Echoes of the Cold War

Something about the Russian poisoning crisis feels familiar.

It's like being back in my late teens when I used to listen to the BBC World Service and also Russian Short Wave radio and their proaganda. The truth was always somewhere in the middle.

Interspersed with the usual tractor stats, harvest stats and praising the glorious motherland that was Russia, useful idiots from the West would be quoted with a pro-Russian spin.

In my youth it was the Labour Party headed by Michael Foot, albeit with a more moderate Socialist stance with Tony Benn adding a more pro-Soviet counterpoint for extra bonus points for the Russian News Service.

These days it's the leader of the Party, Jeremy Corbyn giving full support to the Russians and obfuscating the issue, with the majority of his party facepalming in the background.

The Giorgi Markov poisoning back in 1978 had repercussions through the late 70's and into the 80's as details if the case were declassified. Back then it was easy targets, dissidents and journalists meeting untimley ends. Back then we protected our spies a lot better.

But back then the spy business was a lot dirtier, a lot "wetter" and a lot more personal. Finding weaknesses to exploit, or if one couldn't be found creating one.

These days espionage is a nerdy youth in a grey office finding back doors into computer systems. A lot more impersonal and  more dangerous for all that.

Not that the personal stuff wasn't dangerous, but more of an art.

Things change, things stay the same...