Anna Chapman and the spy scandal that never was

If the Russian spy scandal reveals anything, it is just how comfortable relations have got between two formerly bitter adversaries.

While Bond fans still digesting the news of the cancellation of 007’s latest adventure can take some solace from tales of glamorous Russian agents seducing their way through the American political classes, the diplomatic fallout from the arrest of 11 alleged spies has been something of a damp squib.

Russian’s initially sharp reaction promised the start of a full-blown international spat after Sergei Lavrov, the country’s foreign minister, stated the timing of the arrests had been “chosen with a special finesse”. It was not to be, however, and reassuring noises were quickly being made on both sides with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, writing to his American counterpart stressing the importance of “constructive, neighbourly relations”.

This has not stopped the hyperbolic headlines declaring the flame-haired Anna Chapman the femme fatale of the sinister collective, using their feminine charms to gain access to people close to the White House.

It is surprising, then, that not a single one of the suspected “spy ring” has even been charged with espionage. American prosecutors have chosen instead to plump for the lesser crime of being unregistered agents of a foreign government, for which they could serve a maximum of five years.

Dramatic though the swoop by the FBI may have been, it’s hardly on a par with poisoned-tipped umbrellas and polonium-spiked tea. And more noticeable even than the arrests themselves has been the almost sedate response from the authorities on both sides.

For a rivalry that shaped much of the post-war political landscape the muted response is not far short of miraculous. Take for example the case of the retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel George Trofimoff, who was arrested in June 2000 on charges of selling military secrets to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He received a life sentence.

Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent found guilty of selling secrets to Russia between 1979 and 2001, was dealt with similarly severely, and is currently serving a life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Perhaps the fact that they were Russians has saved the group from a worse fate. In the words of another former spy, “To betray you must first belong”. After all, the deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers. But this alone is not sufficient to explain the positively jovial tone adopted by the White House and the Kremlin. There is barely a trace of anger from the former, and neither ire nor embarrassment from the latter. If the worst that this crisis can produce is Putin’s rather limp accusation that the US authorities are “out of control” then these are new times indeed.

The truth, I suspect, is that delicate negotiations over sanctions against Iran, the unfreezing of trade sanctions against Russian companies, and broader cooperation on American operations in the Middle East have taken precedence. It is a remarkable statement of just how important Russia has become that even the uncovering of attempts to gain state secrets by subterfuge is not enough to damage relations, at least in public.

The Kremlin will have seen its evasion of a stronger rebuke as highlighting its significance to the Obama administration’s foreign policy. If it proves nothing else, it certainly shows Russia’s return to the top table of international politics.