The Meaning of the Russia- U.S. Spy Swap
At the time of the arrests, human rights organizations “criticized Mr. Sutyagin’s prosecution, saying it suggested a Soviet-style wariness of contacts between Russian scientists and foreigners on the part of the security services, rather than success in arresting a foreign agent.” As another news report noted, “his case has been criticized by human-rights advocates and in some Western capitals as an example of Russia’s spy agencies railroading innocent specialists through a compliant court system.”
Indeed, the forthcoming swap is another throwback to the 60s and 70s, when the Soviet regime swapped unwanted dissidents who were creating political turmoil at home with actual Soviet spies operating in the West. “‘We’re rolling back the clock,’ said Yuri Ryzhov, a former Russian ambassador and prominent academic who heads a commission that has defended scholars accused of treason. ‘It’s the 1970s now.’”
It is yet one more example of the Cold War-era so-called “moral equivalence,” in which the Putin government equates innocent political offenders or those who get on the wrong side of the Russian government with actual Russian or Soviet spies who were genuinely seeking Western secrets, of either an industrial or military nature.
Both the Putin government and the Obama administration, however, are signing on to this charade. The Russians get back their would-be sleeper agents, while the United States avoids an embarrassing trial that might turn U.S. public opinion against rapprochement with Moscow. Obama can thus pretend that all is well in the American-Russian relationship and that he and Putin have left this little insignificant matter behind them. And when others try to point out that men like Sutyagin were never guilty of any real offense, Putin can point to his newly signed confession as evidence that he now admitted his guilt. The FBI will not have to reveal counterespionage tactics used to catch the ten, and what others have predicted would have been a “pall” over the relations between our country and Russia will have been avoided.
How sad that in our own time, the Obama administration is engaging in this immoral and cynical example of realpolitik.
Is this the “hope” or the “change”?
By your own account, an innocent man who’s suffered for more than a decade is being freed. Realpolitik can sometimes be moral. That the Russian government makes a false equivalence doesn’t mean that we have to take such a claim seriously.
Further, I don’t recall Obama having claimed to have gotten a sense of Medvedev’s soul.
Finally, I would hope that the US is not so naive as NOT to have agents in Russia.
- …I don’t recall Obama having claimed to have gotten a sense of Medvedev’s soul.
No, he just bowed.
Or maybe I’m recalling a different despot.
Or three.
As if it’s relevant.
The relevance was in noting which U.S. administration was more dangerously naive about Russian intentions. The timing of the arrests may have been primarily dictated by the targets’s actions, but the timing was also either greenlighted or orchestrated. FBI is not a lone wolf in national security matters.
I generally despise realpolitik, and I don’t know that I would have handled it like Obama has, but your point about ending Sutyagin’s ordeal is hard to argue with.
And as someone who defends Bush’s presidency against unfair (and often patently stupid) attacks all the time, his remarks about Putin are a particular embarrassment.
I suppose the 10 recently arrested “sleepers” will be swapped. Maybe to discourage emigration from Russia. By swapping, it proves they are spies. I’ll miss the girl in the red dress.
I for one am not happy with this swap. They get the babes while we get a bunch of tired old men who will probably be on social security within a week. Even the Russians are smarter than President Obama.
It is not all bad. If some of the American spies being released are really our own spies (and don’t kid yourself–we spy too!) we should be grateful to rescue them. And if we’re simply rescuing 10 people who merely did business with us, well, that is 10 fewer people suffering in the hands of the jailers of this world, and that’s a good thing, too.
These sleeper agents seem like small potatoes to me, anyway. Send ‘em back.
Obama is a total fool in international relations. He should NOT do any swap, as the Ruskies will eat him alive. He should tell that little fascist Pukin’ to take a hike & try ‘em. If not, it is just business as usual. The US gets screwed & Russia makes out like a bandit. Anything other than a 10 for 10 trade for REAL spies is being taken to the cleaners. But then this is Obama we are dealing with. He would be taken to the cleaners by my 12 yr. old son playing a game of marbles.
O is so naive. Surely Pukin’ & Medhead are snickering at his gulibility…
Yeh, the Light Bringer, the One Who Walks on Water, has taken us back to the good old days, before Bush.
