Warbadger posted:

If Iranian media reported on that day's rocket attack (it did) and Trump's blowhard rhetoric (it did) I can pretty easily see why a few people out of ~9 million might have cameras pointed at the night sky in Tehran.

Zudgemud posted:

So what did Putin say during his annual speach that justified dissolving the government?

anilEhilated posted:

Does it really matter who the PM is in the Russian system?

anilEhilated posted:

Does it really matter who the PM is in the Russian system?

anilEhilated posted:

Does it really matter who the PM is in the Russian system?

anilEhilated posted:

Does it really matter who the PM is in the Russian system?

anilEhilated posted:

Does it really matter what Putins role is called in the Russian system?

Vasukhani posted:

I finally had the opportunity to watch 17 moments of spring, which I thought was both fantastic and fascinating. I know the cultural impact of the show can't be underestimated, the original broadcasts attracted about ~80 million viewers per episode, which is absolutely insane for a serialized fiction show. I wonder how much the character of Stierlitz influenced perceptions of Putin though, both being KGB agents stationed in Germany? I definitely explains how Russia can have a "KGB day," when I don't think a "spy day" would fly, even in the US.

woodenchicken posted:

There's only a KGB day in the same way that every job has its own 'day' nobody outside of that profession knows or cares about. I had to google rn to confirm it even exists.

fatherboxx posted:

Yeah, similarly to the Paratrooper Day or the Border Forces Day where you have extreme amounts of drunk ex-soldiers roaming in all major cities looking for fights

Vasukhani posted:

I finally had the opportunity to watch 17 moments of spring, which I thought was both fantastic and fascinating. I know the cultural impact of the show can't be underestimated, the original broadcasts attracted about ~80 million viewers per episode, which is absolutely insane for a serialized fiction show. I wonder how much the character of Stierlitz influenced perceptions of Putin though, both being KGB agents stationed in Germany? I definitely explains how Russia can have a "KGB day," when I don't think a "spy day" would fly, even in the US.

Sekenr posted:

It is incredibly boring, I doubt that anyone younger than 50 watched the show. In my case, numerous jokes about Stirlitz had bigger cultural impact than the show itself.

Sekenr posted:

It is incredibly boring, I doubt that anyone younger than 50 watched the show. In my case, numerous jokes about Stirlitz had bigger cultural impact than the show itself.

quote:

It is incredibly boring

Vasukhani posted:

https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/sta...%3D1740%23pti37

Vasukhani posted:

https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/sta...%3D1740%23pti37

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Dwesa posted:

I think I am missing some context

Dwesa posted:

I think I am missing some context

quote:

“V” For “Vympel”: FSB’s Secretive Department “V” Behind Assassination of Georgian Asylum Seeker in Germany

-In our previous investigation of the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili on August 23, 2019 in Berlin, we identified the suspected assassin — who traveled under the fake identity of Vadim Sokolov, 49 — as Vadim Krasikov, 54. We disclosed that Krasikov had a prior criminal history that involved at least two contract killings, once in Karelia in 2007, and one in Moscow in 2013

- We disclosed that as of 2013, Krasikov had been wanted for murder by Russia under an Interpol Red Notice warrant. However, in 2015 the warrant was withdrawn and evidence of his criminal past had been cleansed from Russian databases

- We concluded that the sophisticated procedure of issuing valid documents in the name of a fake persona, along with the full registration of such non-existing person in all government databases, could not have been done without the direct involvement of the Russian State.

A months-long investigation by Bellingcat and its partners, The Insider and Der Spiegel, has uncovered that the assassination of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin last August was planned and organized by Russia’s FSB security agency. The preparation for the murder was supervised directly by Eduard Bendersky, chairman of the Vympel Charitable Fund For Former FSB Spetsnaz Officers, and other senior members of the fund, apparently to provide a veneer of deniability. However, we have determined that essential support for the operation — both for training the assassin and for issuance of false identity papers — was provided directly by the FSB and on the grounds of the FSB’s so-called Center of Special Operations.

In addition, we confirmed that both the FSB and Russian police were aware of the true identity of the detained killer but chose to lie to the German authorities by denying that “Vadim Sokolov” was a fake identity. Russian authorities also attempted to scrub all public data relating to the killer’s true identity, as well as data linked to his immediate family.

This investigation conclusively establishes that the main security service of the Russian state plotted, prepared, and perpetrated the 2019 extraterritorial assassination in Germany’s capital. Alternative hypotheses linking the murder in criminal groups, to Chechnya’s ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, or even to a personal vendetta by rogue former or current security officers, can now be excluded as improbable.

Brown Moses posted:

We just published our latest investigation into Russian spies in Europe with Spiegel and The Insider, this time we've got our hands on the detailed mobile data of the killer of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin last August


Lots of details in there, and we've another major Russian spy story coming on in the next 7 days or so.

Brown Moses posted:

I'm hoping as a follow up to our MH17 podcast series to do 6-8 episodes about all this spy stuff, as a lot of it is interlinked, and I'd think it would work really nicely in that format. It's true crime, but with actual spies, the only problem we have is knowing where to stop investigating, we've probably got material as it is for a dozen major investigations, and we keep finding more as we dig. We've massive amounts of leaked Russian databases and other material, and keep expanding it with each investigation, which means we can go back to earlier investigations and find more details and leads.

quote:

Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new virus outbreak plunged into chaos Thursday as local residents hurled stones at buses carrying the evacuees and engaged in violent clashes with police.