Twenty years from now after Obama and Medvedev have long since retired from office and get together to chat, they’ll probably get a good laugh from the episode. Remember that spying affair in the summer of 2010 that nearly torpedoed our efforts at cooperation? For the present, they have to grin and bear something that shows surprisingly more amateurism than it does maliciousness.
The most enduring lesson learned from the headlines accompanying last week’s arrest of a suspected Russian spy ring in the United States was that Obama and Medvedev have no intention of making an international incident out of it. They’re doing everything possible to ensure nothing hinders their policy of the reset button – the new beginning of U.S.-Russian relations. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fully supports this effort as well. That in itself is remarkable in view of the still unsolved puzzle of whether the ex-KGB chief and President Medvedev are engaged in a power struggle involving distinctly separate foreign policies, or whether they’re just putting that image on for public consumption because the “good cop–bad cop” routine serves Russian interests.
Otherwise, the turn of events is merely confusing as well as damaging to another iconic organization. The KGB once had a reputation as a dangerous intelligence service able to place its agents into key positions in the West. What we know about these eleven Russian spies so far makes the whole affair seem more like a crime comedy than a secret service thriller. For years, Russian couples led middle class American lives, living in their own homes in respectable suburbs of New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., all bought and paid for by the Russian government without ever having sent back the first bit of sensitive information. They didn’t damage America; they swindled Russia. That’s the laughable state of affairs in Russian foreign intelligence these days. And that has to be more painful to Vladimir Putin than any busted spy ring.
Spione wie wir
Von Christoph von Marschall
03.07.2010
US-Präsident Obama und Russlands Präsident Medwedew wollen aus der Spionage- keine Staatsaffäre machen. Was bisher über die elf russischen Spione bekannt wurde, klingt eher nach Gaunerkomödie als nach Geheimdienstthriller.
In zwanzig Jahren, wenn Barack Obama und Dmitri Medwedew längst nicht mehr Präsidenten sind und über vergangene Zeiten plaudern, werden sie wahrscheinlich herzhaft über diese Episode lachen können. Weißt du noch – diese Spionageaffäre im Sommer 2010, die beinahe unser Bemühen um mehr Partnerschaft torpediert hätte? Für den Moment müssen sie gute Miene zu einem Spiel machen, das eher Züge eines überraschenden Dilettantismus als der Böswilligkeit zeigt.
Die belastbarste Erkenntnis aus der vergangenen Woche, in der die Festnahme eines angeblichen russischen Agentenrings in den USA die internationalen Schlagzeilen prägte: Obama und Medwedew wollen daraus keine Staatsaffäre machen. Sie tun alles, damit der peinliche Vorfall ihre Politik des „Reset“, eines Neustarts in den Beziehungen, nicht behindert. Auch Regierungschef Wladimir Putin hält sich an diese Marschroute. Das ist bemerkenswert angesichts des ungelösten Rätsels, ob der Ex-KGBler und der Präsident einen Machtkampf austragen, zu dem auch unterschiedliche Kurse in der Außenpolitik gehören, oder ob sie der Welt diese Rivalität nur vorspiegeln, weil die Arbeitsteilung in „good cop“ und „bad cop“ dem russischen Interesse dient.
Ansonsten stiftet der Ablauf der Ereignisse eher Verwirrung. Und stürzt ein weiteres Denkmal. Der KGB stand mal im Ruf eines gefährlichen Geheimdienstes, der seine Agenten in Schlüsselstellungen im Westen brachte. Was bisher über die elf russischen Spione bekannt wurde, klingt eher nach Gaunerkomödie als nach Geheimdienstthriller. Seit Jahren ließen sich russische Paare ein amerikanisches Mittelklasseleben mit Eigenheim in angenehmen Vororten von New York, Boston und Washington finanzieren, ohne dafür je brisante Informationen zu liefern. Sie haben nicht den USA geschadet, sondern Russland betrogen. So lächerlich ist der Zustand der russischen Auslandsspionage. Das wird Putin mehr schmerzen als ein aufgeflogener Agentenring.
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[T]he letter’s inconsistent capitalization, randomly emphasizing words like “TRADE,” “Great Honor,” “Tariff,” and “Non Tariff”, undermines the formality expected in high-level diplomatic correspondence.
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[T]he letter’s inconsistent capitalization, randomly emphasizing words like “TRADE,” “Great Honor,” “Tariff,” and “Non Tariff”, undermines the formality expected in high-level diplomatic correspondence.
This thing was quite a story, in the U.S., mostly due to one of the spies being a stone hottie, Anna Chapman…when pictures of her started to hit the net, she almost instantly became the darling of the American male population…American women seemed a bit put-off by the whole situation…
Anyway, we are already organizing a spy-swap, and this thing will be no big deal, as international “incidents” go. Let’s face it, Anna was simply too pretty and endearing to be put in jail!
Everybody spies on everybody else, in this messed-up world…we’ve even caught allies such as Israel & England spying on us, and I have no doubt we’re spying on them.
This thing was quite a story, in the U.S., mostly due to one of the spies being a stone hottie, Anna Chapman…when pictures of her started to hit the net, she almost instantly became the darling of the American male population…American women seemed a bit put-off by the whole situation…
Anyway, we are already organizing a spy-swap, and this thing will be no big deal, as international “incidents” go. Let’s face it, Anna was simply too pretty and endearing to be put in jail!
Everybody spies on everybody else, in this messed-up world…we’ve even caught allies such as Israel & England spying on us, and I have no doubt we’re spying on them.
It gets pretty ridiculous, after a while.