Russian spies' return home not quite triumphal

What coverage there was of the events, mostly criticized the spies as amateurs.

Headlines such as “Spy Scandal comes out into a new level of farce: CIA Agents are being exchanged for who knows what,” on Zagolovki.ru, condemned the government’s decision.

“It was a first time ever that Russian media mocked and ridiculed some of the agents involved in the spy network in America,” said Alexander Nekrassov, a former Kremlin advisor.