The arrests this week of ten Russian spies in the United States (another was picked up in Cyprus, released on bond, and has been missing ever since) have provoked an outpouring of news stories and commentary, not only here but abroad.  The FBI’s complaint includes scenes that appear to come from a John LeCarre novel, with Russian-born agents assuming false identities, living normal suburban lives, recovering money for expenses from dead drops and brush passes, and transmitting messages using steganography and wireless computer-to-computer transfers at neighborhood Starbucks stores.  Add in several glamorous female agents, and it’s LeCarre meets James Bond—a sure-fire media winner.

As their lives and activities are put under the media microscope, we will undoubtedly learn a great deal more about those arrested.  The two Latinos living in New York were open left-wing radicals: Vicky Pelaez wrote odes to Fidel Castro’s Cuba and her husband, college professor Juan Lazaro, used his classes to denounce American imperialism.  By contrast, sultry Anna Chapman, built a real-estate business her attorney claimed was worth more than $2 million.