Remember the days of the Cold War, when Soviet and American diplomats would slyly meet in D.C. restaurants to share some moo shu in between bringing the world to the edge of nuclear annihilation? It seems the days of Spy vs. Spy aren’t as far in the past as we’d like to think.

As you’ve no doubt heard, on March 1 Paul Joyal, an expert on Russian intelligence, was shot outside his Adelphi, Maryland home, just a few hours after a meeting at the International Spy Museum. Thankfully, he’s expected to recover. The incident has launched a spate of speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s operatives are at work on American soil.

Since the shooting, various investigative agencies, including the FBI, have offered their own explanations of the crime. Anonymous law enforcement officials say Joyal was shot during a robbery, yet the timing of the incident raises questions. Just four days earlier he appeared on NBC’s Dateline accusing Putin of being involved in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent living in London, who spoke out against the current regime. Joyal said:

A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you – in the most horrible way possible.

Photo by Flickr user Eye Captain.