Russian Agents Prowl in the European Night 'Eliminating' Anyone Too Overtly Opposed to Putin's Terror
Waves of Russians have infiltrated European capitals in 'protest' of the war - alongside them are FSB agents and killers
The key to these agents is that they maintain low profiles. Like in the popular TV show “The Americans,” friendly, mild-mannered couples blend into the background of everyday life, and their excellence as secret agents is determined by how boring and unmemorable they are to those with whom they associate: “Oh, they are such a nice couple,” is supposed to be the takeaway.
The CIA issued a warning sometime in 2022 about the influx of Russian spies. Each week, blurbs come across the wire that a Russian emigre has been arrested for spying for Moscow. Spying, though, is not the only thing they are doing. In Spain yesterday, a Russian helicopter pilot flew his helicopter over to the Ukrainian side. Before surrendering to the Ukrainians, he tried to convince his crew mates to join him. They refused and tried to fight back, so he killed them. Regarded as a hero by Kyiv, he received $500,000 for the gift of the helicopter — a Mi-8.
Unable to find himself in a Ukraine that now hates everything Russia, the hero pilot, Maksim Kuzminov, set off to begin a new life in Spain. Someone found out about that “new life.”
According to the material, Kuzminov was allegedly killed by 12 shots while he was in the municipality of Villahoyosa on Tuesday, February 13.
Then, the Russian pilot was “run over by a car,” journalists add.
The pilot, who switched sides to Ukraine, allegedly had 100,000 euros found on him (Media Reports Alleged Death of Russian Pilot).
The money was left untouched. It was a clear sign to all Russians “relaxing” in their newly-found freedom: Putin can and will find you because we are watching and listening.
As a family that left Russia because we disagreed with the war, we — my wife — are active in the Russian emigre circle like all other Russians. There are WhatsApp and Telegram chats in every city in Europe, and hundreds of arrivals spill their guts about everything to the unseen members of the chats. Almost always, politics is avoided until people decide to meet up for things like local holidays, kids’ birthdays, and BBQs — like we did on Sunday.
You might find it hard to believe, but I only talk about politics if severely provoked, and with these unknown Russians, I avoid the topic entirely. They know I don’t like Putin, but I never elaborate because I don’t know their true loyalties. Personally, I am always waiting for an “anti-Putin” Russian to revert to the “woe is poor Russia line,” which will really set me off, so I avoid talking with them about politics. In addition, because they have never actually been educated in a system that wasn’t saturated with propaganda, there aren’t many who really understand the history of the last 100 years.
In our grouping of Russians, there are about 40 people who regularly “hang out” in some capacity. Overall, there are over 200 in the local chat. Among these 40, there is one couple that could easily be the couple from “The Americans.” In case you are unfamiliar with the show:
The Americans is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX. It originally aired for six seasons from January 30, 2013 to May 30, 2018.[1] Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners and executive producers. Set during the Cold War, the show follows Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., with their American-born children Paige and Henry (The Americans).
The couple in our town is so nice to be forgetful. They are always smiling and over-the-top friendly, which is not a Russian characteristic. They have the perfect jobs that allow them to “get to know” people and flow in and out of the mix with ease and, at times, seemingly purpose: “Selfie, guys.” They always seem to be organizing selfies. They also took great interest in my Medium activities — if they are reading, they know I am writing about them.
Having lived for so long in Russia and always aware that any random soul could be someone from the FSB, I never give “real” information to Russians. I won’t lie, but I will only provide unfiltered truth when I feel it is meaningless information that can’t be somehow manipulated against me. If I have raw emotions about something, I will tuck that tidbit away. At times, I will give just disinformation for fun. “Yeah, we plan to move to Argentina. We just want to be away from all of this superpower nonsense. I mean, it’s not my business to judge countries’ leaders.” The trail of crumbs I leave for these despicable, not-so-clever spies is always muddled and unclear.
Another woman in our small mix of 40 acts like an agent, and if she is, she is really bad. She stares at everyone from the corner of her eye, asks odd questions about things you never shared with her, constantly makes videos and selfies, and then quickly sends them off to unknown “social media sites.”
“Oh, I am sending this to Instagram.” But it never appears on Instagram. After four hours of grilling meat and six small local beers, I spent at least an hour on Sunday telling her such wonderful stories! She seemed to have no clue that I was messing with her.
There is, of course, the chance we are completely wrong about these people. If you have lived in Russia as an ex-pat for any time, you will have encountered these agents. If you are paying attention, you begin to figure out who is who, and you learn to build a small cacoon into which you can recede and protect yourself.
From what I can tell, there are no hard-core-ready-to-return-to-Russia and lead civil war types in our community. Those types of Russians tend to settle in bigger cities. Many of us are against the war, but our only action to demonstrate that is to live not in Russia. Hopefully, the killer agents will stay out of our community. Despite that they may be agents, we like the local couple. They do seem genuinely nice.