Husband and wife outed as GRU spies aiding bombings and poisonings across Europe • Hacker News Board

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

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Post by filmgirlcw » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 12:54 AM UTC

pohl wrote: post #317

vlovich123 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can understand the reflex. To me she was "that actress from that show Felicity that I never watched". The Diplomat turned me around real quick.

Incidentally, and I realize the appeal for the show is significantly less if you aren’t a teenage girl (as I was when I watched it), but Felicity is excellent and she’s excellent in it. Like, beyond excellent. Like, there was the acting all the other WB actresses were doing in the late 90s/early 2000s and then there was what she was doing.

If that show had aired on a real broadcast network (as JJ Abrams' next shows were) and not on The WB, she would have been nominated for Emmys out the wazoo. As it was, she won the Golden Globe for that first season, but she should have at least been nominated for the Emmy for her work on that show, because she was every bit as good or better than her peers on cable or network.

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

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Post by anabab » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 12:59 AM UTC

wcunning wrote: post #246

immibis wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

there is the "are you a US citizen or a green card holder" question on every application form. probably there are two separate workflows depending on the answer.

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

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Post by chmod775 » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:04 AM UTC

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…

>Wouldn't the Greek airline (and Greek exit immigration control) check for a valid Russian visa for a Czech passport?

There's no exit stamp for EU citizens leaving the EU. Also nobody cares whether you actually have a valid visa for the place you're going. It's not their responsibility. Maybe somewhere in some paperwork they make you say that you do and nominally they're supposed to check it, but I'm not sure anyone actually does.

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

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Post by whatshisface » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:34 AM UTC

thriftwy wrote: post #330

whatshisface wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That's true, we are more of Russian Empire survivors than heirs. Most of my ancestors are unsurprisingly peasants with serfdom (and then, kolkhoz ) background. Still, if there are any possibilities to "cash out" the paltry benefits of history they went through, Russians will not hesitate to. After all, as you have rightfully noticed, common folk of both Russian and British empires have already paid for it in their sw…

Its a difficult subject, but it would be worth thinking about what happens to "we," when an aristocrat has made use of their serfs and no longer has need of pikemen.

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

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Post by tptacek » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:34 AM UTC

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…

The Americans : espionage :: The Sopranos : organized crime.

The Sopranos was not especially realistic. But realism wasn't the point; there was just enough verisimilitude to serve the narrative, which was a kind of morality play. It's the same with The Americans, which is at bottom more of a relationship story than one about espionage. (We agree, I think.)

A lot of research went into the show, but it shows up in the same ways research shows up in Mad Men.

Don't watch it expecting to learn a bunch of stuff! That's not the point.

(A top 5 series for me.)

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

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Post by toofy » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:35 AM UTC

tharmas wrote: post #13

amarant wrote: post #6

Wow that story is like something straight out of spy-romanticising drama! Crazy that such undercover agents really exist! Also, I wonder what the pay is like? Or how it even works.. probably best to not leave a obvious money trail between state and spy..

I recommend "The Octopus Murders" on Netflix. The "spy world" is active in all kinds of activities. Many unsavory. All in the name of "the National Interest". Also the story of Gary Webb is quite interesting too.

The Octopus Murders was absolutely fantastic.

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

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Post by edm0nd » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:35 AM UTC

Krasnol wrote: post #157

syngrog66 wrote: post #150

Russian website, yikes

> On 23 July 2021 Russia's Ministry of Justice added The Insider to its list [ru] of "foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent".[66][67] On 14 December 2021 a court in Moscow ordered the outlet to pay 1 million rubles.[68] On 15 July 2022, the publication was banned in Russia alongside Bellingcat. Following this restriction, any Russian citizen who aids Bellingcat or The Insider may face crimina…

The website is banned sitewide on reddit. If you post any URL of it, it gets auto blocked and wont successfully submit.

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

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Post by ramses0 » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:38 AM UTC

vundercind wrote: post #304

foobarqux wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Riverdale is that thing you hate but made the primary characteristic of the show . Especially past season 1. They’ll set up what feels like a season finale in most episodes, then instead of resolving it in the next, quickly toss it aside or even just ignore it. It’s not good, and I would not recommend it at all, but it’s maybe the weirdest show I’ve seen. I remain unsure whether the writers were aware they were writi…

Lost would like to have a word. I rented the 6-season DVD set to watch while recovering from an injury and the ONLY good thing about that show was that the first time through you had to wait a week between episodes.

Watching without the cliffhanger/socializing "what's next" discussion, and seeing them discard 87.3% of all plot points with reckless abandon made me hate the show after watching 2-3 seasons.

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

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Post by xarope » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:55 AM UTC

hughdbrown wrote: post #266

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…

Try this: look up the most highly rated episodes on IMDB and watch only those. Missing the crummy episodes usually does not interfere with understanding the story arc. Often, I set a minimum IMDB score that I will watch, like 8.5 or 9.0 to capture only the best. This works well with series that: - take a year or two to find their footing or - have a large cast (some mediocre) that get their own story lines of no cons…

Wow, thanks for the watching list! I agree on season 6 of House of Cards, sadly Robin Wright can't carry the series the way Kevin Spacey did.

Albeit, we got bored of money heist after season 1.

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

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Post by ikrenji » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 1:56 AM UTC

thriftwy wrote: post #20

[flagged]

so you just ignore the evidence? in case of skripal the weapon of choice - novichok - is that something that is easy to obtain? or is it a signature poison of the FSB? also the two FSB bimbos bobbing around the sleepy skripal town at the same time he gets poisoned? bit of a coincidence no? one of them was also linked by czech police to the vrbetice explosion. just because u don't think the FSB has a good enough motive it doesn't mean they didn't do it.