WHERE’S WALDO? AND YEVGENY AND VLADIMIR, FOR THAT MATTER: One of the great guessing games over the past couple weeks, has been what is the over-under on the life expectancy of failed mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin. Part of answering that question requires figuring out exactly where he is. The consensus has been that wherever he is, Putin’s chef’s goose is pretty much cooked. But there has also been wonderment about why the Kremlin has yet to put a fork in him. There have been confusing reports that suggest that airplanes associated with Prigozhin seem to be freely flying around Russia –and sometimes between Russia and Belarus. Then, there were some stories about a helicopter landing in his hometown of St. Petersburg bearing a passenger who looked very much like Prigozhin. But then, close up photos of the man seemed to show that he possessed a fist full of fingers – and Prigozhin famously is known to be missing part of one finger. Unless this photo was digitally altered – perhaps the man pictured was not the chef. And on Thursday, Belurus leader Aleksandr Lukashenko said don’t look for Prigozhin here…he is back in Russia. Keep in mind, if Prigozhin shows up in your neighborhood, the FBI has been offering a $250K reward for information leading to his arrest for more than five years now. The charges stem from alleged interference in the US 2016 presidential election and not for the mutinous march on Moscow. (Important note to our Russian and Belarusian readers: to earn the reward, Prigozhin must be captured alive and made available to the FBI.) And, then there is the question of Putin’s whereabouts. Since the start of the pandemic, the Russian leader had notoriously not been a man of the people – stationing himself at the end of very long, empty tables. But now, there are images of him showing up in public around Russia, sometimes plunging into adoring crowds and even kissing (on the forehead) a young female fan. But is this really Putin? Stories abound of body doubles and many of the Putins popping up appear a bit different than the puffier version of Vlad seen not long ago.
IT’S U.S. OR THEM: New regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Defense tell filmmakers, 'if you want Pentagon assistance in making your motion picture – we’d better not catch you caving to pressure from the Chinese government to alter the script'. There have been plenty of reports of Hollywood buckling to the dictates of Beijing when it comes to productions. (For more on this check out our Cover Stories podcast from earlier this year, about the book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy.) Politico reports that the new rules say the Pentagon will no longer “…provide production assistance when there is demonstrable evidence that the production has complied or is likely to comply with a demand from the Government of the People’s Republic of China … to censor the content of the project in a material manner to advance the national interest of the People’s Republic of China.” The new regs apparently were prompted by language inserted in the 2023 defense policy bill by Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX.) A lot of attention to the subject was generated by the film “Top Gun: Maverick” in which a Taiwanese flag on Tom Cruise’s flight jacket was removed to appease Chinese concerns – and later digitally restored – but only after a Chinese investment firm, Tencent, dropped their financial backing for the flick. Of course, adding and removing flags and such is typically done in post-production – long after the filmmakers might have borrowed the Pentagon’s aircraft carriers and fighter aircraft. But Cruz control over Chinese influence on filmmaking may have started a trend. We noticed this week, that Vietnam banned the showing of the upcoming Barbie movie in their country because the film includes a scene which features a map depicting China’s controversial (OK, bogus) claim of huge swaths of the South China Sea as Chinese territorial waters. And Senator Cruz noticed this too, saying “I guess Barbie is made in China” and slamming the movie for “pushing Chinese propaganda.”
IT'S US: Speaking of superheroes, last week, the CIA’s public website posted an item reminding folks that cinematic superhero Indiana Jones, got his start with the Agency’s World War II forerunner, the Office of Strategic Services. Of course, Jones is a fictional character but still, it is worth mentioning that in the fourth Indy film “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” there is some dialogue about archaeologist Jones making his bones in the OSS. The fact that the latest episode: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now in theaters just may have something to do with the Agency deciding to remind us of Indy’s origin story.
IN CASE THEIR DAY JOBS DON’T WORK OUT: CIA Director Bill Burns and his trusty sidekick, Deputy Director David Cohen, turned up as extras in the new season of Amazon’s “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.” Politico first reported their new gig by posting on July 4th a screengrab of the two real world CIA leaders talking to each other in the agency entranceway when actor John Krasinki walked past them. Spies tell us that the scene was shot a long time ago – before the screenwriters and potential actors strike – so Burns and Cohen didn’t have to worry about crossing any picket lines.
MAYBE NO ONE WILL NOTICE: On the Friday before the July 4th holiday, the U.S. State Department quietly released 23 pages out of an 87-page-long report about what went wrong in the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In classic “both sides-ism” the report casts blame both on the current and previous administrations. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R, TX) said “There is no reason not to produce a declassified version of the full report, as much of it is marked ‘Sensitive but Unclassified’ or ‘Unclassified.’” Some folks have asked if the report (which was completed over a year ago) was released intentionally timed to bury it on the eve of a national holiday and on a day when media were consumed by news of major Supreme Court decisions. When asked about that, a senior State Department official told CNN that they would not discuss questions related to “process.” Our translation: “yes.”
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting / weird stuff we discovered:
KNOW YOUR ENEMY: On several occasions in recent years, The Dead Drop has mocked various politicians for putting out campaign advertisements and social media posts in which they mistakenly use pictures of Russian weapons systems and troops to represent American warfighters. When that has happened - on occasion - we have suggested that the politicos and their campaign staffs hire a few veterans to avoid such embarrassment. So much for that idea. Stars and Stripes reported this week that the U.S. Pacific Fleet tweeted - and then deleted - a Fourth of July message that had “silhouettes of a Russian warship and fighter jets against an American flag backdrop.” Well, they got the flag right.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: Everyone has been predicting that artificial intelligence will result in many people losing their jobs – but we did not expect the clergy to be among those threatened early on. However, Fox News reports that a Colorado couple employed ChatGPT to officiate at their recent wedding. It seems one member of the happy couple was about to join the Army and their partner wanted to join him after boot camp – so a quickie marriage was planned in just five days. The bride’s dad came up with the bright idea of using ChatGPT to officiate because it was “easier and cheaper” than hiring a real person. No word on whether the father of the bride had the event catered by Uber Eats. That probably would have been, you know, “easier and cheaper.”
THIS DEAD DROP WAS ENTIRELY CRAFTED BY HUMANS: But before we are forced to allow some soulless computer take over, perhaps you could lighten our load by sending some news tips to us at: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com. Speak now, or forever hold your peace.
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