Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Russians Arrest US Embassy Staffer for Spying

The Russian government has detained a member of the American embassy staff on charges of spying. This comes at a time when the US and Russia are trying to work a bit closer together in the aftermath of the Boston bombing which had ties to the Chechen terrorism that has plagued Russia for years. This arrest serves as a reminder that there are parties in both nations who still view the other as a bigger threat than any teenage yahoo with a pressure-cooker bomb.

The story is enough to make one nostalgic for the old Rossiya Hotel, Check-point Charlie and those awful Soviet business suits that never really fit anyone. The detainee is Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the embassy, and he spent a few hours with the FSB before being handed over to the US authorities. No doubt he will be on a plane home shortly.

A spokesman for the FSB said Mr. Fogle "was carrying a large amount of money and instructions for the Russian he was trying to recruit. He said Fogle, who was also carrying 'special technical equipment' and the 'means for changing one's appearance'," spent the night in jail. Although Pravda and Izvestia had no reporting on this, Interfax had a five line story that included this statement from the FSB, "Recently, the FSB has identified and controlled repeated attempts by U.S. intelligence to recruit Russian security officers and secret service agents."

For anyone who can recall how these things used to work in the bad old days, a night in the nick and a quick plane flight home is a sign on one thing -- the guy was caught red-handed, and the embassy would like to hush the whole thing up as quickly as possible because there are other matters it wants to address. The fact that the Russians appear to be going along with that suggests they feel the same way. If no one gets booted from the Russian embassy in a tit-for-tat action, that will be as conclusive as these things get.

Yet if the spy is such an inconvenience to both sides, why didn't the Russian foreign ministry just call the embassy and quietly have the offending person removed? There are two possible reasons. First, the CIA (which likely pays Mr. Fogle's salary if he is actually guilty) may have declined to cooperate. Intelligence agencies have different missions than foreign ministries, and it could be the CIA didn't much care whether the State Department achieved anything with the Russians at all. If so, there are parties in the US intelligence community who see acquiring Russian assets as quite important. Alternatively, elements of the FSB may have decided to arrest Mr. Fogle (guilty or not) to undermine whatever cooperation the two sides have established since the Boston bombing.

The people now running their intelligence agencies in both nations are in their late 40s to early 60s. When the Cold War ended just over two decades ago, these people were in the formative years of their careers. While a great many of them have adjusted to the new state of play, one would be surprised if a segment in each organization could not make the mental shift. These dead-enders will continue to affect tactics, if not strategy, for a good number of years yet.

The need for the US and Russia to cooperate more and compete less is a reality in the 21st century. Both have vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons still, and both are interested in halting Fascislamic terrorism. Both are committed to a stable international order (even if Russia would like to have greater influence in it), and neither has an interest in playing zero-sum games with the other. But until the Cold Warriors leave the intelligence services on both sides, greater cooperation will not be as easy as it could or should be.

© Copyright 2013 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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