very effective. The current crop of “sleepers” was decidedly less effective and didn't seem to be doing a lot more than reading the newspapers and talking to people they knew. The entire operation feels like an anachronism, and that feeling is only exacerbated by the prisoner swap. It was a common occurrence for Communist countries and the US and Western Europe to swap prisoners accused of spying during the Cold War. This time around, however, there was little in the way of vitriol hurled back and forth by the two former foes. Both sides rushed to reassure the world that the spying incident would not interfere with improving relations between the countries, and there wasn't much more to it than that. The Americans were puzzled over the ham handedness of the operation while the Russians did their best to downplay its importance. And then talk of an old-fashioned swap began. Clearly, given the shrugged shoulders in Washington and Moscow, this incident amounts more to theater than to politics. Everything about it smacks so strongly as an anachronism that it is difficult to take it seriously as an espionage operation. It seems more like the brainchild of some cloistered agent who wanted to go down in history, however clandestinely. Despite the provocation, both countries have behaved maturely and filled a role model gap for modern nations. __
