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We discovered our parents were Russian spies
- TerryADavis 11y agoWhat's yer name, nigger?
- pbreit 11y agoSurprised not a single mention of "The Americans" which sounds very similar (and a great show). Edit: my bad. I did a search and it didn't return anything.
- greenyoda 11y agoThe article does mention "The Americans": "If Tim and Alex’s story sounds eerily familiar to fans of The Americans, the television drama about a KGB couple living in the US with their two children, that’s because it’s partly based on them. ..."
- osipov 11y agoI liked the 1st season and stopped watching in the middle of the 2nd one, felt that the writers deliberately tried to make the main characters less likable than they were in the beginning.
- maxerickson 11y agoI think they tried to use a softer introduction and then harden them up once the audience got to know them. They are brutal killers, you aren't necessarily supposed to like them. SPOILERS They eventually reveal themselves to the daughter and she tells her priest. It's really pushing suspension of disbelief for me that the several additional mouths stay shut.
- hartpuff 11y agoI agree. The only way such a casual reaction is plausible is if they are also KGB agents. The problem I'm having is that it doesn't really invoke any Cold War aspect any more. They basically just are Americans, meeting with other "Americans", watching American movies or David Copperfield, visiting EPCOT or EST, alongside some rather tedious non-political espionage. They (very suddenly) don't seem to have any solid association with the Soviet Union or "the cause" any more. The now sadly all too rare Rezidentura scenes (with some of the most interesting aspects and characters of the show IMO) and Reagan clips just seem like tacked-on lip-service to the original concept.
- MichaelGG 11y agoExcept, from the little I read, there was no murders attributed to these "illegals". No doubt a bit of TV license. Just like the top spies or doctors spend time doing boring labwork a low level worker could do.
- maxerickson 11y agoYeah, I was talking about the characters.
- toomanythings2 11y agoDramatic TV shows, movies and books are about entertainment, not telling the truth as it really happened. Almost all such things carry the disclaimer "based on" and anything can be changed and be different.
- motoboi 11y agoOh, my. I tried to turn my head away when I read the spoilers sign, but couldn't. Thanks for ruining the season for me. =(
- maxerickson 11y agoJon Snow dies. I think the reasonable statute of limitations on politely saying nothing is something like 6 months (it's been almost a year).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- chatmasta 11y agoExcept for this one: > If Tim and Alex’s story sounds eerily familiar to fans of The Americans, the television drama about a KGB couple living in the US with their two children, that’s because it’s partly based on them.
- RaleyField 11y agoNot sure what the purpose of your reply is. It's clear that you haven't read the article nor even bothered to ctrl+f, as that would reveal it is mentioned that the family was inspiration for the show.
- pbreit 11y agoI actually did read most of the article and did a ctrl-f for "the americans" (with quotes) and the only instance it found was in a comment that also didn't see the reference. Sorry about that.
- santoshalper 11y agoIf only you had done a search with your eyeballs, by reading the article.
- pbreit 11y agoI did read over 2/3 and was surprised not to see the reference to that point. I also did a search but included "s which found the commenter who also expressed surprise at the "omission" so I thought I was on firm ground. My apologies.
- piyush_soni 11y agoOk people, no need to be so harsh about a simple mistake. We all do them.
- mookerific 11y agoIt clearly sounds like money is no obstacle, and perhaps this is due to the parents' return to Russia as heroes and subsequent plush career placements. So while the kids's psyche are probably quite damaged, they won't be going hungry. Very interesting read.
- justlsice 11y agoSuch a long article but interesting.
- Artoemius 11y agoThe most interesting thing for me is how easily KGB survived the fall of the USSR. Not only did they seamlessly continue all their espionage programs started during the Cold War, but they also easily came back into full power in less than a decade, appointing one of their agents as the ruler of Russia for life. This shows the power of any major secret service. They can do literally anything they want. They don't care about anything except their own survival, and they will easily adapt to any circumstances and any political climate.
- pjmlp 11y agoThis is why having been born just out of dictatorship in Portugal, and knowing how the McCarthy worked out, why I always wonder how US citizens have this glamours idea that their secret services follow some kind of law, besides their own agenda.
- alixaxel 11y agoAs a Portuguese you definitely made me wonder now... Care to expand?
- pjmlp 11y agoLike many of us, I had family fighting in colonies and know lots of histories from people that were affected by PIDE/DGS or had "nice interviews" with their officers. I wonder how you can wonder about those days, unless from being part of more younger generations where those days sadly don't mean anything any more. Do you know that the way PIDE/DGS imprisoned some students is part of the genesis for Amnesty International?
- moioci 11y agoWhat did McCarthy have to do with the secret services of the US?
- pjmlp 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
- cperciva 11y agothey are fighting a legal battle to win back their Canadian citizenship, stripped from them six years ago. They believe it is unfair and illegal that they are expected to answer for the sins of their parents This is mis-stating (I suspect deliberately) the situation under Canadian law. They weren't "stripped" of Canadian citizenship (as can happen to war criminals who lie on their citizenship applications); rather, it was discovered that they had never been Canadian citizens in the first place. Their parents lied to them and told them that they were Canadians; but the fact that they were harmed by their parents' fraud is not a reason for the fraud to be made reality. On the other hand, the Canadian government does seem to be wrong when it comes to blaming them for the circumstances and annulling Alex's student visa. The fact that have they lived in Canada and identify as Canadian seems like strong considerations in support of an application for a visa or even permanent residence; the fact that they were tricked into thinking that they were Canadian once doesn't mean that they shouldn't have the opportunity to truly become Canadian.
- the_mitsuhiko 11y agoThey were born in Canada so they should be citizens independently of their parents.
- cperciva 11y agoI'm not sure what you mean by "should" here. Are you arguing that I've misstated the law, or that the law is stupid?
- computator 11y agoEarlier you wrote: > it was discovered that they had never been Canadian citizens in the first place. Their parents lied to them and told them that they were Canadians You misunderstood a key fact from the article: They were born in Canada. "You are probably a Canadian citizen if you were born in Canada", according to: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/index.asp http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/index.asp where "probably" means there are very obscure exceptions that only a bureaucrat can dream up.
- gaius 11y agoThis is probably quite common among Grauniad writers.
- Pingviini 11y agoThis is a pretty cool story. A shame they got caught. :(
- zaro 11y agoTo me, after all the Snowden leaks , the story about two Russian spies sounds kind of ridiculous because of the level of hypocrisy :)
- zaro 11y agoUsually hypocrites don't like it hypocrisy being mentioned ...
- id122015 11y agomaybe its time for all the people everywhere to start to act like secret agents, and thus we can achieve equality. Never talk about yourself, fake your CV or dont have one, mount recording cameras everywhere around you,use SSL, dont care too much about the borders that governments make. You will not suffer that much as real agents do sometimes. No more ambush sufferings either, as people will avoid meeting in public crowds.
- cafard 11y agoI assumed at the time, and at the time of other similar busts, that US counterintelligence (mostly but probably not entirely the CIA), is aware of some number of persons doing illicit intelligence-gathering here. Whether, when, and whom to arrest and deport I take to depend on factors including whether our agents have been arrested, whether there is some other point we need to make, etc. I would not be surprised to learn that more than another ten Russian agents remained known or at least suspected, but unmolested for various reasons: to protect informants, to channel information or misinformation through them, or simply to have someone to arrest a few years down the road.