RUSSIAN ARMY RECRUITING PROBLEM BEGINS TO BITE: As Vladmir Putin’s planned 3-day invasion of Ukraine approaches its two-year anniversary, (or if you count from the 2014 incursion – it’s tenth) Russia’s military recruiters are having big challenges sating the Kremlin’s hunger for fresh troops. Normal enlistments and draft notices have long failed to serve up enough fresh recruits for the meatgrinder of a conflict. And some time ago, those charged with procuring war bodies for the front lines turned to the tactic of combing Russian prisons for convicts who are willing to trade incarceration for enlistment. But we had no idea things had gotten so bad until we read recently that a man named Denis Gorin, 44, who had been convicted of murder and cannibalism before being sprung from prison to join the troops at the front. Details of Gorin’s gory story are a bit muddled – but The New York Post served up some interesting details saying he was accused of killing at least four people and eating parts of two. Other accounts say he had butchered at least 13 people. And here is the shocking part. The first time Gorin was convicted of murdering and eating someone – he was sentenced to just ten years – and got out early on good behavior. About a year after being released the first time, he struck again and reportedly stored leftovers from some of his victims in his fridge. Gorin had been back in prison for the past decade – but now is on the Ukrainian front – presumably armed with an assault weapon – and perhaps knife and fork.
STARTING THEM YOUNG: Just in case Russia runs out of cannibals, they have come up with other sources of man (or boy) power. Reuters says Adam Kadyrov the son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been named an “observer” in a new battalion that is part of Russia’s defense ministry forces. Adam turned 16 last week, but he is no neophyte. He previously had been appointed top bodyguard to his father – and prior to that, was seen in a social media video punching and kicking a prisoner who had been accused of burning a Koran. The young man was awarded the “Hero of Chechnya” title for beating a defenseless man in a Chechen jail.
DOLPHIN DEFECTORS: Forbes reports a recent storm that swept through the Black Sea may have been the saving grace for a bunch of penned up and highly-trained dolphins that were part of Russia’s sea forces in Sevastopol harbor in occupied Crimea. No one seems to know what happened to the dolphin defectors, but satellite images showed their pens were demolished. We’re just hoping the ‘Hero of Chechnya’ doesn’t get ahold of them.
FEARLESS PREDICTION: The head of the Russian propaganda outlet RT, Margarita Simonyan, recently told viewers not to worry about her country’s demographic crisis because in the near future, hordes of Americans will be emigrating to Russia. Why? She said they will seek refuge when a “one-legged Thai transgender” person comes to power in the United States, and that many other Americans will run to Russia “even if they have to work as plumbers and fix water pipes.” She says (in this clip posted on YouTube by Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis) that Russia will pick only the best – and send the rest back. Good plumbers are hard to find – although perhaps not as rare as one-legged Thai transgendered politicians, we suspect.
WELL, HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN ILL: Igor Korobov, 62, the head of the Russian spy agency the GRU, died last week from what the Russian Defense Ministry termed “a serious and prolonged illness.” In a public statement, reported by The Wall Street Journal, Vladimir Putin praised Korobov as a “patriot of the Fatherland” and said he had “high competence, strength of will and courage, honesty and decency, loyalty to the oath and officer’s duty.” The GRU has been blamed for botching lots of operations in recent years, and Korobov’s predecessor died suddenly in 2016. But given the effusive praise from Putin – we suppose Korobov may be one of those rare prominent Russians whose death was not prompted by funky tea or open windows.
TOO SOON? Perhaps it was because there is so much other news flying around – Israel v. Hamas, Russia v. Ukraine, etc. that there was little attention paid over the past weekend, to the news that convicted spy and traitor Jim Nicholson was released from prison. The highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of spying for the bad guys, Nicholson, 73, was released from Federal Prison on November 24, just 27 years and one week, after he was arrested for passing classified information to the Russian SVR. To make matters worse, in 2008, while still in the slammer, Nicholson conspired with his son Nathaniel, to communicate with the Russians and try to collect his “pension.” So in 2011, Nicholson got an additional eight years in prison for that scheme. But what surprises us is that he is out so soon. Presumably, he will not be trying (once again) to collect his pension – since his former masters are somewhat cash strapped at the moment.
TIME WILL TELL, ON BAD INTEL: There was a lengthy piece in The Daily Beast by national security reporter Shannon Vavra last week, looking at what national spy agencies are “winning and losing the world’s espionage race.” With a couple of major wars and several other international crises (as always) full of surprises going on – there is no shortage of second guessing about who dropped what ball – and why. Israeli intelligence services have come under great scrutiny and Vavra quotes the IDF’s chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari as saying “First, we fight, then we investigate.” She turned to veteran CIA analyst (and Cipher Brief expert) Norm Roule for context. The U.S., Russian and Chinese intelligence services also come into question in the piece. After-action reports are likely going to need to wait…until after the action, otherwise the people charged with preventing the next crisis will miss it – while looking back on how they missed the last one.
THIRD BOOK, SEVENTH FLOOR: Former CIA analyst David McCloskey, whose first two books, Damascus Station and Moscow X, were very favorably in The Cipher Brief, and who was a guest on our Cover Stories podcast, has announced that his next novel called “The Seventh Floor” will be published next fall. The publisher, Norton, says in this one, “a newly-fired CIA officer and an operative just returned to Langley after a mission gone very wrong, must investigate their closest colleagues and dearest friends to uncover a dangerous mole in the highest ranks of the CIA.”
HE GOT THAT RIGHT: McCloskey launched a personal Twitter/X campaign from his car recently to dispel what he called ‘Hollywood’s terrible disinformation campaign’ trying to convince people that CIA Officers are ‘hot’. He included video evidence.
THE COOLEST ‘NERD BALL’ OF THEM ALL: Hundreds of super smart geospatial experts got dressed up for the annual Geo Gala in Tyson’s Corner to honor Gilman Louie with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Dr. Stacey Dixon, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth, former NGA directors Robert Cardillo and Tish Long and Admiral Sandy Winnefeld (Ret.), The Hon. Ellen McCarthy, former Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research, former JAIC Chief Lt. Gen. Michael Groen (Ret.), Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly and COO Brad Christian were among those who turned out to honor Louie, who currently serves on so many intelligence advisory boards that we lost count. Louie started out as a video game designer and ended up playing a significant role in bringing private sector expertise to government, which included his time as CEO of In-Q-Tel, where he identified and invested in cutting-edge technologies that could benefit the IC. We don’t know how old Louie is, but it feels like he still has a lot more achieving ahead of him.
SHAMELESS (SELF PROMOTION): What’s new at The Cipher Brief:
SMART ON AI: The Cyber Initiatives Group (powered by The Cipher Brief) is holding a virtual summit on December 6 that is welcoming some pretty impressive minds on cyber and AI. If you’re trying to get smart on how the cool kids are thinking about AI, you can get in on the secrets pretty easily since registration is free. We did our own AI search on the CIG and this is what it said: “The CIG is a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about cybersecurity or who wants to connect with other cybersecurity professionals.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WHEN YOU’VE GOTTA GO, YOU’VE GOTTA GO: A Russian soldier who may have imagined that he might die a glorious death for the Motherland apparently met an ignominious end instead recently. A Ukrainian drone flushed the Russian out of a brushy area – and smoked him with his pants down. To make matters worse – the episode was caught on video and the soldier’s less than glorious end was shared with the world. Yet another reason not to join the Russian military.
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