4 ms·

This is an obviously fake story. Similar to the consumer drone panic that's been going on in the Nordics. A few months ago all the Nordic medias seemed convinc

by bbbbb5 4y ago

This is an obviously fake story. Similar to the consumer drone panic that's been going on in the Nordics. A few months ago all the Nordic medias seemed convinced that this guy with his "4 terabytes of encrypted data" must have been a Russian spy, of course that turned out to not be true. (Russia has satellites, the idea that they'd need people to go scout out Nordic infrastructure with consumer drones was and is preposterous) https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/xgJ238/dronedoemt-russer-til-vg-rart-at-ingen-sa-stopp https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/xgJ238/dronedoemt-russer-til-vg-...

mannerheim 4y ago
Except Russia has had spies do precisely that in the past in Estonia? They even did a prisoner exchange for a guy who got caught. > An unredacted five-page document tells a fuller story than anything Zinchenko offered in our four hours together. Vasily was one of three different handlers over the space of his eight years as a GRU agent. (Zinchenko would tell me only that Vasily introduced him to another man with whom he’d sometimes communicate.) He’d meet with each one face-to-face at liaisons in St. Petersburg, only a five-hour car or bus ride from Tallinn. Each handler tasked him with surveilling Estonia’s “objects of national defense” and its “vital services,” defined under Estonian law as critical infrastructure, power and electricity, telecommunications and banking services. > Zinchenko spied on Paldiski, a garrison town where Estonia’s elite Scouts Battalion, a veteran unit of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, was stationed. He also spied on Vasalemma, where NATO’s Ämari Air Base is located. https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-ex-russian-spy-flees-to-the-nato-country-that-captured-him-delivering-another-embarrassing-blow-to-moscow-010049616.html https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-ex-russian-spy-flees-to-the...
- bbbbb5 4y ago
  This is typical busy work given to agents to make them feel important, to test their loyalty and ability to accomplish tasks provided. For the most part, it's not actually supposed to result in useful intelligence. Also there's a huge difference between tracking military equipment movements and power infrastructure. Power infrastructure doesn't move and can't really be hidden.
  - mannerheim 4y ago
    Apparently valuable enough to do a prisoner exchange for. I also doubt the quality of the optics in Russian satellites.
    - ithkuil 4y ago
      Nepotism can provide an alternative explanation for prisoner exchange even if the actual task was literally busywork
      - bbbbb5 4y ago
        If it was about nepotism, we'd presumably be talking about an officer and not an agent.
    - bbbbb5 4y ago
      >Apparently valuable enough to do a prisoner exchange for. You don't do prisoner exchanges because of the valuable contributions of that agent, you do prisoner exchanges to ensure future contributions by other agents. >I also doubt the quality of the optics in Russian satellites. They're just fine. What kind of quality do you think they need to hit a power plant with a missile? Most of their missiles aren't that precise anyway. There's only an extremely limited set of circumstances where drone footage of power infrastructure could be useful.
      - mannerheim 4y ago
        In any event, Russia does send spies to do precisely what you insisted they don't.
        bbbbb5 4y ago
        Your article says nothing about the nature of the surveillance. It does not in any way dispute my previous comments.
    - denton-scratch 4y ago
waihtis 4y ago
> This is an obviously fake story Yet you provide no data to convince anyone otherwise. Outside of scrap, also electronics stores over here have signs now which denote the amount of electronics you can carry over the border into the Russia (not exceeding the value of 300€) which suggests there is a reason to do so. Related to your article, if something sounds ridiculous it's the explanation given in your article of the unemployed man travelling from Russia to take drone pictures of a cottage for a friend. Very reminiscient of the two "tourists" "just visiting" Salisbury.
- bbbbb5 4y ago
  > Outside of scrap, also electronics stores over here have signs now which denote the amount of electronics you can carry over the border into the Russia (not exceeding the value of 300€) which suggests there is a reason to do so. Yeah, sanctions. Luxury goods are limited to 300 euros. https://tulli.fi/en/-/import-and-export-sanctions-on-goods-also-apply-to-private-individuals-crossing-the-finnish-russian-border https://tulli.fi/en/-/import-and-export-sanctions-on-goods-a... The purpose is not to disrupt Russian military supply chains, but to make Muscovites pay higher prices for their grey market iPhones. >Related to your article, if something sounds ridiculous it's the explanation given in your article of the unemployed man travelling from Russia to take drone pictures of a cottage for a friend. Very reminiscient of the two "tourists" "just visiting" Salisbury. The Norwegian government agreed that his story checked out. Also, I'd suppose that wealthy unemployed men make up a decent chunk of tourism in general.
  - waihtis 4y ago
    The purpose of sanctions is not only to limit access to luxury, but also to restrict things that are loosely considered dual use "things", such as components that can be repurposed to be part of military purposes - see https://ek.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/venaja-pakotteet-qa-vastaukset-yritysten-kysymyksiin/ https://ek.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/venaja-pakotteet-qa-vast... section 8) since you seem to be fluent in Finnish
    - gggggg5 4y ago

