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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

#251

Post by surfingdino »

mandevil wrote: post #96
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…

While it is probably a waste of resources, dictatorships are famous for having wasteful duplicated efforts: dictators need their people to constantly be competing with each other, and to split favor so that no one ever becomes strong enough to pose a threat to the Big Man himself. That is the whole reason for the GRU-KGB split in the first place!

Suvorov wrote about the Soviet practice of making GRU and KGB compete for the same goals to ensure they get the best intelligence.

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

#252

Post by indigodaddy »

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?

Don’t think he can be talking about The Bureau either. It’s in my top ten all time TV shows.

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

#253

Post by carabiner »

sspiff wrote: post #233
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 second this. Of all the TV shows I've watched over the years, this is one is easily the one I've spent the most time thinking about, even long after I finished watching it. While it has it's ebs and flows, it never got bad or dull for me. And it contains a ton of details you might think is for dramatic effect or cinematography, but often it turned out to be based on actual practices, historic fact or just have a pr…

The whole Est conference thing was real and pretty popular in the '80s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training

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

#256

Post by int_19h »

thriftwy wrote: post #44
dralley wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the motive "not there"? Skripal was seen as a traitor, having acted as a double-agent for British Intelligence. There's a clear pattern of Putin going after "traitors" - Alexander Litvinenko had publicly accused Putin of conducting assassinations and organizing false terrorist attacks before fleeing to the UK and famously being assassinated with Polonium there. Maksim Kuzminov was just assassinated in Spain a…

[flagged]

The widespread perception that there's no room for dialogue with Russia would be one of the downsides that you have asked about. If you decide to openly endorse its foreign policy, don't complain that you get treated accordingly, as well.

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

#258

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

eej71 wrote: post #84
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…

I had initially ignored the show because they had cast Keri Russell which I had assumed to be a total light weight. So I missed it the first few years and then I realized after its fourth renewal - gee maybe its good - and well - I was completely wrong. She was amazing. The show was terrific. But I'm a sucker for 80s cold war dramatics.

you might also be thrilled by her performance in "The Diplomat". She is absolutely no light weight.

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

#259

Post by thriftwy »

whatshisface wrote: post #212
thriftwy wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> "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 see "Russian imperialism" being thrown around as a casual insult I stop being constructive in response. This is not the right way to discuss histories, and especially you shouldn't try to frame any ethnic and religious group for their history in serious faith.

I see a lot of political zealots doing that kind of slander, not really understanding what they are doing and why.

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

#260

Post by jijijijij »

darksim905 wrote: post #223
fransje26 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Brits don't insult your intelligence too greatly in their [..] shows That's a very way to express that idea. I'll be reusing that, if you don't mind.. :-) I've always expressed it more crudely as having the feeling of being forcefully lobotomized by the producers..

As in, British shows don't necessarily explain or show everything? I'm a bit lost here.

Well, looks like British television isn't for you.
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