IT WAS almost as if the clock had been turned back to the Brezhnev era. The Russian media accused the United States of "boorishness" and "outrageous behaviour," the Russian Secret Service threatened "concrete reprisals" against "American spies". Finally the Americans gave in and a former KGB agent was released from custody following a phone conversation between the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, and US Vice President, Mr Al Gore.
The return to the Cold War - centred on Mr Vladimir Galkin who, on his first business trip to the United States, was arrested at Kennedy Airport and faced espionage charges in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Mr Galkin, a retired KGB officer, was charged with conspiring to obtain the secrets of the US Star Wars programme in 1991, when the Soviet Union was still in existence. The US action drew cries of "boorishness", "outrage" and "provocation."
Ms Tatyana Samolis, spokeswoman for the SVR (a successor agency to the KGB), pulled no punches. The Americans, and particularly the FBI, she said, "could not ignore the fact that former US spies now working in Russia may face similar measures
"There are more than enough employees of the US Secret Service, active and retired, in Russia at present," she added menacingly.
The Russians said Mr Galkin went to the United States in good faith and even mentioned his former profession on his visa application form.
Russia's foreign minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, a former head of foreign intelligence, took the Galkin case under his wing and dispatched Russia's ambassador to the US State Department to seek an explanation.
If Mr Galkin was not released, Ms Samolis said, the case would develop from one which damaged relations between Russian and US intelligence services to one which would harm relations between the two countries.
Finally the Americans blinked, just as the Russians had during the Cuban missile crisis. Americans in Moscow could sleep soundly last night.
In a separate development, the deputy head of the Security Council, Mr Boris Berezovsky, said he had "recently" relinquished Israeli citizenship as he was becoming more involved in politics.
Mr Berezovsky's citizenship was raised in an article in the influential Izvestiya newspaper following his appointment to the council. It had been headed by the popular Gen Alexander Lebed until he was fired three weeks ago.
The latest opinion poll published in Moscow yesterday showed Gen Lebed to be the most trusted politician in Russia, 10 percentage points ahead of President Yeltsin and the communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov.