by bbbbb5 4y ago

mannerheim 4y ago

Except Russia has had spies do precisely that in the past in Estonia? They even did a prisoner exchange for a guy who got caught. > An unredacted five-page document tells a fuller story than anything Zinchenko offered in our four hours together. Vasily was one of three different handlers over the space of his eight years as a GRU agent. (Zinchenko would tell me only that Vasily introduced him to another man with whom he’d sometimes communicate.) He’d meet with each one face-to-face at liaisons in St. Petersburg, only a five-hour car or bus ride from Tallinn. Each handler tasked him with surveilling Estonia’s “objects of national defense” and its “vital services,” defined under Estonian law as critical infrastructure, power and electricity, telecommunications and banking services. > Zinchenko spied on Paldiski, a garrison town where Estonia’s elite Scouts Battalion, a veteran unit of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, was stationed. He also spied on Vasalemma, where NATO’s Ämari Air Base is located. https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-ex-russian-spy-flees-to-the-nato-country-that-captured-him-delivering-another-embarrassing-blow-to-moscow-010049616.html https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-ex-russian-spy-flees-to-the...

bbbbb5 4y ago
This is typical busy work given to agents to make them feel important, to test their loyalty and ability to accomplish tasks provided. For the most part, it's not actually supposed to result in useful intelligence. Also there's a huge difference between tracking military equipment movements and power infrastructure. Power infrastructure doesn't move and can't really be hidden.
- mannerheim 4y ago
  Apparently valuable enough to do a prisoner exchange for. I also doubt the quality of the optics in Russian satellites.
  - ithkuil 4y ago
    Nepotism can provide an alternative explanation for prisoner exchange even if the actual task was literally busywork
    - bbbbb5 4y ago
      If it was about nepotism, we'd presumably be talking about an officer and not an agent.
  - bbbbb5 4y ago
    >Apparently valuable enough to do a prisoner exchange for. You don't do prisoner exchanges because of the valuable contributions of that agent, you do prisoner exchanges to ensure future contributions by other agents. >I also doubt the quality of the optics in Russian satellites. They're just fine. What kind of quality do you think they need to hit a power plant with a missile? Most of their missiles aren't that precise anyway. There's only an extremely limited set of circumstances where drone footage of power infrastructure could be useful.
    - mannerheim 4y ago
      In any event, Russia does send spies to do precisely what you insisted they don't.
      - bbbbb5 4y ago
        Your article says nothing about the nature of the surveillance. It does not in any way dispute my previous comments.
  - denton-scratch 4y ago

waihtis 4y ago

> This is an obviously fake story Yet you provide no data to convince anyone otherwise. Outside of scrap, also electronics stores over here have signs now which denote the amount of electronics you can carry over the border into the Russia (not exceeding the value of 300€) which suggests there is a reason to do so. Related to your article, if something sounds ridiculous it's the explanation given in your article of the unemployed man travelling from Russia to take drone pictures of a cottage for a friend. Very reminiscient of the two "tourists" "just visiting" Salisbury.

bbbbb5 4y ago
> Outside of scrap, also electronics stores over here have signs now which denote the amount of electronics you can carry over the border into the Russia (not exceeding the value of 300€) which suggests there is a reason to do so. Yeah, sanctions. Luxury goods are limited to 300 euros. https://tulli.fi/en/-/import-and-export-sanctions-on-goods-also-apply-to-private-individuals-crossing-the-finnish-russian-border https://tulli.fi/en/-/import-and-export-sanctions-on-goods-a... The purpose is not to disrupt Russian military supply chains, but to make Muscovites pay higher prices for their grey market iPhones. >Related to your article, if something sounds ridiculous it's the explanation given in your article of the unemployed man travelling from Russia to take drone pictures of a cottage for a friend. Very reminiscient of the two "tourists" "just visiting" Salisbury. The Norwegian government agreed that his story checked out. Also, I'd suppose that wealthy unemployed men make up a decent chunk of tourism in general.
- waihtis 4y ago
  The purpose of sanctions is not only to limit access to luxury, but also to restrict things that are loosely considered dual use "things", such as components that can be repurposed to be part of military purposes - see https://ek.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/venaja-pakotteet-qa-vastaukset-yritysten-kysymyksiin/ https://ek.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/venaja-pakotteet-qa-vast... section 8) since you seem to be fluent in Finnish
  - gggggg5 4y ago