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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

#221

Post by eastbound »

cryptonector wrote: post #203

> Travel and border crossing data, recently made available thanks to an avalanche of terabytes leaked from Russian government databases, showed that Elena Šapošnikova is in possession of a secret Russian passport. Critically, her nine-digit passport number is part of a numerical range reserved exclusively for members of Unit 29155, differing from those of her colleagues only by its last two digits. Šapošnikova’s is 6…

Yes: “Great, you’re our spy now. Keep it secret. Also, please always carry on you this piece of Russian evidence with serial numbers adjacent to all our other moles, because otherwise our own border patrol may reject you on entry with your Czech passport, I decided.”

So they’re telling us that Russia is that bad at spying. But the first commercial supersonic jet was the Tupolev 144, not the Concord.

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

#222

Post by [deleted] »

voltaireodactyl wrote: post #210
The_Colonel wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess smart people visit porn sites when they want to watch some. For me it's just boring filler and I skip them.

While we’re expressing opinions: in a show about navigating a partnership that accepts seduction as a necessary part of intelligence work (not solely of a romantic nature, but often), where the main characters are also being seduced by the capitalist lifestyle — I suspect some smart people might also view those less-clothed scenes as contributing (and even critical to) the underlying themes.

[deleted]

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

#223

Post by darksim905 »

fransje26 wrote: post #191
temporarely wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most realistic Russian sleeper scenario imo was in Slow Horses. Brits don't insult your intelligence too greatly in their spook shows; the American variety always involves some sort of super-human characters. It's good as entertainment, the Americans, but just over the top.

> Brits don't insult your intelligence too greatly in their [..] shows That's a very way to express that idea. I'll be reusing that, if you don't mind.. :-) I've always expressed it more crudely as having the feeling of being forcefully lobotomized by the producers..

As in, British shows don't necessarily explain or show everything? I'm a bit lost here.

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

#224

Post by ivan_gammel »

cryptonector wrote: post #203

> Travel and border crossing data, recently made available thanks to an avalanche of terabytes leaked from Russian government databases, showed that Elena Šapošnikova is in possession of a secret Russian passport. Critically, her nine-digit passport number is part of a numerical range reserved exclusively for members of Unit 29155, differing from those of her colleagues only by its last two digits. Šapošnikova’s is 6…

>That is very sloppy of Russia. Why even bother doing something so dumb?

Some old-fashioned generals did not account for the digital footprint that may be left and modern data mining capabilities when they designed it. In fact, that digital footprint may have not existed yet when the entire scheme was designed. When you need to tell everyone doing ID check that this person must not be bothered, you give them plates from some VIP series or a passport with a certain number - it was a common practice in Russia. I'm pretty sure that this has changed in last few years after those investigations and they write the laws and design the databases assuming zero trust (public property registries now hide or obfuscate information about some entries for example).

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

#225

Post by darksim905 »

adhamsalama wrote: post #182
DrFalkyn wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't any over the top than the original. It mostly just followed The BBC production almost to the letter, except with US spin. Until Season 4?. Whenever the re-election campaign started. Joel Kinnaman, while a great actor (loved him in Altered Carbon) was a massive miscast as a plausible candidate for the GOP. Mostly due to youth. And the last season was a Game of Thrones-level utter disaster.

This is the first time I see a fellow Altered Carbon fan in the wild.

In the wild? For people who read books, they probably weren't a fan. For people who don't care about source material, the show was amazing. I'm still pissed it was cancelled. It was apparently ridiculous expensive to produce and that's all the more reason they should have kept going with it: to show that we want more of those types of things.

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

#226

Post by chatmasta »

arccy wrote: post #181
bee_rider wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone has overstayed you might want to note that down in case they come for another stay, right?

if you don't get any record of them leaving, from a manned border crossing or an airline reporting to you, then they've overstayed

You can also assume the first record of them entering another country is the date they left your country, since a person cannot be two places at once.

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

#227

Post by [deleted] »

brnt wrote: post #218
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…

Good advice: I also found the start not a good salesman but some peristence worth the wait.

[deleted]

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

#228

Post by immibis »

seydor wrote: post #110
captn3m0 wrote: post #52

> 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…

> Furthermore, Elena owned a company registered in the Marshall Islands and controlled two bank accounts in Switzerland. If airlines could be fooled, you'd think at least Swiss banks would do some KYC

The whole reason Swiss has a banking reputation is that it didn't do KYC. At all.

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

#229

Post by darksim905 »

SoylentOrange wrote: post #180
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 a highly sensationalized and fictionalized retelling of the life stories of Elena Vavilova and Andrey Bezrukov. From a historical/accuracy perspective, there’s basically zero resemblance of the show and the source material beyond the premise. As drama, it excels in the drama around the marriage rather than the actual fact of them being spies, and has been praised as “fundamentally a show about a marr…

We clearly didn't watch the same show. The nature in which they use disguises alone was some of the best use in a show I've ever seen. There's also some very clever code words and traps that scary in their realism.

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

#230

Post by geoka9 »

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'm aware of one - grani.ru had to become graniru.org a few years ago.
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