The very best we can hope for now is Jimmy Carter Redux…unfortunately, Mr. Obama is going to be a very bad 1 term president…worse than either James Earl Carter, or Buchanan…big sigh
Well, I’m no fan of the president but from a purely calculating position it looks like a good move to me mostly because it reduces our exposure to lawfare (as clearly pointed out by Mr. Rodosh above) where the Russians lean more about how their spies were caught. On the other side of the ledger they get to debrief their people. Then again we get to debrief the people Russia sends us – real spies of otherwise – and perhaps learn some valuable things too. As to the comment by One Day above it reminded me that I too am a tired old man – on Social Security even – and naturally have a certain sympathy with these poor b*tards suffering in Putin’s Gulag. And I would point out that the young ones are not likely to find their life back in Russia very rewarding. Russia is neither a friend nor and enemy. In contrast, doing a swap with the Taliban or al Qaeda for example would be completely wrong in my opinion – even if it means out Islamist enemies will torture and kill our people. As we know they will anyway. I am much more concerned with Obama’s pandering to Islamists like Hamas than this bit of real politik.
Bill Brock,
Obama looked into the soul of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, buddy of Gazprom Gerd Schroeder, and learned all he needed to know about Russia in one short Berlin visit. The swooning crowds before the Victory Column, some of whom had been motivated to attend by flyers in local bars promising free beer, convinced The Won that indeed he could bring peace to the world, end poverty, and stop the rising of the seas. There would be no need to worry himself trying to master the complexities of foreign affairs, no need to handle allies like Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, and India with respect.
The only reason he hasn’t gone completely under is the grown-ups he inherited from Bush.
Will there be a Senate vote to approve such a “deal”? I doubt it.
These people supposedly spied for many years. Have they been fully debriefed in one week or is this that the reason we’re swapping them out now?
The “reset button” was back to 1970?
Disgraceful – yet again demonstrates that the US government is, second only to the Russian intelligence services, the main obstacle to achieving a general public recognition of what Russia’s government really is and does. And why? Because it would rather not deal with the implications of an aroused electorate, and what it might demand as a remedy to abomination. Yet it is the US government which knows better than anyone else that this cowardice greatly enables the Russian secret services to warp the general direction of the public consciousness out of all proportion with the centriptal forces inherent in its own natural tendencies. And this is to say nothing of the fact that the US electorate cannot possibly form a reasonable appreciation of foreign relations and US foreign policy imperatives without an understanding of Russia, which that same US foreign policy establishment has concealed for two generations now – despite what the bleating, ignorant “anti-anti-Communists” wail about.
And now as the Cold War generation passes in the USA, or at least descends into senility, does anyone believe this will improve the situation – or that the Russians fail to appreciate the vast advantages accruing to them? Why does it escape the common US citizen’s inference that perhaps the main difference/benefit conferred upon a government that doesn’t have to hold real electuibs, and controls the media and economy, can afford to think *generationally*? Why else, for example, would the SVR send sleepers in the mid-1990s to recruit students likely to achieve friendships with people likely to go into CIA, politics, financing with a decade or so? And people shrug, and talk about the hot Russian chick.
If Russia is so interested in a spy swap, why not use it to obtain cooperation regarding Iran – such as a Russian commitment not to supply ground to air missiles to Teheran?
I am afraid we will give these spies away, quickly, for almost nothing. We need to be smarter than this.
Rick
I think Obama’s foreign policy is a dangerous disgrace in general, but I really don’t see a swap that gets innocent people out of the Gulag as something to criticize him for. As for the behavior of the Russian government, what does anyone expect when this barbaric country is headed by a former KGB agent?
Israel exchanges 400 Palestinian prisoners for four Israeli CORPSES, and this is said to be indicative of Israel’s respect for the individual. (I agree!)
The Obama admin is working on an exchange of Russian sleeper agents for innocent(s) rotting in jail on trumped-up charges. This is good, too!
Dissidents-for-spies was a good in the 1970s: we had faith that maintaining our faith in the primacy of individual rights would make the West more attractive than its totalitarian competitor.
Russia today is closer to fascism (i.e., state capitalism) than communism, so this doesn’t fit into facile left/right frameworks. Frankly, all Americans should be united on wanting freedom for Russia. My friend Mig Greengard (to the left of me–a Naderite in 2000) is the web editor for Garry Kasparov’s “The Other Russia” ( http://www.theotherrussia.org/ )
I’m posting here because I’m a leftist (even a former student of Philip Morrison) who read _The Rosenberg Files_ and values truth above ideology.
Prof. Radosh does, too, as he’s demonstrated throughout his career. It’s my opinion that this blog entry strikes a uncharacteristically false note.
Let’s consider another possibility — not certain, but much higher than 50%: there’s a mountain of flaming evidence that Obama himself, with all his past associations with communists (parents, grandparents, mentor, friends, some of whom under KGB direction) is himself a deep cover mole. Let’s just consider it. Along with all the campaign money that came from overseas, for instance. Along with Obama’s policy agenda, which is perfectly aligned with Russian objectives.
