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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

#461

Post by pvaldes »

ericol wrote: post #184
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…

I think what this means is that she used her Czech passport when leaving a country, and used the Russian passport when entering Russia (Thus leaving no trace of her entering the EU as a Russian national). That's far from "sophisticated tradecaft" though. For instance a large % of Argentinians have double nationality (Myself included) and we do this all the time when travelling to Europe.

> Thus leaving no trace of her entering the EU as a Russian national

Computer systems of face recognition deployed everywhere would want to say something about that bright plan

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

#462

Post by q1w2 »

cenamus wrote: post #398
gmerc wrote: post #362

Christo, Michael and Bellingcat have done more to make Europe safe than most intelligence services on the continent. In fact many of those have shown to be compromised by the Russians from the right extremism side - Maassen in Germany, The Wirecard dude in Austria, etc.

If it was only the Maršalek guy im Austria, we literally had an intelligence agent on Russian payroll, police walking out of the Russian embassy with cash gifts... And of course a certain party that is all too fond of the Russian corruption money, literally saying the want Austria to turn into a second Orban regime.

Germany was where Putin was stationed for decades - that's why he speaks fluent German and spends a disproportionate amount of time on German politics. His penetration of German politics makes US politics in 2016 look like test run.

Putin successfully convinced the Germans to abandon nuclear power and then pay him to build a dedicated pipeline into Germany - making all of Europe more dependent on Russia.

...and Germans fell for it. There must be dozens, if not hundreds of Russian operatives in German political offices.

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

#463

Post by racional »

thriftwy wrote: post #458
krab wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you (or anyone) personally benefit from "having Crimea"?

You can obviously travel there and see all the Imperial palaces and gardens, swim the sea, visit the museums and have a really good time. In awesome weather, which is of short supply in what's left of mainland Russia. On the other hand, the usefulness of cordial relations with EU/USA is debatable. You could make a point that if Russia had good relations with Ukraine, Russians could travel there on their own by just c…

Unfortunately Putin's idea of "good relations with Ukraine" is a situation where the latter is greatly reduced in territorial scope, and whatever remains is kept as a pliant vassal state.

With thousands of civilians slaughtered and maimed, just to make a point.

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

#464

Post by [deleted] »

mmsc wrote: post #69
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…

The airline only needs to be physically shown a passport which will get the person into the destination: they don’t record it. So you book with the Czech passport, go through border control with the Czech passport, then show the airline staff the Russian passport.

[deleted]

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

#465

Post by anovikov »

valval wrote: post #444
anovikov wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's a lot better than not letting them leave. Staying in and paying taxes there supports Putin; plus if they knew they are stuck in and can't move to the civilised world, they'd have to develop some sense of belonging with Russia. EU is making everything possible to suck out everyone with half the brain from Russia and this is a good thing. A lot of new immigration programs that appear to be specifically tailor…

Oh yes, it’s not like research says that children of immigrants integrate even worse than their parents.

I know plenty of 100% ethnic Russian kids who simply don't speak (usable) Russian when they grow up. Just for studying in a local or English school and integrating well. They can speak Russian on the level of 7-year old at 15, to speak with their grandmother over Skype, but never use it apart from that, replying their parents in English at home and speaking English to each other at school. So this is absolute bs that kids don't integrate well. Communism is nonexistent to them: it's just not on their mind map, many heard nothing about it beyond Reddit "political compass" memes. They see Orthodox Christianity as elaborate even if very boring cosplay. They don't "see" LGBT people simply because they are 100% norm and nothing to pay attention to, no one giggles at gay couples the way we did as kids. Many never been to Russia although they still hold passports simply for having no interest in that country. No negativity too - it's just not their life story.

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

#466

Post by anovikov »

robocat wrote: post #454
valval wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes, it’s not like research says that children of immigrants integrate even worse than their parents.

Citation? Anecdotally in New Zealand, I know plenty of children of immigrants who have done fine. And their parents that don't integrate (sometimes not even speaking English at all).

Probably they meant that kids of Muslim immigrants become radicalised Muslims while their parents still try to blend in.

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

#467

Post by thriftwy »

racional wrote: post #463
thriftwy wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can obviously travel there and see all the Imperial palaces and gardens, swim the sea, visit the museums and have a really good time. In awesome weather, which is of short supply in what's left of mainland Russia. On the other hand, the usefulness of cordial relations with EU/USA is debatable. You could make a point that if Russia had good relations with Ukraine, Russians could travel there on their own by just c…

Unfortunately Putin's idea of "good relations with Ukraine" is a situation where the latter is greatly reduced in territorial scope, and whatever remains is kept as a pliant vassal state. With thousands of civilians slaughtered and maimed, just to make a point.

As Eador quotes, "dying is the way of men".

Ukraine's reduction is someone else's problem. For some reason, Russian Federation did act like it was a nursery home for ex-Soviet independent states, but there's no obligation to put their interests past our own.

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

#468

Post by tut-urut-utut »

q1w2 wrote: post #462
cenamus wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was only the Maršalek guy im Austria, we literally had an intelligence agent on Russian payroll, police walking out of the Russian embassy with cash gifts... And of course a certain party that is all too fond of the Russian corruption money, literally saying the want Austria to turn into a second Orban regime.

Germany was where Putin was stationed for decades - that's why he speaks fluent German and spends a disproportionate amount of time on German politics. His penetration of German politics makes US politics in 2016 look like test run. Putin successfully convinced the Germans to abandon nuclear power and then pay him to build a dedicated pipeline into Germany - making all of Europe more dependent on Russia. ...and Germa…

If that was the case how do you explain that that pipeline never went live?

If Russia is so influential in Germany how do you explain Germany importing expensive environmentaly damaging LNG from the USA instead of the cheap Russian environmentally friendly natural gas?

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

#469

Post by racional »

thriftwy wrote: post #467
racional wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Putin's idea of "good relations with Ukraine" is a situation where the latter is greatly reduced in territorial scope, and whatever remains is kept as a pliant vassal state. With thousands of civilians slaughtered and maimed, just to make a point.

As Eador quotes, "dying is the way of men". Ukraine's reduction is someone else's problem. For some reason, Russian Federation did act like it was a nursery home for ex-Soviet independent states, but there's no obligation to put their interests past our own.

"Dying is the way of men"

Putin's attitude towards his own people, basically.

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

#470

Post by jononor »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #468
q1w2 wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany was where Putin was stationed for decades - that's why he speaks fluent German and spends a disproportionate amount of time on German politics. His penetration of German politics makes US politics in 2016 look like test run. Putin successfully convinced the Germans to abandon nuclear power and then pay him to build a dedicated pipeline into Germany - making all of Europe more dependent on Russia. ...and Germa…

If that was the case how do you explain that that pipeline never went live? If Russia is so influential in Germany how do you explain Germany importing expensive environmentaly damaging LNG from the USA instead of the cheap Russian environmentally friendly natural gas?

Explanation: The Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022 caused European politicians and population to understand that Russia does not have positive intentions with its collaboration with other nations. This the influence Russia is able to have (at least overtly).
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