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Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

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Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#71

Post by mmsc »

> In both cases, she used sophisticated tradecraft that sought to leave no trace in databases accessible to European authorities. For instance, she booked her trips and bought her plane tickets using her Czech passport, registering only that nationality with the Greek airline. But upon crossing the Russian border, Šapošnikova used her secret Russian passport, thus bypassing the need to obtain a Russian visa issued to her as a Czech citizen and eliding the digital footprint associated with the relevant application.

“ sophisticated tradecraft “ lol what?

It’s generally illegal in most countries to use another country’s passport within the country your passport is from. You can’t have a German and Argentinian passport and enter Germany with the German passport and leave with the Argentinian one. Nor can you leave Germany with just the Argentinian one. You can go to other Schengen countries, but you can't leave the Schengen region ("since is your entrance stamp?")

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#72

Post by bewaretheirs »

thriftwy wrote: post #27
kvgr wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean blow up ammunition before invasion? Not enough?

It's one of a stockpiles in a small country (out of many) which doesn't even border Ukraine, and the one who had a lot of economic integration going on with Russia. That also predated the axtual war 10 years. A Russian would say to you that if it's indeed a GRU op, they should do an internal investigation and shoot behind the garden shed the ones who devised / permitted it, after making effort to find out whether the…

The war between Russia and Ukraine started in February 2014 when Russia began occupying Crimea.

The ammunition warehouses in Vrbětice exploded in October 2014.

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#73

Post by SXX »

benterix wrote: post #35
thriftwy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of a stockpiles in a small country (out of many) which doesn't even border Ukraine, and the one who had a lot of economic integration going on with Russia. That also predated the axtual war 10 years. A Russian would say to you that if it's indeed a GRU op, they should do an internal investigation and shoot behind the garden shed the ones who devised / permitted it, after making effort to find out whether the…

> A Russian would say to you that if it's indeed a GRU op, they should do an internal investigation and shoot behind the garden shed the ones who devised / permitted it, after making effort to find out whether they were working for the other side, or just dumb on their own. A naive Russian, I would say. Let's take a simple example: > In 2009 the Šapošnikovs purchased a sprawling villa on the picturesque Aegean penins…

While I have no doubt about the story and these guys being GRU spies...

These numbers are laughtably small. You can't imagine amount of corruption in Russia. Any high-ranking policeman in a mid-sized city will own few villas like that. GRU agent who can smuggle anything and everything might easily have millions of dollars under their pillow.

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#74

Post by taco_emoji »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #9

This is my semi annual plug for all of you to watch the fantastic and somehow forgotten FX network TV show, The Americans, A spy drama set in Washington DC in the 1980s about KGB “illegals” posing as travel agents. It’s way better than any basic cable TV show had any right to be. Plus, all seasons are streaming on Hulu, so you don’t have to worry about whether the story will be completed. https://www.hulu.com/series/…

How is this show "forgotten"? It's one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#75

Post by BWStearns »

surfingdino wrote: post #66
BWStearns wrote: post #5

I didn't know the GRU had an illegals program. I thought it was all SVR. Anyone know if that's a recent development?

All major intelligence agencies have them. Why GRU would be any different?

GRU is nominally military intelligence and SVR inherited the KGB illegals program. These programs are really hard and have a ton of overhead supporting a relatively small number of actual officers. Having duplicate capabilities for it is a waste. Especially in this case where they're used for active crimes/violence. The GRU has never been shy about just going and murdering people on a tourist visa[0], why bother with all the extra overhead?

Not all (or even most) intelligence agencies run illegals programs since they're crazy difficult, fragile, expensive, and arguably a waste of effort/resources.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/05/planes-train...

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#76

Post by adolph »

dylan604 wrote: post #43
amarant wrote: post #6

Wow that story is like something straight out of spy-romanticising drama! Crazy that such undercover agents really exist! Also, I wonder what the pay is like? Or how it even works.. probably best to not leave a obvious money trail between state and spy..

Your pay is whatever job you have as a cover pays you. If you were getting additional pay to that, then it would be a red flag when the various agencies investigate you.

If your pay is less than your cover, do you have to give it back?

How does health insurance work for spy stuff? If the GRU agent gets exposed to novachuck, do they get to see a Russian specialist or do they just have access to the providers in their cover plan?

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#77

Post by epistasis »

Georgelemental wrote: post #62
timthelion wrote: post #40

What I don't understand is why the attack on the Czech Republic was not seen as an attack by Russia on NATO.

Because NATO is not raring for nuclear armadeggon?

If responding to this would mean nuclear armageddon, then what is Russia doing by attacking NATO in this way?

Rolling over beacuse somebody is a nuclear power only seems to come up when Russia is in the chat. If China or Israel attacks someone, nobody says "we can't respond to it because it would start a nuclear war."

What is it about Russia that makes Russia so irresponsible? And if it is, isn't it time to completely eliminate all economic ties with Russia, and pressure every other country in the world to do the same, until Russia decides to be a responsible country with their nuclear weapons.

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#78

Post by temporarely »

scrumper wrote: post #65
jjtheblunt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but "the dogs" in Slow Horses is laughably out of control ridiculous at points...reaches out of your immersion in the interesting story to grab you, shake you, and declare what you're watching is absurd hyperbole. Very disappointed by that aspect and I hope they're done with that excess.

Eh, maybe? There's got to be _something_ for sociopathic ex-squaddies to do who don't want to go back to civvie street. I found their existence believable, if not the high speed Range Rover driving stuff. It's very clearly not going for full-on realism, obviously a fantasy spy show. So the dogs work in that context - at least for me. EDIT: someone else mentioned Tinker Tailor (either the '80s BBC miniseries or the Ga…

> Bleak as hell though.

It's called Realism.

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#79

Post by kgeist »

Klaster_1 wrote: post #39
acdha wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that not translate into the .ru domain name being seized?

As far as I'm aware, no ".ru" domains have been seized yet from media independent from the Russian government. Instead, they prefer to block website access - by law, every ISP has to install DPI-enabled hardware, which is used to censor the net.

I confirm that the the link doesn't open from Russia.

Re: Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe

#80

Post by walthamstow »

miguelazo wrote: post #53
walthamstow wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno. I watched the first few episodes over COVID and I thought it just the same as any US cable show: sex, crash-bangs and manufactured plot twists. Maybe I'm wrong but IIRC there's a sex scene in the first five minutes of the pilot. Like, don't insult my intelligence.

That was probably the only "cheap stunt" of the entire series. They still had to consider the average viewer, I suppose. But I know a few people I recommended it to were turned off by that exact early scene and never got past it. Really unfortunate.

Thanks for this. Maybe I'll give it another go.
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