Russia is intensely proud of its espionage history. From the Bolshevik Cheka, through Stalin’s vicious NKVD, the KGB and now President Putin’s modern intelligence agencies, this is a country that revels in its reputation as the home of spying, ruthless, cunning and expert.
Which is why Mr Putin will be beside himself at the incompetence revealed by the bungled cyberattack in the Netherlands, a story of failed spycraft that would be hilarious were it not so sinister.
The Salisbury poisoning was already going down badly in Russia. Not because Russians were embarrassed that agents of the GRU were involved in the attempted murder of British citizens but because it failed. The abortive plot made Russia look silly and inefficient. The jokes about the two