Ten people have appeared in a US court charged with spying for the Russians. So far, only one has admitted that they are undercover agents and one has disappeared from Cyprus in mysterious circumstances. Among the many questions that the case raises are these: What on earth were those people doing? Don’t they know the Cold War is over?
Well – yes. The Russians do know the Cold War is over. But no one should be surprised that espionage is still going on, for the truth is that espionage never dies, Cold War or no Cold War. Countries want to know the secrets of their rivals and competitors, and Russia and the United States are certainly still rivals and competitors, even if the Russians no longer describe the Americans as “the Main Enemy” (as they used to in the days of the Cold War).
