Who thinks there really is a Russian spy ring?

Interesting how this comes out right when Russian President Medvedev is visiting the US to improve US-Russian relations, isn’t it? And yet , officials from both countries were quick to state they hoped this incident would not damage US-Russian ties. If the US or Russia were hoping to gain something from this incident, neither side has shown its true colors…both sides appear to be trying to cover this whole thing up.

I still think it’s too early to say what these people were doing in the US and what information they gathered, but the FBI is just beginning its investigation. I do think the FBI was worried they would try to flee the country and decided to make the arrests now rather than risk flight, in order to gain information.

I agree with miscegenymiser to a certain point, but if we really want to look into this, I think Russia’s motivations are less in line with conspiracy theories and more to the strategic situation. Russia is a nation in decline…its demographics are among the most dire in Europe. Its population, by 2050, will be one-third of the US. Russia knows it must play its cards now, and try to gain a strategic upper hand in the former Soviet Union, as well as gather what it can from relations with the West. The US is very distracted by wars in the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as domestic problems like the oil spill in the gulf and a fragile economic recovery. This is an opportune time for Russia to expand its power in the former USSR, gather intelligence, and do so without risking serious confrontation with the West, even if that means continuing operations in the West. Putin is the Primer Minister of a nation that already had a very impressive intelligence operation, and now with increased funding, Russia’s clandestine operations have remained strong, if not improved. I don’t doubt this ring is real, and that it’s tied to others in the US for the purpose of sending all kinds of information, however harmless, back to Moscow.