Washington ( CNN ) -- The arrests of 11 people accused of being part of an espionage ring under deep cover for Russia shocked their neighbors in the suburbs . Presumably it was also news to President Obama , coming as it did right after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev 's departure . What should not be a surprise to any of us , however , is that Russia continues to spy on the United States . Espionage is a fact of international life and always has been . The first spy manual , The Art of War , was written by Sun Tzu some 2,500 years ago . Espionage fills a vital niche ; a successful operation can provide insight into intentions , plans , and human dynamics that can not be gleaned from intercepted communications or pictures from space . It is safe to assume that since the end of World War II there has never been a day that the Soviet Union or Russia was not spying on the United States , or vice versa . Espionage will continue , even as the United States and Russia work out a new modus vivendi . Presidents Obama and Medvedev may have recently `` reset '' the U.S.-Russian relationship , but that does not mean U.S. and Russian interests or perspectives are necessarily aligned . There remain significant issues of disagreement over European security . The two countries have until recently been at loggerheads over Iran . After September 11 , Russia reluctantly allowed the United States military to operate out of bases in Central Asia , which it views as its own backyard . The two countries belong to the G-8 and the G-20 -- venues not only for cooperation , but also for sparring . Russia also has great incentive to continue its historical efforts to ferret out America 's economic secrets and steal its weapons technology . Frankly , in a world in which even allies spy on one another , the Russian intelligence service would be shockingly incompetent if it were not spying on us . Espionage operations tend to operate on long timelines , and the alleged Russian implanting of `` illegals '' in this country fits the pattern . Juan Jose Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez came to our shores more than 20 years ago ; Richard and Cynthia Murphy reportedly came in the mid-1990s ; Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley in 1999 ; Michael Zottoli in 2001 . U.S.-Russian relations were very different when Moscow Center dispatched these officers . The Bosnian and Kosovo wars , NATO enlargement into Eastern Europe and Russian weapons sales to Iran were roiling the waters in the 1990s . Moscow seems to have calculated that with these agents in place , there was little reason to pull them out , even if relations with Washington were on the upswing . What is surprising about this case is how many illegals were apparently operating together and how little they accomplished or were likely to accomplish . During the Cold War , the heyday of this technique , the KGB typically dispatched such agents singly or as couples . They were usually compartmented from one another , not in networks of 10 or more , since all of them would be vulnerable if there was a single security slip-up . The Soviets also used illegals mainly for assignments too difficult for KGB officers working under `` official cover '' as diplomats or attachés . It 's not clear what , if anything , these new accused illegals were able to do to steal sensitive information or even help other agents . Maybe the FBI will reveal more on that , but at the moment , this operation looks like a waste of effort on Moscow 's part , indeed an embarrassment to its intelligence service . Will this spy flap seriously damage U.S.-Russian relations ? The early signs are that it will not . Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin , himself a former KGB officer , has said that he hopes the incident will not damage the improving relations between the two countries . The State Department said it intends to focus on other things . The United States , of course , can not be expected to like the fact that Russia spies on us , and is briefly entitled to a modest amount of indignation . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Earnest .
Peter Earnest says arrests this week of suspected agents in Russian spy ring no surprise . Espionage fills vital niche , he says , providing information about plans , human dynamics . Accused spies appear to have gathered little information , he says . Earnest : Early signs are incident wo n't damage improving relations between two countries .