The 11th man

If you recall, the 11th man in the recent spy scandal in the U.S. was the money man who ran the other 10 Russian deep-cover spies. He mysteriously disappeared after being let out of jail on bond in Cyprus, and little has been said of him since. We've been led to believe he's safely back in Moscow, but some people suspect he was actually a double agent who gave up the others and is now safely back in the U.S. There are intriguing parallels with the story of Robert Rachardžo, a Russian spy who ended the careers of three Czech generals by befriending one of their female coworkers. Jiří Komínek first wrote about it in Jan., but the most interesting tidbit was in Respekt this week. Although the BIS spy service had been tracking Rachardžo for years and had plenty of proof against him, he was mysteriously encouraged to leave the CR last Sept. No one has explained this. We've been led to believe that he's safely back in Moscow, but it seems equally likely to us that, like the 11th man, he was a double agent who is now living safely in the West. [Czech Republic United States of America]