Russian Spies & Kremlin Honors

In an event that only a few decades ago would of made the West go “ballistic” quite literally, the Kremlin is openly awarding the Russian spies who were caught in the USA the country’s highest honors. Two problems arrive with this: First, it is obviously not good for warming relations between the West and Russia at this juncture to be openly praising espionage. However, Putin is former KGB himself and perhaps the showmanship is more a sign of solidarity to a group of “victims” as far as the Russian national psyche is concerned. They may have a point: typically spies when caught are not publicized, but rather deals are made behind closed doors to avoid a diplomatic crisis, so the parading of their capture may be a political decision, rather than a practical one.

However the more glaring error of the “honors” comes next: why award a bunch of spies who got caught? After all, isn’t it a spies’ job to not get caught? Bestowing the highest Kremlin honors upon people who technically failed (as they got caught), is much akin to handing out participation trophies to adults. The group of spies were sent specifically to make “ties in policy-making circles” and rewarding it openly with the highest Kremlin honors as a “job well done” may put ice on already cool Russia-US relations.