New Cold War, Same Old Spycraft

Yesterday's bust of a Russian spy outfit operating out of New York shows that old habits are hard to break.

"In Moscow, they will be angry," former KGB Colonel and British double agent Oleg Gordievsky told Reuters.

"'How much of the information we got was planted by the FBI -- that's what they'll be wondering in Moscow Center," said Robert Ayers, a former U.S. intelligence officer.

Saying the alleged spy group had recruited political sources and gathered information for the Russian government, U.S. authorities have charged 11 individuals with carrying out deep-cover work to learn about U.S. economic and foreign policy and intelligence and the world gold market.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the allegations baseless and said it was regrettable that they came after Washington's call for a "reset" in ties between the Cold War foes.

Ayers said the U.S. revelations will have led to a profound "damage assessment" among Moscow's espionage leadership.

He said Russian spy chiefs would also be asking themselves: "If this group did manage to obtain classified information, will the FBI choose to reveal this in open court?"

Court papers show the group was under surveillance for years.

"You're positive no one is watching?" one of the alleged agents asks at a meeting at a New York coffee shop with an FBI agent posing as a Russian, court papers published online show.

The Justice Department documents say the group was given orders to live for years in the United States to cultivate credible backgrounds and spend time getting to know well-placed sources of information.

Ahh, the Great Game is still being played.  But if the Russians really wanted economic and security information that badly, they should just read econ and military bloggers, frankly.  If cable news outfits are just intelligence agencies with commercials and better looking operatives, national security bloggers are minus the commercials and have better writing.

Doesn't somebody over at the Russian Consulate have a subscription to STRATFOR, or read Danger Room, Zero Hedge, RGE Monitor or Long War Journal?  Roubini, Tyler Durden, Spencer Ackerman, Bill Roggio, these guys know what they're talking about, and at the intersection of military and economics you can find a hell of a lot of geopolitical motives.

For instance, if you've been watching these guys and using them to plant false flag stuff for years now, why burn them, you know, now?  What geopolitical motive changed there?  That's my question.