Russia’s ‘incompetent’ spies get nabbed in New York, but here’s why it doesn’t matter

On Monday, the FBI brought charges against three men accused of running a Russian spy ring in New York City. The men are accused of collecting information for Russia’s foreign intelligence agency and attempting to recruit New York residents as intelligence sources.

Two of the men — Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy — are protected under diplomatic immunity and have since returned to Russia. The third, Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested and detained in court.

“These charges demonstrate our firm commitment to combating attempts by covert agents to illegally gather intelligence and recruit spies within the United States," said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. "We will use every tool at our disposal to identify and hold accountable foreign agents operating inside this country — no matter how deep their cover.”

According to the FBI, the men sought secrets tied to the New York Stock Exchange and US economic sanctions, and attempted to recruit students at universities. But Kimberly Marten, a professor of political science at Barnard College, says that it doesn’t appear that the men got any valuable information.

“If you read the entire complaint, what you discover is that they really didn’t get anything,” she says. “They did not seem to get any classified information. They did not even seem to get any commercial secrets … In many ways, it looks a lot like the complaint that came out in 2010 about the 10 sleeper agents. [This time] the difference is that all three of them were state employees.”

In July 2010, ten Russian sleeper agents were arrested in American cities and suburbs after it was discovered that they were part of a deep cover espionage ring run by the Russian intelligence service. The operation later inspired the television drama "The Americans."

Marten says this latest FBI complaint indicates that the investigation into these three men began immediately after the 2010 sleeper cell was made public.

“It was an investigation that was ongoing for several years, but you have to believe the timing of the announcement might have been related to politics,” she says. “This is really highlighting the apparent incompetence of the people from the Russian foreign intelligence service in the United States. I think one of the questions is are we just getting the low hanging fruit, or do they really not know what they’re doing?”

Though the FBI and Department of Justice have made headlines by identifying and charging alleged Russian spies, Marten says the move ment to serve as a political distraction.

“This is sort of a diversion from the really important thing that’s happening with Russian relations with the West,” she says. “The fighting in Ukraine is really going up again — it’s really swelling and getting much more deadly all of a sudden. The Russian official comments that are coming out are now saying that it’s not against Ukraine, that it’s against NATO.”

According to Marten, Russian officials allege the people fighting on the side of the Ukrainian military are actually NATO forces. And while the death toll continues to rise, Marten doesn’t believe that the West can do much to stop the conflict.

“Obama was very clear that we are not interested in getting militarily involved,” says Marten, who adds that the EU and US will likely level new sanctions. “Beyond [sanctions], there’s just not much control that the United States has — unless we were willing to go to war with Russia over Ukraine, and I hope we don’t make that decision. There isn’t really much more that can be done.”