WASHINGTON — Well, well, well — now it appears that even the
Soviet — strike that ! — the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin is afflicted by the general mediocrity of the moment. There
was never any reason to doubt that the Soviet grasp of the
third-rate and meretricious should not survive into the Russian
Renaissance. A Zil, the cumbersome Soviet limousine, is still a
Zil — and no one ever buys a Russian computer if there is one or
a Russian hamburger. Yet, frankly I had fears that at least in
espionage the SVR, as the Russians call the foreign arm of their
new KGB, had maintained standards for intelligence gathering and
all the unseemly things that go with it. It was reputedly among
the world’s best, right up there with the Israelis, the British,
and — on a good day — the CIA and the FBI. But now it appears
that with the arrests of 11 “agents of influence” it is as
amateurish as everything else associated with most governments
worldwide, at least at the present moment. And to think Mr. Putin
is a former KGB officer and a pretty good one. It must be
galling.
In London last week where I was, the affair was played up
much splashier than here in the United States. The British
journalists have a better sense for a news story, which is why
British journalism is not in such dire straits as it is here.
They played the femme fatale angle perfectly and the
playboys, and they even discovered a grim business connection
with some shadowy Brit and the tyrant, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
When I arrived back in the United States, July 4th night, I had
been fully advised on the matter by the London newspapers. It was
astonishing how American journalists missed the mediocrity. Some
of the Russian spies had gone native or almost.
Oh sure, there were the true believers. The lefty
journalist who wrote for El Diario La Prensa whose cover
was blown back on January 14, 2000, and who has been implicating
others inadvertently for years. Also her idiot husband, the prof,
who in self-incriminating testimony after his arrest said he
loved his son, but “would not violate his loyalty to the
‘Service’ even for his son.” But then there were the “Murphys,”
“Donald Heathfield,” and his lovely wife, “Tracy Foley.” All the
above names are either stolen or made up. Why did they have to
take Irish-sounding names? Whey not Goldfarb or Finkelstein? Is
it the old Soviet residual of anti-Semitism? Yet they are
perfectly serviceable names — especially if you are living in
New York.
The “Murphys” certainly seemed to be going native, and I
would worry about them if I were Mr. Putin. Remember all you have
heard about “conspicuous consumption” and the Yanks? In 2009 the
Murphys thought they should own their home in Montclair, New
Jersey, and they gave their handler an earful when he objected.
Earlier, an agent had lamented to Mr. Murphy, “I’m so happy I’m
not your handler.” He distributed monies to these “agents of
influence” and is now on the lam in Cyprus or perhaps he has fled
the island. As for the Murphys, they are now in custody. They
were trained in a topflight Russian “espionage school,” reports
the Los Angeles Times. So maybe they will hold their
tongues, but I am not so sure. That house in Montclair would be a
lovely safe house for a couple of renamed Irish who might
sing.
Of course, the spy who really attracted the Brits’ eyes and
has got to have had the same effect here is the curvaceous
28-year-old, red-haired, doe-eyed beauty, Anna Chapman,
née Kushchenko, whose father was from the old KGB and
presumably knows a thing or two. Rather oddly, he directed her to
the authorities. That was it. Before her arrest, she had cut an
active figure on both sides of the Atlantic. She married a
British citizen. Picked up with playboys and frequented Annabel’s
and Tramp in Britain. After five years she left for America, but
not before working with the shady Ken Sharpe and her father for a
company, Southern Union, with connections to Mugabe. Over here
she lived a similarly fast life of nightclubs, rich men, and
connections that do not add up. Supposedly she had fifty
employees working for her company. Possibly it helped finance the
spy ring.
What we do know is that, after years of gathering
information from these lunkheads, the FBI moved in pretty
spectacularly. Something triggered their rapid arrests. Maybe we
shall know in the months ahead, maybe not. What is obvious is
that the FBI has had a good couple of weeks and MI5 too. Their
reputations glow. It is the KGB/SVR I worry about. This could be
a PR disaster.
