They are immensely proud in Vienna that it was chosen once again to be the centre of cloak-and-dagger activities. This time, there was nothing sordid about it. It didn’t happen in the sewers but in broad daylight, most respectably. Last Friday, July 9, four U.S. spies were swapped against ten Russian spies.
The Russian agents touched down at Domodedovo airport south of Moscow after having been handed over to Russian authorities.
“We’ve been told that the children are likely to enter schools here, that they will be educated accordingly. Some of the agents, if not all of the ten, will be given apartments and regular incomes as well,” John Rodriguez, the lawyer of one of the agents, said. The Russian government had promised her $2,000 a month for life, housing and documents to allow her children to visit Russia and have all their expenses paid.
The swap was not only a reminder of bygone days but also a sign of how dramatically the old chessboard had changed. Vienna may have been a hub for spies, but it was Berlin where such exchanges took place. Today, unlike Austria, many of the Soviet Union’s former satellites are members of NATO.
“Austria simply has this tradition as a bridge between East and West, but there really weren’t that many alternatives – Finland, Switzerland and not much more,” said Alexander Rahr, an expert on Russia at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
A report this year by the Austrian Interior Ministry said that the country remained “an important theater of operations for foreign intelligence services. The number of intelligence officers posted to diplomatic missions and international organizations continues to be disproportionately high,” the report said.
Martin Vukovich, Austria’s ambassador to Moscow from 2003 to 2009, said that Russians felt comfortable in Austria, with many taking their vacations there, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Along with New York and Geneva, Vienna is one of the headquarters cities of the United Nations with several thousand foreign employees in agencies like the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization. The city also hosts the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
And with émigré communities from all over the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Vienna is a good place to keep tabs on dissidents. That took a deadly turn, and highly public one, when a Chechen whistle-blower was killed last year.
Barack Obama, who met his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, said after talks between the two leaders last month that they had “succeeded in resetting” the sometimes difficult relationship between the two countries.
Speaking to Al Jazeera about the spy swap, Christopher Walker, a Russia specialist, said: “I think it shows very, very positively that they are both determined that this reset button won’t be disturbed.”
Sources: Salon Newsletter, Al Jazeera
Eric Koch’s new book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
In Berlin, such exchanges took place at the Gleniecke bridge, usually late at night – 11 p.m. or midnight. The Soviets were always known for their punctuality. U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was traded there for Rudolf Abel (if that was his name).
The Times of London notes that the last such exchange took place in 1986. See excerpt below:
1986 The final exchange of spies between the East and West at Gleniecke Bridge. Taking place since 1962, exchanges at the “Bridge of Spies” were fictionalised in the 1966 Michael Caine film Funeral in Berlin.
Here is a website with photos + more details:
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.glienicke-bridge.com/Bridge_of_Spies/austauschkljpg.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.glienicke-bridge.com/Bridge_of_Spies/bridge_of_spies.html&usg=__rmG7bEty1dFn1IvMZEc1H_oHdjk=&h=252&w=336&sz=15&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Fvbe179peNwOlM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGlienicke%2Bbridge%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1
Thank you for this most valuable contribution.
You are welcome, Eric. Vienna had its share of spies too. When I was stationed there with AP we used to socialize with an Austrian count who was married to an American woman. Very old family and he had a coveted three digit licence plate on his Jaguar. A couple of years after we left he was arrested and tried for spying for the Czechs. He had a junior post in the foreign ministry. Clearly, the maintenance costs of the Jaguar drove him to it!
I find it hard to believe that I never heard of that magnum opus of Frederick the Great. I have heard his flute concertos on the radio many times.
I never heard of it either. You can listen to an aria sung by Joan Sutherland in David Schatzky’s response. A critic described the music as “almost unendurably monotonous”.