One wonders to what extent Soviet Russian intelligence reads blogs (they might look here and here).  A former Company man is rather aghast at their, er, perspective:

…

We can all laugh at this bad version of Get Smart, but the disturbing side of it is the suggestion that Russian intelligence has not grown up since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 — and that probably means neither has the Kremlin. You only have to consider the detailed “tasking” the Russian operatives were allegedly asked to pursue, like uncovering America’s “secret” policy on Iran. Doesn’t the Kremlin understand that even with the Obama Administration, you can figure that out from the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal or conferences sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute? Or take the tasking on the CIA’s leadership. Wouldn’t it have been a lot cheaper for Moscow to open an Amazon account and start buying up memoirs written by former CIA operatives? Unlike in Russia, the CIA pretty much lets its operatives write what they want about its leadership, including the good and the bad…

…If Russia, still acting as if we’re in the Cold War, thinks it can turn Iran into a permanent thorn in our side in the Middle East, that very well could lead to a catastrophe we would both suffer from. Let’s just hope it is only Russian intelligence that’s out of tune with the times, and not the Kremlin.

If I were President Obama, I would quickly release the suspected operatives, send them back to Moscow with bottles of champagne and follow that up with a visit by the Secretary of State to ask what it is the Kremlin doesn’t know about the U.S. that it wants to know.

Baer, a former Middle East CIA field officer, is TIME.com’s intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.

Guess the Russkies just can’t bring themselves to take OSINT seriously.  Meanwhile, some Cancon here.

Mark
Ottawa