The U.S. media Thursday swirled with stories about the accused Russian spies captured 10 days ago. Ten of the suspects pleaded guilty to the charge of being unregistered Russian agents and it was confirmed there will be a spy swap between Russia and the United States. The United States will expel the Russian spies, while Russia will release four individuals held for allegedly spying for Western intelligence agencies.
The U.S. media have paid close attention to this story. They have noted, among other things, the physical appearance of certain spies and the fact that the accused have lived among U.S. citizens for more than a decade. They have also likened the situation to something that might occur during the Cold War.
It's interesting that Russian media have not mirrored the attention being paid to the story in the United States. The Russian press has reported on the story of the alleged spies caught in the United States, but the news has been more factual than sensational. Moreover, the reports are being buried further in the daily Russian media as time goes on, while the U.S. media continues to give the story top coverage.
This is mainly due to the fact that most Russians were not surprised by the news - especially not the government - because Russia still sees the United States as one of its top rivals.
The U.S. focus - publicly, politically and militarily - has been trained on the Islamic world since 9/11. For nearly a decade, the United States has been concerned with its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that terrorism had reached its shores. The country gained a new enemy. But the United States' primary adversary before that - Moscow - was never forced to shift its focus. Its rivalry with the United States only intensified.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was broken politically, economically and socially. It lost whatever influence it had as a regional, let alone world, power. The 1990s and early 2000s were about Russia reconsolidating its power internally. After that, it launched a campaign to re-establish its power in the former Soviet states. But Russia and the former Soviet states were penetrated by Western - especially U.S. - influence, with everything from nongovernmental organizations to color revolutions. Only in the last year has Russia proven it is once again the dominant power in the region and increasingly a force to be reckoned with on the global stage.
Throughout this time, from the chaotic post-Soviet period to the restrengthening era of recent years, Russia has viewed the United States as its adversary.
Moscow continues to see Washington as trying to contain (or even break) Russian power with U.S. military installations in Central Europe and Central Asia, its expansion of NATO and the creation of bilateral security pacts with former Soviet states like Georgia. Despite the appearance of warmer relations between Moscow and Washington, the Kremlin and much of Russia's population still consider the United States a top threat. To Russia, Cold War tactics are still not only useful, they are expected.
