Evgeny Buryakov

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, on December 22, 2014.

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

Conflict

The FBI has uncovered a Russian spy ring in New York and arrested one of its members — even though the spies didn’t accomplish much at all. So are the arrests just a way for the US to distract from its lack of bargaining power as Russia steps up its involvement in Ukraine again?