Suppose just one of the arrested agents knew it, and had a choice — years in prison, or an offer of information. As I said elsewhere:
“What will be telling in the months to come is how the SVR agents’ cases are disposed of. If you see them getting whitewashed in the manner of the new Black Panther case, you may reasonably suspect that Obama doesn’t want them prosecuted for other reasons.”
(http://robbservations.blogspot.com/2010/07/strategy-and-tactics.html)
Well, it wasn’t done in the manner of the New Black Panthers, but I didn’t dream it would happen in just days.
Heh. I see you are a hard-nosed realist.
How much higher than 50%?
Certainly higher than 75%. If I had to put some money on it — 90%.
Anyone other than the President of the United States who had that much background would be under investigation.
Are there any other members of the Obama Administration who, in your judgment, are more likely than not to be “deep cover mole[s]” working “under KGB direction”?
Oh, definitely. I’ve got suspicions. But certainly most aren’t. I wouldn’t even give a high rating to someone like Pelosi being a mole, though I would say she’s got a high probability of being a closet communist. There’s always far fewer communists than there are Leftists, and a helluva a lot fewer moles than communists. It’s just really easy to jerk the chains of a great number with a very very few when the great number subscribe to the underlying ideas of the few (statism, hatred of the U.S., etc).
This is why I subscribe to the viewpoint Ayn Rand expressed long ago, that philosophy is the underlying prime mover in history. Or the viewpoint of the Jesuit who famously said, “give me a child until the age of 7 or 8 and afterward you may do with him what you will.” Ie, you’ve got his mind filled with the fundamental ideas that will guide his actions for life. The communists and Russian moles cash in on this like the parasitic creatures they are.
Back to moles — while there’s tremendous value in a highly placed one like Obama (surely the Presidency is the holy grail the Russians/Soviets have sought for 80 years), you get almost as great value in the advisors — the Alger Hiss types. Who stay under the radar.
If you really want to get your suspicions aroused, though, always look first at where these people went to school, who their teachers were, and trace that back. Communists generally recruit and network (in the West, that is) in college. Harvard, Cambridge, etc, especially, because they want the guys who will go on to become movers and shakers. It’s no coincidence that Elena Kagan was promoted to be head of Harvard Law, with virtually no trial experience. She clearly had a lot of help. I don’t know (again) if I’d say she is a mole — but she’s certainly part of a communist conspiracy. Probably just a Fabian and “Fellow Traveler”. (Look up Harold Laski on Wiki — tremendously influential in the development of Socialism in India and elsewhere. A closet communist.)
Kagan’s been groomed to be on the Supremes for a very long time. Next to the Presidency or head of Federal Reserve, one of the most influential positions if you want to destroy the U.S. system. The very nature of the position itself and what it can accomplish is a piece of evidence.
What we really need is an expose. As I’ve said elsewhere, an Obamagate (like Climategate) of evidence to expose these guys, because that would set them back permanently, in all likelihood. But I think it would take either a very wealthy person with the resources to dig or offer rewards to former KGB / SVR types, or people in our own FBI / CIA / DIA to do the digging on their own.
Hey what happened to the redhead who’s picture is on the main page?
In the interest of international diplomacy, I will accept her for myself and handle all her de-briefing. No waterboarding either, I promise.
Ronnie: Getting an innocent languishing in the gulag trumps all. So
Obama, in his adroit wisdom, maintains entente with Russia (whose
good offices we need e.g., vis a vis Iran), serves notice that we
what the Ruskies are doing, and frees someone unjustly incarerated.
This is know as a ” a hat trick”
Ronnie: considering your expertise on Soviet Spies (I mean, of course
from The Rosenberg File, I’m surprised you haven’t been interviewed
on mainstream media.
I have to say that I consider 10 Russian spies to be less of a threat to me than my own government. I just can’t get worked up about espionage any more.
“State capitalism” = a type of socialism that in Italy was called Fascism.
What is Obama hiding???
The ostensible reason these spies came was to infiltrate the Corridors of Power in America. How well was their mission accomplished? Now we’ll never know. The speed with which Obama and Holder arranged for their repatriation to Russia makes me wonder what Obama knows would be revealed had a trial proceeded… THAT is the significance of this spy scandal.
If you all want to watch an absolutelt awesome documentary about the KGB’s North American operations, look up “KGB Connections” on Youtube, produced in 1981. Well worth the time, and an absolutely incredible bunch of interviewees. I would really like to know who made it. I highly doubt it was just some little Canadian company on a lark.