Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theins.ru

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 502 posts

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

#241

Post by surfingdino »

The_Colonel wrote: post #164
surfingdino wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU, Germany in particular, was not interested in making a big deal out of it for fear of getting cut off from the Russian teat. German economy was set up to run on Russian gas and oil and Germany has a lot of influence over Czechia so there was likely some pressure to keep things quiet. But in 2021 there was enough evidence on who did it and what was being planned to take action.

> But in 2021 there was enough evidence on who did it and what was being planned to take action. Seems like you agree the reason it was not published before 2021 was that there wasn't enough evidence collected yet. Isn't that the most parsimonious explanation? Why do you feel the need to add this superfluous German angle / Russian resources unfounded speculation?

Because Germany is the biggest ally of Russia in the EU and has investments in Eastern Europe that benefit from cheap labour available in the region and cheap oil and gas from Russia (well, no more), so it was not interested in upsetting the status quo.

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

#242

Post by alt219 »

The_Colonel wrote: post #139
withinboredom wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spies often work for free, based on their ideologies. Agents, on the other hand, usually get paid whatever their normal pay is (aka, rank), plus danger pay and per-diem, where applicable.

Not these spies apparently. They had meager official income, yet managed to live quite luxuriously.

According to the article, they were arms dealers.

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

#243

Post by stronglikedan »

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…

Thanks. I have a 3 episode rule. If I'm not into it by the end of the 3rd episode, I don't continue. I'll give this one another shot.

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

#244

Post by yread »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #196
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…

>They had to put the exit stamp on _something_? Are exit stamps a thing in Schengen area for EU citizens? I usually just pass an automatic gate after scanning the passport. It does not have any European marks. Stamp is historically a permission to leave, which EU citizens do not need: we are free to leave and return back.

They are at least for nonEU ppl. Friend got in big trouble because border agents didn't stamp her passport - she went to the us, got an exit stamp but no entry or exit stamp from us and no entry stamp in eu (lots of ppl got lazy...). A routine visit to immigration office suddenly turned into pretty strict questioning and several hours of waiting until they check her passport.

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

#245

Post by H8crilA »

ilya_m wrote: post #97
BWStearns wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> having duplicate capabilities for it is a waste. This is a feature, not a bug. This is how a system of checks and balances works in authoritarian countries - the entire security apparatus is duplicated several times over lest one agency becomes too powerful or indispensable. KGB/Ministry of the Interior/Military kept each other in check for much of the later part of the Soviet Union's existence.

This. I would only add that even the FSB (which is theoretically the equivalent of the FBI, and should operate domestically) has extensive foreign operations. It was most likely the FSB that was primarily blamed for the major fuckup that was the raid on Kyiv in 2022. Sergey Beseda, the leader of the "foreign branch", was imprisoned for some time after that happened.

Russia also has had at least three armed forces up until recently, the normal one, the Rosgvardia, and the PMC complex including Wagner. All of them have had rather serious equipment, for example Wagner had tanks, artillery, they even had their own air defence like Pantsir and their own aviation.

Running an oppressive, murderous regime sometimes requires crazy solutions.

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

#246

Post by wcunning »

immibis wrote: post #228
seydor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Up until the war on terror and the US no longer accepting that excuse. They do extensive KYC now.

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

#247

Post by neocritter »

reactordev wrote: post #143
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't judge it by its first few episodes Strong advice for any show.

Agreed. I learned this with Black Sails (first few episodes were huh?) and it evolved into something awesome. The Americans as well. I think that’s usually the case with shows that are trying something new and haven’t quite got the formula down. First season of Star Trek was a freak show of theater that somehow, worked. Thrived. And blossomed. Let’s just pray Bob Igor doesn’t get his hands on the franchise. I now fol…

Black Sails in particular evolved with the writers' historical knowledge of real pirates as they moved from made up nonsense they read to actual research.

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

#248

Post by beezle »

temporarely wrote: post #70
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.

That's a fair statement. My standard for this type of show remains BBC's Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (1979) and the follow up Smiley's People (1982). Alec Guinness owns Smiley. Just perfect. Absolutely gripping yet low budget [+] it actually demands that you use your intellect to keep up. If you haven't seen those I say whip up ye old torrent client and get some. Anyways, I did say "too greatly". Someone up there says…

Back in the late 80s they did a TV production of Deighton's Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match. Unfortunately, BBC/GranadaTV do not wish to release it on dvd or streaming even in original quality, assuming the tapes still exist. There is, however, a low quality youtube (probably a copy of home VHS):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezekuICeYlg&list=PLSpG6jj23V...

Watched with my father growing up, may even have some home copies myself.

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

#249

Post by cryptonector »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #224
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 f…

I too can guess that the point of the ID block was for Russian migration controls to more easily understand that "these people are special", but that would be idiotic whether it was done in 1950, in 1970 or in 2020.

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

#250

Post by BorisMelnik »

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/…

love this show - big fan of Stan
Post reply on HN