Don’t get mad, Mr. Putin. It’s just our little game.

The news this week, about President Obama ordering 35 Russian staff members to leave the country in retaliation for allegedly hacking emails of DNC leaders, sent my memory reeling back to a conversations I had in 1985 with Yuri Bezmenov, a defector from the Soviet KGB. Yuri’s specialty was propaganda and weaponized journalism. He also was a skilled operative in the diplomatic corps.

deception_job170I learned a lot from Yuri about how governments function at the diplomatic level, but the thing that impressed me most was that political diplomacy is a game played by professionals who follow a strict set of rules. One of those rules is that it is assumed that each diplomat is always lying. Furthermore, one should not take offense at that. It’s merely part of the job, and all the players respect that rule without taking it personally.

Yuri explained to me that, during the Cold War, in order to look good to the people or to cover up some corruption that came to light, political leaders on both sides would find it useful to make a big show of expelling from their country a few members of each other’s diplomatic corps. But it was just a game that the professionals understood. In most cases, those who were expelled soon were replaced by others with the same assignments or, in some cases, they quietly returned to their original posts after a short sabbatical.

(My recorded interview of Bezmenov is shown above. He does not discuss this specific issue in the interview but goes into great detail on how he hoodwinkied journalists and diplomats who visited the Soviet Union. Fascinating stuff.)

All this came to mind when I heard that Obama had given 35 Russian ‘operatives’ 73-hours to leave the country, because they were suspected of having something to do with hacking the emails of DNC leaders. I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them already had plane reservations to Moscow to arrive for a New Year’s celebration with family and friends.

Finally, I began to wonder when Russia, China, Germany, the UK, France, and other countries will send American ‘operatives’ home for hacking emails, phone calls, text messages, bank records, and travel records of the leaders of those countries. Of one thing I am certain, if it does happen, no one will take it personally. It’s just part of the game.

G. Edward Griffin

2016 December 30