TUCKERED OUT: We admit we did not have the energy to watch all of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin. OK, we didn’t have the vigor to watch any of it. But we DID find on line (thanks to the Kremlin) a transcript of the two-hour-plus long “conversation.” We mustered the strength to scan that. Here are a few of our takeaways: (1) Putin has no concept of time. At the start of the interview, he told Carlson that would take “one 30 seconds or one minute” to give him some historical background on Russia. About 30 minutes later was still marching through events that started in the 13th century…and had not reached modern times. (2) Shortly after Putin came to office in 2000, he says he asked President Clinton about the possibility of Russia joining NATO. (Apparently, he got a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” answer.) (3) Carlson asked if Putin thought that the CIA had been trying to overthrow his government around that time and he said: “Of course” saying that the Agency was working with “terrorists” who were fighting Russia in the Caucasus. (4) Putin says the CIA DID manage to conduct a bloodless coup in Kiev which resulted in the ouster of Ukrainian President Yanukovych in 2014 (who fled to Russia.) Putin poked Carlson by noting reports that Tucker once wanted to join the CIA and adding “Maybe we should thank God they didn’t let you in. Although, it is a serious organization. (5) Putin said he couldn’t remember when he last talked with President Biden (perhaps Vlad is “an elderly man with memory issues.”) (6) Putin also name checks current CIA Director Bill Burns noting that he was once Ambassador to Russia saying, “in my opinion, a very successful Ambassador.” (7) In response to a question about “who blew up Nord Stream?” Putin hints that it was CIA or NATO. (8) At the end, Carlson made a pitch for Putin to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Putin said Gershkovich “is not just a journalist, I reiterate, he is a journalist who was secretly getting confidential information.” There is undoubtedly a lot more news in the interview but again, we just didn’t have the energy to dig further.
KNOW WHO ELSE WAS NOT IMPRESSED? Putin told Russian media on Valentine’s Day that he was not in love with the questions he got from Carlson. "To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way," Putin said in comments to a Russian interviewer on Wednesday. Putin also said he was surprised that Carlson did not interrupt him more – and after looking at the transcript – we kinda agree.
WELL, WE THINK THAT WAS PUTIN BEING INTERVIEWED BY TUCKER: But then we saw a story about a Polish filmmaker who created an entire movie that “starred” Vladimir Putin. Actually, it was a deep fake using AI technology to attach the face of Putin on an actor. Director Patryk Vega’s film tells the story of Putin’s life from boyhood to now. Vega says his film is intended to help his audience “understand the disturbed psyche of the Russian dictator.” You can tell from that statement that the film is not a paean to Putin. He showed the flick to a group of Ukrainian soldiers. Sadly, we have no reports on how well it was received. You can check out the trailer here.
CHINESE SPY CHARM OFFENSIVE: The Dead Drop has carried lots of items over the years about western intelligence services lifting the veil of secrecy - just a bit -and going out of their way to portray themselves as more accessible and admirable than folks may have seen them to be in the past. China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has apparently joined the trend. According to the South China Morning Post, the Chinese intelligence service has launched an official WeChat presence and is engaging with the public not only with “turn in your neighborhood spy” messages – but also opening discussions about international relations, economic matters and such. To be sure, old habits die hard – so on the economic discussion, for example, the MSS warns citizens not to badmouth “China’s economic growth prospects.” They helpfully listed 10 things (mostly relating to national security) that might cause a citizen to be hauled in for questioning, known locally as receiving “an invitation to tea.”
TURNABOUT IS UNFAIR PLAY: Here is some more reverse engineering. In the U.S. and elsewhere one frequently hears cautions to be wary of Chinese college and grad students who have been sent to the West with a shopping list of secrets their government would like stolen. Now, (again in the South China Morning Post) we see a story about the MSS warning Chinese grad students studying abroad that they will be “severely punished” if they get recruited by a foreign intelligence service to spy on their homeland. The MSS WeChat account tells tales of a Chinese grad student who “squandered his promising future” by falling victim to a foreign intelligence services “emotional manipulation and monetary temptation.”
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
A BRUSH WITH DANGER: There was a story on AXIOS the other day that caught our eye. It sought to reassure us not to believe a story (which we had not seen) which suggested that smart internet-connected toothbrushes had fallen victim to a dastardly distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Our first thought was – wait, there are toothbrushes connected to the internet? Apparently, there are. And a lot of them – but this item was a garble (or maybe a gargle) of a hypothetical story. While there are lots of reasons to be worried about IoT attacks, this one has not yet happened. So, rest easy. No need to go to your DDS and ask about DDoS just yet.
DON’T FORGET TO FLOSS. AND ALSO, YOU KNOW THE DRILL. SEND NEWS TIPS WE CAN SINK OUR TEETH TO: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
