Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[Legbiter]

Clip via the FT's Moscow bureau chief - and I had no idea this sort of The Americans stuff was still a thing

max seddon
@maxseddon
The children of Anna and Artem Dultsev, the Russian deep cover spies returned home as part of the prisoner exchange, didn't know they were Russian until their plane took off for Moscow for the swap, the Kremlin says. They don't speak Russian, so Putin greeted them in Spanish.

Just imagine learning you're russian.

[Zanza]

Par for the course.  Look up the Vavilov story - The Americans was based on it.

A true case like that happened in Germany as well, the "Anschlag" couple, real names still unknown. Their daughter in that case was already adult when they were caught. She was allowed to stay in Germany.

[Josquius]

I wonder how it'll go in this case.
The Canadian kids were pretty old. One an adult and the other who went to court about it all iirc 16 (what happened with his brother?)
These kids look pretty young.

Also they were claiming to be Argentinian whilst living in Europe. Extra confusion.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It does seem like Russia feels free to send spies and assassins all over the world, and if they get caught, they'll just round up enough random foreigners to get their spies and assassins back.

At some point the west just has to decide that maybe people dumb enough to go over aren't worth releasing actual dangerous people.

It's the same with people going to Iran. There's that Swedish-Iranian professor who on death row or somesuch.
You leave horrible country, don't go back there for any reason! How hard can it be?

[Duque de Bragança]

Another tracksuit back home. 

https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/allies-d-alexei-navalny-tueur-du-tiergarten-couple-d-agent-secret-qui-sont-les-prisonniers-echanges-entre-la-russie-et-les-occidentaux-20240803

[Zanza]

With the Tiergarten murderer, there are rumours that he was close to Putin himself in the 90s in the FSB. 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It does seem that putin is getting assets and we're getting returned idiots...

[Sheilbh]

Would we even know?

Even thinking back to the Cold War there were prisoner exchanges and Russian spies and assets got the Order of Lenin and invites to honoured positions on the podium to watch parades through Red Square. I can't think of any Western spies or assets who were openly celebrated (I mean in the UK I think it wasn't even until the 80s that the state formally named the heads of the intelligence agencies).

[Zoupa]

I love and hate this picture. This dude should be chilling at home watching Netflix like the rest of us. Fucking russia.

[Zoupa]

For reference:

[Zanza]

It does seem that putin is getting assets and we're getting returned idiots...

Supposedly the original idea was an exchange including Navalny.

[Tonitrus]

It does seem that putin is getting assets and we're getting returned idiots...

Supposedly the original idea was an exchange including Navalny.

Navalny should never have been considered...for everything that one can sympathize about him, he went back to Russia with his eyes wide open.

[Admiral Yi]

F16s have arrived.

[grumbler]

F16s have arrived.

This is the moment of greatest danger.  Pilots without combat experience in the jets are going to be much more vulnerable to attack, and we now that Russia will expend considerable effort to attack them, given the payoff in morale (on both sides) if they succeed.  This is the time for the F-16s to only take baby steps.

[Norgy]

For reference:

Think we got that one.
So Lasso's 4th season is defending democracy. Now that is just great.