Moscow's History of Accusing Americans of Espionage

Moscow’s History of Accusing Americans of Espionage

Posted: January 7th, 2019

By Michael Sulick

Michael Sulick is the former director of CIA’s National Clandestine Service and is currently a consultant on counterintelligence and global risk assessment. Sulick also served as Chief of Counterintelligence and Chief of the Central Eurasia Division where he was responsible for intelligence collection operations and foreign liaison relationships in Russia, Eastern Europe and the former republics of the Soviet Union. He is the author of Spying in America: Espionage From the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War and American Spies: Espionage Against the United States from the Cold War to the Present.

French philosopher Voltaire claimed that “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” The Kremlin, whenever it wishes to free a convicted Russian spy, twists this concept a bit: “If there’s no espionage case, it’s necessary to invent one”. The recent arrest of U.S. citizen Paul Whelan on charges of espionage is just the latest case of a shopworn gambit that dates back to the early days of the Cold War.

Most Russian retaliation in spy arrests follows a familiar path. A Russian intelligence officer is caught engaging in espionage, arrested and, thanks to diplomatic immunity, declared persona non grata. The Russians eventually reciprocate by entrapping and expelling an American intelligence officer with diplomatic immunity. Individuals without diplomatic immunity obviously face more dire consequences, but many have been released in so-called ‘spy swaps’ over the years. Among the most notable, was the exchange of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in exchange for Soviet illegal Rudolf Abel –- unlike their diplomatically immune counterparts, the former spent almost two years in a Soviet prison and the latter just over four years.

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