It would be naive to assume that with the end of the Cold War all intelligence activities might terminate. For one thing, there is still a deep mistrust on both sides of the East-West divide, a legacy of the past. For another, intelligence services all over the world have to somehow justify their impressive budgets. As a matter of fact, intelligence activities go on not only on the territories of potential adversaries but even on friendly ones. The effectiveness of these activities nowadays is pretty questionable since much of the information sought by the agents is available on the Internet. Nevertheless, whether we like it or not, the attempts by Russia or United States to plant the moles into each others government and other important structures will continue for any foreseeable future. Besides, huge monies are being allotted for the job, and it will go on if only to justify the expense. These 11 men and women are hardly innocent of the charges made against them, but the timing of their arrest is very curious. Many in the media and in political circles have expressed the view that some powerful folks in Washington do not like the fast pace of U.S. Russia rapprochement in the last few months. We are told that the FBI investigation has gone on for a decade; so far no harm has been done to US interests; so why launch the spy scandal precisely at this moment? Couldn’t the FBI wait a few more weeks, months or years until at least one member of the ring carried out some authentic act of espionage?
Apparently the White House and the Kremlin have decided, thank God, that this unfortunate case should not jeopardize the «reset» process. Both sides are refraining from inflammatory rhetoric. Solid, friendly U.S. — Russia relations are too important to allow spies, their handlers and «reset» opponents to ruin all the good work that has been done by the Obama and Medvedev administrations.
It must be said in all fairness that opponents of friendly U.S. Russian relations exist not only in Washington but in Moscow as well. Amazingly, they are to be found both among diehard Communists or other anti-Western elements and, ironically, even among leaders of the so-called democratic opposition in Russia. Their message to the West is this: it is immoral to deal with the current Kremlin regime. If you listen to Messrs. Kasparov, Illarionov, Limonov & Co., the best way for the West to deal with Russia is to isolate it, expel it from the G-8, and go on insisting that it was Russia that invaded Georgia in August 2008 and, to cap it all, had a hand in downing the Polish presidential plane. All those who disagree with their position and advocate better U.S. Russian relations to meet the common global challenges are called at best naïve or opportunistic, or at worst Russian agents of influence.
If you believe Russia’s free democratic media like the Ekho Moskvy radio station or the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, one must extend the list of those bad guys from 11 to at least 13. The names are mentioned out loud: Number 12 is yours truly, and number 13, Dmitry Simes, head of the Nixon Center. I cannot speak for Dmitry, I am sure he can handle this on his own. As for myself, reporter Julia Latynina who works for both these media outlets completely blows my cover or «legend» which has served me so well for the last 34 years.
According to her, back in 1976 the KGB developed a brilliant plan that would make James Bond look like a novice in a kindergarten. They provided me with bait (technically known as a «honey trap») in the form of a beautiful high school graduate who happened to be the daughter of a Soviet Marshal (that would be a
I know well both Alexei Venediktov, chief editor of Ekho Moskvy, and Dmitry Muratov, chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, and I asked them to permit me to reply to Latynina’s slander campaign in their media outlets. Dmitry Muratov did that but from the Echo of Moscow so far, dead silence. This sort of freedom of the press is a bit one-sided, don’t you think?
However, I did get one pleasant consolation moment when another prominent Russian human rights advocate with tons of U.S. grants Ludmila Alexeyeva now names no one else but Echo chief Alexei Venediktov to be FSB (KGB successor) agent for expressing different from hers opinion on Moscow demonstrations.
Here is the sad state of the Russian democratic opposition these days. Now you understand why Medvedev’s and Putin’s popularity is so high. It is not difficult to compete with these so-called democrats who cannot agree among themselves and who even join forces with communists and national Bolsheviks. It appears that the only thing that unites them is their hatred for the Kremlin. However, this is hardly enough to overcome the single digit ratings in the polls.
Isn’t it a right time for America to evaluate the cost effectiveness and results of the democracy promotion crusade in the post-Soviet space, including color revolutions? Investing these funds in U.S. Russia high tech cooperation like Skolkovo project would be a much smarter policy. That is, of course, if we want Russia to be on our side. On the other hand, according to Latynina the idea of U.S. Russia alliance belongs to KGB, so there is some food for thought.
