New leaders, same old problems
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Cold War politics seem alive and well, as the arrest of 11 alleged Russian spies on US soil has revealed. Only last week Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev was seen enjoying a burger with Barack Obama, and now the two are back in more familiar territory – spies, accusations and covert operations.
US authorities have charged the 11 individuals with carrying out deep-cover work on US soil. The men and women were allegedly gathering information for the Russian government, by infiltrating US policy-making circles and sending the information back to Moscow.
Nine of the eleven also face the charge of conspiracy to launder money, which carries a 20-year prison sentence.
Russia has expressed concern over the arrests but has yet to issue any outright denial of the operation. "We are studying the information. There are a lot of contradictions," spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told the AFP news agency.
Some of the accused have lived in the US since the early 1990s. According to court documents some pursued university degrees, held jobs and joined professional associations in an effort to become “Americanised.”
One of the purported Russian messages intercepted by US intelligence says: “Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc - all these serve one goal: fulfil your main mission, ie to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels.”
Dmitriy Medvedev was in Washington last week to promote Russia as a safe, investor-friendly economy. It remains to be seen if this latest development will damage the recently improved US-Russian relationship.
