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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

#271

Post by jijijijij »

etc-hosts wrote: post #61
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 loved the show, but in retrospect, the premise of 2 Soviet spies being the most prolific serial killers in the history of the DC area without being caught is a bit weak. Masha Gessen did some work on making the spoken Russian be more authentic https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/translating-th... ( She must have given up on Keri Russell ) Peter Jacobson (FBI Agent Wolf) appears in comedy Russian TV show i…

I mean there are several stories of these deeply implanted KGB sleeper-type agents in real life. Sure, not serial killers (who knows), but everything else is quite authentic.

Here is a couple from Germany: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/15/married-pair-r...

They had an oblivious daughter and everything.

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

#272

Post by skeeter2020 »

stronglikedan wrote: post #243
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…

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.

This doesn't filter out the series that start off strong with no contingency plan to get picked up, then they get signed to 2+ more seasons, go "ah shoot we blew all our story ideas in season 1" and slow play 3 episodes worth of content for an entire season. So. many. like. this.

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

#273

Post by skeeter2020 »

lencastre wrote: post #194
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Except Community, and BoJaxk

Community is easy - the ones with Dan Harmon involvement are the best. 100% causation.

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

#274

Post by [deleted] »

thriftwy wrote: post #259
whatshisface wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "and what are the downsides" It works the same was in the US. Your taxes pay for the CIA, the CIA overthrows governments for United Fruit, and you buy products from United Fruit. You're paying for bananas twice and they are receiving "security" (wink, wink) for free[1]. Later, CIA high-ups get high-paid sinecures at the United Fruit company, making them the only ones getting compensated for the deployment of the go…

I don't think that Russians are obliged to act imperialistically, especially to their loss. It's just I don't view the creation of Russian Empire in a bad light - quite contrary, most other historical options would likely been worse, up and until 1917 at least. And as a Russian I believe that Russian Empire is a part of essential legacy of the humankind. Same with USSR despite its tragic and cruel history. So when I…

[deleted]

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

#275

Post by pseingatl »

FabHK wrote: post #102
chatmasta wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many (most?) countries do not require you to show any passport when exiting the country. (But if you’re traveling by air, then the next country you enter will likely share your passport details with the country you just departed.)

Examples/source? According to this stack overflow question, the US is (fairly) unique in not having immigration exit checks. https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/122289/why-don-t-...

They regularly check people flying to certain destinations. Catch a flight to Colombia from Miami and you'll find the friendly Border Patrol C̶u̶s̶t̶o̶m̶s̶ agents in the jetway.

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

#276

Post by whatshisface »

thriftwy wrote: post #259
whatshisface wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "and what are the downsides" It works the same was in the US. Your taxes pay for the CIA, the CIA overthrows governments for United Fruit, and you buy products from United Fruit. You're paying for bananas twice and they are receiving "security" (wink, wink) for free[1]. Later, CIA high-ups get high-paid sinecures at the United Fruit company, making them the only ones getting compensated for the deployment of the go…

I don't think that Russians are obliged to act imperialistically, especially to their loss. It's just I don't view the creation of Russian Empire in a bad light - quite contrary, most other historical options would likely been worse, up and until 1917 at least. And as a Russian I believe that Russian Empire is a part of essential legacy of the humankind. Same with USSR despite its tragic and cruel history. So when I…

The British empire cira 1721 was, at least according to the venerable Adam Smith, operating on the modern principle of drafting non-owners into funding and fighting for the security of colonial enterprises they had no stake in. In all likelihood the Russian Empire was the same (it did have North American colonies after all), but I can agree that being the same means treating the adjective Russian as anything but the location is wrong - it's reasonable to speak about Imperialist practices carried out in Russia, not "Imperialism with uniquely Russian characteristics."

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

#277

Post by foobarqux »

cess11 wrote: post #197
foobarqux wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people like these shows, there isn't a proper story just things that happen that are essentially discarded at the beginning of the next season. There is never any real 3rd-act/resolution.

Are you sure you aren't confusing The Bureau with something else?

No. Every season ends on a cliffhanger that seems critical to the story and then is quickly resolved as if it were some minor point in the first episode of the subsequent season. This is the nature of this type of episodic television that runs for an indeterminate time and therefore has no real overarching story (but pretends to) like soap operas do.

I only know of a few examples where writers escape this. The first is to have the episodes be essentially disconnected from one another (e.g. Star Trek). The other is what "The Wire" did by having each season have its own plot that is properly resolved at the end of each season.

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

#278

Post by zarzavat »

mmsc wrote: post #123
zarzavat wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some countries do fine overstayers, but UK is quite happy for people to leave with no penalty, it just doesn’t want them to come back again afterwards.

If someone overstays without a good reason then they are probably not entering the UK again for a long time.

The consequences are almost worse without the exit controls because overstayers will waste money on a flight only to get turned around at the border - assuming they don’t need a visa or ETA.

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

#279

Post by severino »

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.

You mean we don't know who managed to blow up the pipeline that some NATO members threatened to blow up several times? Yes, we only have this official investigation from two ""independent"" countries that wouldn't hesitate to point their finger at Russia if they had any evidence, no matter how weak, yet they closed it "without identifying perpetrators". You're right, no clue!

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

#280

Post by epolanski »

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 for the comment.

I did watch half the first season years ago and wasn't too captured, will give it another go.

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