It might look like a check of a low-end intelligence implant. They are given this sort of tasks initially to prove their practicality.
The problem is Russia identifies hundreds of foreign mostly CIA plants like that annually and most are simply watched for more intel or getting deported.
Arresting this guy given he is a real spy and not framed is an obvious escalation and it is to be retaliated with hurt put on US citizens, mostly CIA officers and their recruits, mostly US citizens too.
He was a spy. He has to go to prison. Not much explaining away what he did.
“Arresting this guy given he is a real spy and not framed is an obvious escalation”
Us arresting the spy is an “escalation”? Nope, the escalation was someone sending him.