Fear in a Cold War climate

It’s late at night in an ordinary suburban house in Nowhere, Nebraska, when the phone rings. The homeowner — an ordinary Nebraskan, oozing suburban bliss — answers. “Hello?”

There’s a crackle and then the caller says: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep …” he pauses, then says “Igor”.

Chaos follows as the Nebraskan — actually a Russian sleeper agent — is activated after a 25-year hibernation.

That’s the plot of a rubbish Charles Bronson film called Telefon.

Proving that truth is usually always stranger than fiction, the children of Russian agents Anna Dultseva and Artem Dultsev, who, last week, were part of the biggest Russia-US prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War, didn’t know they were Russians until they were on the plane to Moscow.

They reportedly also didn’t know who the grinning guy with the flowers was who met the family when the plane landed, but probably figured he was a big shot, given the rows of soldiers lining the red carpet.

Vladimir Putin was also on hand to greet Vadim Krasikov, former colonel in the Russian secret service, now freshly sprung from a German jail where he was serving a life sentence for murdering a Chechen dissident.

On the other side of the world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris also made the most of a photo op to greet Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan. Both been sentenced to jail for “spying” on Russia.

Twenty-four prisoners were traded like poker chips, leading to speculation that Putin and others may feel more emboldened to take more Western prisoners for future leveraged “buyouts”.

While not quite a scene from a Le Carré novel, with an agent walking nervously to freedom under the foggy glare of spotlights in Berlin, the swap has been dramatic enough to — briefly at least — ease the fear that grips us all.