Editorial: Russian spies ... who needs them?

Mark Dawson, editor of Wanganui Chronicle

So there's some good news and some bad news this week.

The good news is that we have no Russian spies in New Zealand.

Not only that, we have no intelligence officers masquerading as diplomats around the Russian embassy. No one to deport at all, in fact ... apart from the usual overstayers and immigration fraudsters.

True there is the odd shady character spotted around Whanganui talking in a strange accent, but they are probably working for WINZ.

I was heartened by this. We are not just a nuclear-free zone, we're a spy-free zone too.
I put it down to PM Jacinda Ardern's policy of transparent government — we have no secrets, so we can avoid all that cloak-and-dagger stuff.

While the rest of the Western world jettisons Mr Putin's agents following the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the sleepy British town of Salisbury, the best New Zealand can do is to ban those jettisoned elsewhere from entering the country.

However, then some people suggested things were not quite what they seemed — as is often the case in the murky world of espionage, according to the Le Carre books I've read.

Perhaps there are Russian spies in New Zealand and the problem is we don't know about them. Or perhaps they are in such "deep cover" that we can't find them to kick them out.

This sparked an attack of Rumsfeldian paranoia — there are things we know we don't know; but then there are things we don't know we don't know ...

But my conclusion is it may not matter too much.

In a world where our own governments are — via the telco providers — accessing our phone calls and emails, and — via our banks — our financial affairs; and where our personal information can be uplifted via Facebook by anyone with a Hacking 101 certificate, is there much left for the so-called "spies" to do?

There is not much privacy any more, and probably not many secrets left to uncover.
If Russian hackers can sway the United States presidential election from an office in Moscow, perhaps the digital world has rendered James Bond redundant.