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Yesterday a Russian "chef" was arrested after drunkenly bragging about a sabotage operation to disrupt the Olympic opening ceremony. https://theins.press/en/po
by dralley 2y ago
Yesterday a Russian "chef" was arrested after drunkenly bragging about a sabotage operation to disrupt the Olympic opening ceremony.
https://theins.press/en/politics/273350 https://theins.press/en/politics/273350
> On May 7, he was in Russia and due to fly from Moscow to Istanbul, where he’d catch a connecting flight back to Paris the next day. Except he couldn't. He got so fall-down drunk at Istanbul Airport that he was barred from boarding his plane. Instead Griaznov took a taxi to the Bulgarian border, where another car delivered him to St. Vlas, a resort town on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, where Griaznov owns property.
> Griaznov stayed at his apartment for a few days before moving on to Varna, a Bulgarian city 60 miles north of St. Vlas. From there he flew on to Paris. During one of his beach-side dinners he got drunk again and let slip to the neighbors that he had a special assignment this summer in Paris to disrupt the opening ceremony of the Olympics. At first the neighbors were incredulous. That’s when Griaznov brandished his FSB ID, witnesses told The Insider. A few days later, Griaznov made his way to Varna and took a flight from there. Before flying to Paris, Griaznov made a call to his FSB boss and informed him that the operation was on track. Griaznov even said he’d recruited “one more Moldovan from Chisinau.”
It would be humorous if it weren't so serious.
- jojobas 2y agoCarrying FSB ID on assignment abroad? It has to be a decoy of sorts right?
- surfingdino 2y agoNope, they operate more or less in plain sight and don't care. They know that they worst thing that can happen to them in the west is expulsion or a jail sentence.
- dralley 2y agoJan Marsalek reportedly bragged multiple times to business associates about his connections to Russian intelligence services
- BoingBoomTschak 2y agoAnyone capable of critical thinking would suspect false flag attack with this ostentatious lack of forethought. But well, as we all know, false flag attacks is something only The Enemy does.
- surfingdino 2y agoIt's a pattern. Russian and Belarusian agents attacked rail infrastructure across Europe on several occasions over the last year or so. Not a false flag, but yet another terrorist attack against the European rail transportation infrastructure.
- CoastalCoder 2y agoIf this is true, I don't understand the actions of Russia's government in recent years. I doubt their goal is to be universally reviled, so what's their real objective? As much as I'm tempted to think they're just being full-on assholes, I assume they're being more strategic than that.
- baq 2y agoThey sow chaos and then unleash the bots criticizing whoever is currently in office; then they unleash bots criticizing those bots and hope to drag in normal people. Basically the idea is to erode trust in the western system. They don't try to hide it anymore and seems it doesn't matter - it's quite effective anyway.
- netcan 2y agoYeah but this is more like "plan a minor disturbance of a high profile event. Get caught and galvanize the public to arm your enemies." It doesn't erode trust in the western system.
- baq 2y agoThis one was exceptional in every way. There are tens if not hundreds of examples in which they managed to not be so completely drunk to fail multiple times.
- mistermann 2y agoHow do you distinguish between ones that are actually Russia and ones that are only asserted or implied to be Russia? Or do you?
- baq 2y agoSometimes the authorities find out, especially if it's a big fire of an ammo depot or a nerve agent wet job. Sometimes there is only circumstantial evidence. Sometimes you get used to it and you know it's them again.
- finikytou 2y agoyeah sounds about true. french newspaper also said hamas was russian yesterday. I guess I got a power outage yesterday too. must be putin.
- simion314 2y agoUntil RT or Putin confirms it was Ruzzia then you won't believe it. For other real skeptics, there were 100% clear Ruzzian attacks in France before, there were people that drawn Swasticas, some people that put some coffins , soem Chechen guy with a grenade/bomb. We do not have video or written proof that Putin signed the orders so we need to use our brains and ignore the bots and trolls that defend terrorists.
- surfingdino 2y agoThere has been at least one dangerous fire in a factory or a warehouse per week in Europe for over a year now. Most suspects caught are Russian agents, Russians or people paid by Russia or Belarus.
- mardifoufs 2y agoDo you have a source on that?
- lesuorac 2y agoI mean they probably won't read it anyways. Usually with comments like "french newspapers said hamas is russian" end up being strictly factually false. Perhaps a french newspaper said hamas received russian funding or weapons or some other nuance that they completely glossed over. Perhaps it wasn't even a french newspaper or one not well regarded for accuracy (look at what the Onion prints in the US!). Or possibly it's even worse and the article is just posting a quote of somebody who said "hamas is russian" and so it's not even the french newspaper saying it. This blindness is also commonly seen in the US. i.e. people saying polls had trump at a 0% chance to win the election despite literally a week before the election even CNN had articles saying it's a tight race -- https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/01/politics/presidential-poll-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-abc/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/01/politics/presidential-poll-do...
- jetrink 2y agoThat reads like an extract from a John le Carré novel.
- nindalf 2y agoAre any le Carré characters so flagrantly incompetent? Even the ones who like to drink (like Connie Sachs) manage to keep it under control and function reasonably well.
- surfingdino 2y agoI always had the feeling that Le Carré's portrayal of Eastern European adversaries was too kind. He clearly underestimated the influence of alcohol over private and professional lives in those lands.
- wolfgangbabad 2y ago[flagged]
- rjzzleep 2y ago[flagged]
- anonym29 2y agoWhen your culture's drinking problem is so bad that it starts causing information leaks that disrupt clandestine overseas sabotage operations, maybe that's the clue it's time to get a better grip on the culture of alcohol consumption. I've read that it's not quite as simple or easy as banning vodka or alcohol, as strangely enough, the highest individual source of Russian tax revenue is from excise taxes on the vodka, and revenue from the excise taxes on beer make up 75% as much as the excise taxes on vodka. Further reading: https://warontherocks.com/2015/07/little-water-vodka-and-the-russian-sociopolitical-realm/ https://warontherocks.com/2015/07/little-water-vodka-and-the...
- nradov 2y agoThey tried an anti-alcohol campaign. It failed. https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1985-2/anti-alcohol-campaign/ https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1985-2/anti-alcohol-campaign/