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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

#291

Post by squigz »

foobarqux wrote: post #277
cess11 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think you're confused about what episodic TV is. Star Trek is (or was) (generally) episodic. The Wire is serialized, as is most TV these days.

Some people like episodic TV, some people prefer serialized.

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

#292

Post by thriftwy »

krab wrote: post #239
thriftwy wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it was you who started it. You've attacked my identity by bringing up things that are not directly related to me. Then you complain about hypocricy. I've not asked you to assault me based on my ethnic identity.

I don't see any attack on ethnic identity. Supporting Russian imperialism doesn't have anything to do with ethnicity. If anything, such support only hurts the Russian nation. I'm talking not only about the current loss of life. For at least the next twenty years, the Russians will have much harder time doing business with EU/USA. Such attitude has downgraded Russia in the world's eyes into an "armed gas station". I.…

If you ask me, "what's better, do business with EU/USA or have Crimea", of course I will pick Crimea every time. It's just feels pragmatically more useful to me, like how co-owning a bungalow on a sea shore is better than holding a Costco membership, if you had to pick just one.

That would be before the war, and as the war has started, based on the actions of EU/USA I have very little desire for Russia to engage in much business with either one. Let's keep it formal from now.

I can see in neighbour thread somebody perceiving there is no room for dialogue, which they treat as an optional thing and the one which is mostly benefical for the other party. Guess what, many Russians now treat business with USA/EU in the same fashion. Nice to have, but not essential and may be downwound on occasions.

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

#293

Post by Terr_ »

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.

That reminds me of this exchange, where two men are bluffing their way through a (literal) circle of hell:

> “They think—what do they think? That we’re important officials?”

> “No. Of course not. They know we are only pretending that.”

> “Then what—”

> “But they cannot be sure. We might be important officials. But most of them think we are secret police.”

> “But how do you know there are secret police?”

> Benito looked very sad. “Allen, there have to be. You cannot run a bureaucratic state without them. Come.”

-- Inferno, by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven

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

#294

Post by epolanski »

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.

Now that you make me think about it, that doesn't even seem a feature of authoritarian countries.

I can easily think plenty of countries around the world where security and intelligence duties are often duplicated and overlap.

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

#295

Post by epolanski »

cryptonector wrote: post #249
ivan_gammel wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

And what's the point of Russian border control having them know?

They are Russian citizens with a Russian passport, they can enter their country without issues.

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

#296

Post by epolanski »

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?

Because the scheme predates today's digital capabilities.

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

#297

Post by [deleted] »

mmsc wrote: post #71

> 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…

[deleted]

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

#298

Post by switch007 »

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.

AIUI the stamps are to record your stay duration in the zone and to determine if you've complied with the stay limit (90 days in 180 days). The limits do not apply to EU citizens, hence no stamps needed

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

#299

Post by gsich »

darksim905 wrote: post #225
adhamsalama wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Recasting of the main character didn't help, even if it's explainable in-universe.

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

#300

Post by nox101 »

DrFalkyn wrote: post #120
Barrin92 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Brits don't insult your intelligence too greatly in their spook shows; the American variety always involves some sort of super-human characters. This is why I could never get into House of Cards, it's just so over the top compared to something like Borgen which for me to this day is still one of the best political dramas ever made, also sadly went somewhat under the radar especially across the pond.

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.

I stopped in the episode where, for me at least, out of absolutely nowhere, Spacey's character seduces a body guard and him and his wife have a 3some with him. I'm sure many people loved that. For me, I was like WTF? what was completely out of left field, added to punch up ratings or just it insert shock value. I stopped watching. What that in the UK version?
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