The New Cold War at Boeing

You've heard about those companies that hire cheap overseas professionals to do their accounting, software programming, and architectural work, and you want to jump on the bandwagon. Not so fast. Your U.S. staff might just balk. There may be no better example of that than Boeing Co. (BA )

Nearly 12 years ago, as the Soviet Union collapsed, Boeing started recruiting out-of-work Russian aerospace engineers to collaborate on space and commercial-airplane projects. At first, their numbers were small. But the Russians did good work for as little as $5,400 a year. Boeing began to view its Russian staff as the vanguard of a new push into the European market, and in 1998 it opened its Moscow Design Center, which a year ago boasted nearly 700 engineers. From the day the center opened, engineers at Boeing's Seattle hub had voiced concerns. Last year, those fears boiled over.