With an ascendant China and Russian resources, we need them for friends. And we certainly don't want them for enemies. That is unless you're an arms dealer.

That's so Cloak & Dagger James Bondish!

John LeCarré was in Vienna for the hand-off, and wrote about it in The Guardian. A beautifully-written, nostalgic piece that nonetheless doesn't really say anything meaningful. Still, it's worth reading if you have some time to kill.

Linky.

What happened to those short-wave radios?

Cienna, are you saying you think Obama invented the US and Russians swapping imprisoned spies?

Have you noticed that we never swap prisoners with countries who really like us, like Canada? These spy swaps always happen with countries we utterly despise, like North Korea. What does that tell you?

So anyway. Congratulations all around for the warmer relations.

@6: How many American covert operatives are committing espionage against the Canadian government, or vice versa?
We get along very well with countries like Canada and most of Western Europe, so there's probably not nearly as much spying going on; we tend to share intelligence rather than steal it. Hence, way fewer spies to be captured. And when was the last time we sent North Korea any spies of theirs?
The only countries we really perform prisoner exchanges with are the ones that we like enough to be on civil terms with (i.e., agreeing on a prisoner swap in the first place), but don't trust enough to stop spying on them all together. Countries like Russia, Cuba, and possibly China.

Our close ally Israel spied on us. Jonathan Pollard? Prisoner exchanges with Israel? No. Not so much.