Who would have thought that 2010 would go down as the year of the spy? Memories of the Cold War and plots more at home in a James Bond story (not to mention those pictures of Anna Chapman) have been at the forefront of world news. And we ain’t done yet.
The week started with Russia’s FSB security agency saying it had caught Romanian diplomat Gabriel Grecu “red-handed” in the act of spying. The Romanians have now responded, and plan to “declare a diplomat in the [Russian] embassy — with an equivalent ranking — as persona non grata.” In other words, as the saying doesn’t go, anything you can do, we can do just as well.
Romania has fumed at the treatment dished out to Grecu, calling the decision a “severe breach by Russian authorities of the 1961 Vienna Convention regarding diplomatic relations.” For its part, the FSB said Grecu was detained “during an attempt to receive secret information of a military nature from a Russian citizen.” But with the Romanians now actively looking for a Russian to kick out, expect this story to run and run.