James Bond can relax and retire, as his power to thrill has long waned, says the Australian of the latest ‘spy’ scandal that broke out after the FBI announced it busted a ring that illegally supplied $50 million worth of commercially available high-tech components to Russia that could be used for military projects.

The Australian quotes intelligence historian Keith Melton as saying that the case showed that "the Russians have learnt from watching the Chinese and the Cubans, they have learnt that creating a digital cover and a legend is increasingly more difficult ... the Chinese and the Cubans had a simple solution, they sent people out in the stream of emigres."

The story has been out on major news outlets exploiting the headline-grabbing case to again depict Russia as an evil-minded but technologically-challenged country.

Like in a New York Times articles which reads as follows:

“Russia has a rich tradition of technology heists for its military industry, dating to the theft of atomic bomb secrets from the United States after World War II.”

“The Russian inability to make microchips goes back decades and has sapped the confidence of generations of engineers here. In the late Soviet period it bared, dramatically, the ever-widening technological gap with the United States. Russians took to bragging darkly that Soviet microchips here were the biggest in the world.”

Fox News cites Stephen L. Morris, head of the FBI office in Houston, as saying that Russia sought "to improve their defense capabilities and to modernize weapons systems at the expense of U.S. taxpayers," without explaining how buying products for money can qualify for theft of U.S. taxpayers’ money.

The Independent keeps harping on the “old rivalry” reminding its readers of the 2010 story when 10 alleged Russian spies were arrested for “trying to infiltrate US policymaking circles” and then swapped for alleged U.S. spies convicted by Russia.

Thankfully, some of the media don’t stop there and actually give more details and analysis.

Bloomberg experts called the case as “the first-ever criminal prosecution of a large-scale Russian military procurement network operating within the United States” and names the legislation the men have been accused of violating – the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act.

Bloomberg also has more personal info about alleged ringleader and director of Arc ElectronicAlexander Fishenko.

The Wired also runs his picture from the Odnoklassniki social network (strangely enough for a spy to have an account there) and is more balanced about its assessment.

According to it, serious limits on exporting double purpose electronics has been “a problem for Moscow, which has been attempting to rebuild its military after decades of neglect, and which includes everything from new and planned fighters, submarines, missiles to wearable computer soldier-suits.”

Locals hugely surprised

One of Houston’s blogs was able to talk to Alex James, a receptionist at neighboring Modern Performance, who said “he never saw anyone coming in and out of their mutual alley and had no idea what was happening inside Arc Electronic.”

More details are in the piece by the Los Angeles Times.

Its reporters were able to talk to Dan Brown, an orthopedic sales rep whose firm is located in the same building as Arc Electronic, who said he had “seen an older Russian man outside the building, smoking, but had never really talked to him,” and that the company “received a lot of deliveries”.

"It's crazy to think there's some kind of espionage and treason thing going on with Russia. None of us had an inkling," he was quoted by the LA Times as saying.

The newspaper was quick to report from federal court where Posobilov, one of the defendants, appeared the first and “sat handcuffed, chained at the waist and ankles.”

“Looking sleepy, Posobilov occasionally closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair as he listened to the proceedings translated into Russian on headphones.”

Much ado about nothing

But the real deal this week was an article in ExportLawBlog, a website run by three lawyers in the U.S.

It actually slams the whole ‘espionage’ idea by looking at the charges from a legal – rather than sensational – perspective.

“The very first count, so even the most slow-witted and slothful reporters can’t possibly miss it, is not for the export violations but for acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires that agents of a foreign principal register with the Department of Justice.”

ExportLawBlog’s Clif Burns gives the details of the act and points out a important exemption stipulated in section 3(d) for certain “non-political” activities, including “engaging … in private and nonpolitical activities in furtherance of the bona fide trade or commerce of such foreign principal.”

So his conclusion is,

“Now if you look at the indictment, you will see immediately that all that Fishenko and his co-defendants are accused of doing is buying things for the Russian government. That doesn’t make them “foreign agents,” much less spies.”

“Frankly, if buying things for a foreign government, company or person makes the buyer a foreign agent, almost every exporter would be a foreign agent required to register under the Act.”

Here's a list of some of the most interesting tweets on the story:

Edward Lucas - humiliating if true.

50 shades of done – OH MY GOD MY NEIGHBORS BACK HOME WERE ARRESTED FOR BEING RUSSIAN SPIES

Jonathan George‏@jdg – Wild to think that there are still active spies among us!

Mark Galeotti‏@MarkGaleotti – #Russia: "a country of failed #spies"

Oliver Bullough‏@OliverBullough – Entertainingly patronising NYT story on Russia's spies arrested for buying commercially available microchips

Nicole Thompson‏@atalanta0101 – Is Russia the only country with spies or are they the only ones who get caught?

Andrew Uys‏@uys999 – Whaaaat...? Russia has spies....? Pffft! ;)

La Russophobe‏@larussophobe – More Russian spies, working to destroy American, Russia's enemy.

Aya.‏@ayalaylaben – WHAAAT?! It's like those gorgeous Russian spies that were caught in the US a few years ago...

Charlie‏@timmyconspiracy = Rial collapses, Russian spies busted in US, Turkey gets reason to call NATO, Japan keeps China busy, oil monkey hammered. nice choreography

Caleb‏@calebernardus – I just think tests are a way Russian spies keep tabs on us. So I make them think I'm dumb by scoring low intentionally.

Here are the links of other stories on spies published by Russia-IC previously: 

http://russia-ic.com/news/show/14582

http://russia-ic.com/news/show/13920

http://russia-ic.com/news/show/13543

http://russia-ic.com/news/show/12060/

Also, check out the Power Vertical podcast by Radio Liberty here.