unSpy v unSpy

Something is rotten in the land of espionage. Following last month's highly orchestrated spy swap between Russia and the United States, two of the spies have come out to say, well, they're not spies.

The Wall Street Journal broke the first story. One of the Russian spies, after having sang patriotic songs with Vladimir Putin and had a hero's welcome, simply said he doesn't know what anyone is talking about.

Mikhail Vasenkov, one of the twelve Russian spies arrested in New York, has come out to say he doesn't know who Mikhail Vasenkov is, that his real name is Juan Lazaro, and that he wants to go back to Peru, his wife's home country.

Unfortunately for Mikhail--a name that is likely an alias, as there is no record of the name in Russia--the FBI kept close tabs on him for nearly a decade, including wire-tapped conversations that very clearly show he was up to no good, even if he was bad at it (his Russian liaisons were routinely disappointed in the information he provided).

Still, his tale of espionage is a fascinating one. He arrived in a Soviet-supported Peru on a false work visa back in the 1970s where he married a local woman. By the mid-1980s he had secured work in New York, and from there settled into his collection routine. All told, the man lived a cover life for 35 years, raising the psychological question: where does a cover life stop and one's real life begin?

Then there is Igor Sutyagin, whose release the US requested as part of the prisoner exchange. Igor is not a spy. He just isn't. He once worked for a British firm in Russia providing opinions on unclassified, widely available news reports and public information, but was sentenced to 15 years in a Siberian prison regardless. The US claims he is not a spy. His arresting officials agree he is not a spy.

As part of the prisoner swap, he was dropped off in London with a change of clothes and $3,000. He misses prison, and he misses Russia.

Read more on Mikhail in "Busted Russian Spy Wants Old Life Back"
Read more on Igor in "Ruing Exile, Russian Says He's No Spy"