RETURN OF SPIES

During the cold war days,  both the super powers played intensive game of one upmanship, to browbeat each other. Often we heard stories of deep cover agents in the rival country to steal vital intelligence. This underworld game, after the Second World War, started being replayed at a high pitch from 1960s. It was the period when China also went nuclear and hence the developments became more interesting. Around the close of the last century, when the Gorbachov regime bid goodby to communism, the bipolar power centre had automatically contracted to unipolar. The scene of the looming war, went in the background and the world took a sigh of relief. In its wake, it also brought a situation in which spying, practiced by the USA and the erstwhile USSR  was considerably reduced, though on local levels, the espionage continued like in India and Pakistan, Israel and the Arab world etc.

After a gap of nearly 15 years, we have suddenly heard that this second oldest profession has not been forgotten and even the super powers resort to it. One American spy is reported to have been caught red- handed in Moscow. According to the media report, when nabbed he was wearing a blonde wig to mislead the local counter intelligence activists. In the intelligence parlance, he was under cover. He was identified as Ryan C. Fogle, the Third Secretary in the Political Section of the local American embassy. The Russians did not wait for any explanation. They declared him persona non grata and threw him out of the country.

Next day viz. May 15,2013 the Russian foreign ministry called the US Ambassador, Michael Mcfaul and asked him to explain the under cover inimical activities of his staff. Obviously, he would not have admitted the fault and said to look into the matter. Reacting to the development, Patriok Venbrell, American State Department spokesman confimed to  the press that a staffer of the Moscow based US chancery had been briefly detained. However, he stoutly disowned the charge that the individual had indulged in any under cover activities.

There is nothing new in this story which may surprise anybody. The only pinching point is the reappearance of this dishonest game. Resorting to spying means lack of faith in the target  country. The disbelief in a country further worsens the mutual relation and may culminate into hot war. We wish both the matured nations to observe restraint and not allow the situation to go worse any more.