Cold War buffs slipped into nostalgia last week as the United States and Russia swapped spies. For some, the hasty exchange of 10 Russian "sleepers" convicted in the U.S. for four men held as spies in Russian jails seemed too familiar, prompting speculation that the arrests might have been intended to derail the "reset" of relations between Washington and Moscow. For others, the fear was that the speed of the swap revealed that any "reset" was based on faulty premises.
In reality, the situation showed just how far the much-feared Russian spy apparatus has slipped and how "Moscow Center" remains stuck in a Cold War mentality of its own.
U.S. law enforcement agencies had been following members of the spy ring for over a decade, observing contacts of the first suspects and expanding the number of people under surveillance. Over time, the ring was thoroughly penetrated, with U.S. officials gaining a full sense of the group's membership, tradecraft and mission. The agents had been planted in the U.S. in the 1990s and had burrowed deep into suburban life disguised as accountants, travel agents, real estate brokers and consultants. Their recorded communications are replete with urban woes, such as struggles to make mortgage payments. While some of the couples were not married, they did have children together to lend credibility to their cover as suburbanites.