Is the US/Russian likely spy swap a good idea?

Ron Radosh thinks not:

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.

Radosh also points out that putting these ‘sleepers’ on trial in the USA could allow defence lawyers to probe away at the techniques used by the FBI to discover them, something the Russians would dearly love to know.

It’s hard to give a clear view without knowing a helluva lot more than any of us mere mortals will ever know.

But the speed with which the supposed swap has been set up suggests that the Russians were as guilty as hell.

Which in turn will lead critics of the decision in the USA and elsewhere to wonder whether the Obama administration has not been just a bit too quick to let them off the hook, where they were swinging limply in the wind.

However, let’s not forget that in the rarefied world of espionage the fact that one’s own especially secret people have been so spectacularly revealed is a ghastly humiliation.

So, that accomplished, and with lots of further operational information uncovered which no doubt leaves the Russian spy effort in the USA both depleted and groggy with embarrassment, maybe the Americans feel that they can be generous this time round.

As they continue not to be in the case of Jay Pollard, my former classmate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He really betrayed trust on a massive scale, in spying for the Israelis. No pardon for him.