Russian Spy Episode Shouldn't Derail Relations

The FBI rolled up a Russian spy ring in suburban America just days after President Dmitry Medvedev tooled around Silicon Valley, netting an iPhone 4 from Apple's Steve Jobs and a promised $1-billion investment from Cisco Systems. The leader of the United States' Cold War foe then chowed down on cheeseburgers with President Obama in Arlington, Va., at a diner blocks from the apartment of one of the alleged secret agents. Agents, by the way, who apparently never sent home any secrets.

John LeCarre might have discarded this story as beggaring belief, but it's a true-life collision of past and present relations with Moscow. And just as intriguing as the facts of the case is our collective reaction: surprise, fascination and an odd sense of familiarity, but not fear or outrage.