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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

#121

Post by chatmasta »

mmsc wrote: post #112
llmllmllm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK doesn't have exit checks.

Of the ~50 countries I've been to in the past 10 years, The UK is the only one I remember which I did not need to show any ID when leaving. I thought it was strange because this is just one way countries catch overstays.

But what’s the point of catching an overstay if they’re leaving already? It’s more important to catch them when they try to re-enter (at which point you could have collected data from airlines to estimate whether they previously overstayed).

Exit checks are pretty pointless if there’s no violation that would lead to enforcement other than deportation (since the traveler is already self-deporting).

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

#122

Post by vlovich123 »

eej71 wrote: post #84
garyrob wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to give some advice: Don't judge it by its first few episodes. When I first checked it out, the basic setup seemed rather inane and I stopped watching. Then, a couple years later, I needed something to watch during long exercise sessions and I checked it out again. It was getting much more interesting by the end of the first season. And every season got better and richer. By the very end, I experienced it as a…

I had initially ignored the show because they had cast Keri Russell which I had assumed to be a total light weight. So I missed it the first few years and then I realized after its fourth renewal - gee maybe its good - and well - I was completely wrong. She was amazing. The show was terrific. But I'm a sucker for 80s cold war dramatics.

Keri Russell a lightweight? I’m curious what gave you that impression as I’ve always thought of her as an excellent actress. Probably missing out on The Diplomat too if you like political intrigue at all.

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

#123

Post by mmsc »

zarzavat wrote: post #118
mmsc wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the ~50 countries I've been to in the past 10 years, The UK is the only one I remember which I did not need to show any ID when leaving. I thought it was strange because this is just one way countries catch overstays.

They get the records from the airlines. They don’t need to pay someone to stamp passports at the border to know who is overstaying.

Sure (and I'm not sure if that's actually how it works), but the border control also physically stops someone from leaving after they've overstayed. If someone has overstayed, they just go to the airport and hop on a plane with no consequences.

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

#124

Post by hyperliner »

yeahwhatever10 wrote: post #18
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/…

The Americans is pretty banal and follows the basic script you would expect. It's good background noise if you want 80s nostalgia though.

[dead]

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

#125

Post by vkou »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #92
severino wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What for? To start a war between nuclear powers just because of sabotage? Furthermore, we the members of NATO sometimes sabotage other members, like when some pipes of the Nord Stream pipeline were destroyed two years ago. So...

>we the members of NATO sometimes sabotage other members, like when some pipes of the Nord Stream pipeline were destroyed two years ago Damn! You have evidence of that? That must be worth a fortune.

It's worth a lot less in a hypothetical scenario where everyone's decided its in their best interests to forget all about it, which may be similar to the scenario we're currently in.

In politics, the truth isn't usually worth very much, and is second fiddle to the ends.

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

#126

Post by Krasnol »

garyrob wrote: post #26
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/…

I want to give some advice: Don't judge it by its first few episodes. When I first checked it out, the basic setup seemed rather inane and I stopped watching. Then, a couple years later, I needed something to watch during long exercise sessions and I checked it out again. It was getting much more interesting by the end of the first season. And every season got better and richer. By the very end, I experienced it as a…

I've found the show because of a post on reddit listing TV critics ratings for TV shows, and this stood out as one of the few which were good from start to end.

We're at season 5 atm and up until this point, I can confirm the ratings.

...I just wish I could find that reddit post again. Can't remember if there were others good shows on it.

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

#127

Post by mmsc »

chatmasta wrote: post #121
mmsc wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the ~50 countries I've been to in the past 10 years, The UK is the only one I remember which I did not need to show any ID when leaving. I thought it was strange because this is just one way countries catch overstays.

But what’s the point of catching an overstay if they’re leaving already? It’s more important to catch them when they try to re-enter (at which point you could have collected data from airlines to estimate whether they previously overstayed). Exit checks are pretty pointless if there’s no violation that would lead to enforcement other than deportation (since the traveler is already self-deporting).

Deportation is just the end result. Fines, blacklisting, even imprisonment is possible in many countries.

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

#128

Post by vkou »

epistasis wrote: post #77
Georgelemental wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 completel…

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

Doing low-stakes trial runs of its capability for sabotage in a future conflict.

The reason it can do this against NATO is because NATO has non-war means to tit-for-tat punish Russia for this sort of behaviour. Those means are called sanctions, and there could always be more of them.

NATO does not do much of the converse, because Russia has very few non-war ways to punish NATO. NATO would really not like Russia's tit-for-tat response, which is why it prefers to fight arms-length proxy wars, instead.

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

#129

Post by ivan_gammel »

askonomm wrote: post #109
ivan_gammel wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example? Sounds strange to me. Even within Schengen area there can be temporary border checks and you usually need to identify yourself when leaving it.

In-shengen border controls are extremely easy to bypass, and if you travel a lot you know exactly where they are (especially since it is quite rare). Baltic countries have no checks at all at the borders, so you can go Sweden to Finland, Finland to Estonia, Estonia all the way down to Poland without any checks at all, easy. I know there's often a check at the France / Spain border, but I also know they only check bus…

> In-shengen border controls…

I‘m talking about temporary border controls that any country within the area may implement in certain circumstances according to the agreement. They are not the norm, Schengen is supposed to have only an external border.

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

#130

Post by xenophonf »

qup wrote: post #100
thriftwy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> fruit of my spleen Google returns zero results for this phrase (when quoted). Congratulations. I like it.

To vent one's spleen means to express angry feelings, from Hippocrates' theories about the "humors".
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