Vladimir Frolov: Most Humiliating Spy Flop in Russian History
[Vladimir Frolov is president of LEFF Group, a government-relations and PR company.]
President Dmitry Medvedev made the right decision to downplay the importance of the latest spy scandal between Russia and the United States and to arrange for a quick exchange of 10 clandestine Russian operatives. This should allow the scandal to die off quickly, while letting Washington and Moscow maintain the momentum of the “reset.”
Medvedev now has to order a high-profile investigation into the most humiliating intelligence failure in Russia’s history. He needs to appoint a commission led by a respected former intelligence official to develop a report on the investigation.
It is now evident that the awkward timing of the arrests — two days after Medvedev’s departure from Washington — had more to do with a U.S. intelligence operation to secure the escape of a highly placed mole in Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, than with hawks scheming to undo the reset. It is obvious from the documents filed in U.S. courts that the FBI had been alerted to the identities of Russia’s undercover agents from the moment they arrived in the United States. It was an act of betrayal by someone from a very small circle of the SVR’s most senior officers.
Herein lies a political entrapment that Medvedev needs to evade...
Read entire article at Moscow Times
President Dmitry Medvedev made the right decision to downplay the importance of the latest spy scandal between Russia and the United States and to arrange for a quick exchange of 10 clandestine Russian operatives. This should allow the scandal to die off quickly, while letting Washington and Moscow maintain the momentum of the “reset.”
Medvedev now has to order a high-profile investigation into the most humiliating intelligence failure in Russia’s history. He needs to appoint a commission led by a respected former intelligence official to develop a report on the investigation.
It is now evident that the awkward timing of the arrests — two days after Medvedev’s departure from Washington — had more to do with a U.S. intelligence operation to secure the escape of a highly placed mole in Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, than with hawks scheming to undo the reset. It is obvious from the documents filed in U.S. courts that the FBI had been alerted to the identities of Russia’s undercover agents from the moment they arrived in the United States. It was an act of betrayal by someone from a very small circle of the SVR’s most senior officers.
Herein lies a political entrapment that Medvedev needs to evade...