LET’S SLAP A BUMPERSTICKER ON IT: What do you call the dust up from last weekend between Yevgeny Prigozhin – Chief of his own personal army he calls ‘Wagner Group’ and Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces? The Biden administration has been trying very hard not to label the events. Spies tell us the ‘fear’ is that if they did so, they might be perceived as having had some involvement or might be reveling in the revolution. On Monday, National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby, from the White House lectern, refused to say whether the administration saw the events as a “mutiny, a coup, an attempted coup, or an armed rebellion.” Not going there, Kirby said. “We’re not slapping a bumper sticker on it.” Putin seems to have no such constraints, saying in remarks on Tuesday, that his Army had stopped “civil war.” Media, pundits and purveyors of snark were happy to take a shot at depicting what happened and the aftermath. The New York Post described the events as “Putin on the Fritz.” Others tweeted that it was a “clown car coup,” “putz putsch” or a “coo-coo coup.” Among the mysteries, was how Prigozhin was able to cross the Rubicon and then throw things in reverse and get away (at least at this writing) unpunished. We noticed that Putin mentioned “blackmail” in some remarks early in the week – so maybe Prigozhin has some dirt (or audio tapes) that are keeping him relatively safe for the moment. We’re relatively sure, no matter what – that we don’t know all the sordid details (but we wish we did)!
RT PHONE HOME: The biggest surprise to us in a recent Moscow Times story is not really the substance of an order reportedly just given to Russian government officials – but the fact that the order was JUST given to them. According to the piece, Russian government officials have recently been banned from using their iPhones during cabinet meetings. Deputy Prime Ministers, ministers, and other staff are said to have been warned by the FSB that iPhones can carry “malicious software” that may be linked to “surveillance operations by American intelligence services.” Apparently, the Russians believe that other smart phones (not made by Apple) are safer to use. Sensitive U.S. facilities and agencies have long banned bringing personal electronic devices - made by any manufacturer - into areas where secret stuff goes on.
SVR CHIEF WANTS CIA DIRECTOR TO CALL: Just before the wacky Wagner events of last weekend, the Russian News Agency TASS posted a story containing a plaintive comment from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief. Sergey Naryshkin told TASS that, "Recently there have been no contacts with my counterpart - the director of the CIA. But the opportunity for our meetings remains," Naryshkin said. "We have quite decent personal relations, and it seems to me that there is a need for maintaining such communication and such interaction." The last meeting between Naryshkin and CIA Director Bill Burns, was on November 14, 2022. Naryshkin described the meeting as “…meaningful and took place in a very comfortable atmosphere; it was a very good, calm conversation." Well, that’s comforting.
ARKANSAS SENATOR DOESN’T COTTON TO D-E-I: Senator Tom Cotton (R, AR), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), has proposed a modification to the Intelligence Authorization Act which would cap the pay of CIA employees whose work primarily focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Why? Well, Cotton says that, “Case officers perform the most important and dangerous job at the CIA, and they shouldn’t be paid less than diversity bureaucrats.” You’ll get no argument from us that case officers perform important and sometimes dangerous work but exactly why the most junior case officer should earn as much as some top official involved with DEI (someone who may have started out as a case officer for all we know) is unclear to us. We do think, however, that a good case could be made for CIA officers who work with Congress, to get higher pay.
SPOTIFY NOT WILD ABOUT HARRY: Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time – but we doubt it. Britain’s Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle had a $20 million deal to produce podcasts for Spotify. Apparently, there were a few details that were not entirely ironed out – such as: what would they talk about? Spotify recently bailed out of the deal early and some stories about the project are leaking out. Among them, rumors that Harry wanted to interview world leaders about their childhood trauma. According to Bloomberg, Harry (AKA the Duke of Sussex) wanted to interview Vladimir Putin, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump among others. We’re not sure how much childhood trauma Putin experienced – but he certainly caused a lot of it for other people’s children. Harry also reportedly hoped to book Pope Francis as a guest. Now that the Duke and Duchess’ podcast has bitten the dust – maybe that will free up the Pope or Putin to be a guest on The Cipher Brief’s State Secret’s podcast. Just sayin’.
WITH APOLOGIEZ TO JAY-Z: D’Montre Green has 93 problems and being rich ain’t one of em. Military.com reports thatGreen was serving in the U.S. Air Force - and after going through a divorce - was unhappy to discover that his paycheck went down because Uncle Sam provides increased allowances for married members. According to court documents, prosecutors are claiming that Green reached out to “at least 93 women” by various text and other electronic methods and proposed they marry him in exchange for some of his hoped-for increased allowances. According to the reporting, Green was a staff sergeant stationed at the Royal Air Force base Lakenheath in the United Kingdom when he started searching for a spouse. Prosecutors say he found a taker in Texas. But housing allowances can vary greatly depending on the local cost of living – so Green allegedly claimed that his new missus lived in San Francisco, a high-priced location. Officials say Green kept the scheme rolling for about three years and they estimate that he pulled down about $112,023 in fraudulently obtained allowances before he got caught. A civilian attorney representing Green said he isn’t ready to comment on the allegations just yet.
STEW-PIDITY OF TITANIC PROPORTIONS: There is a popular (well, frequently listened-to anyway) podcaster by the name of Stew Peters who launched a conspiracy theory last week, that the OceanGate Titan submersible may have been deliberately destroyed by unnamed U.S. government agencies in order to prevent it from reaching the wreckage of the Titanic. Why? So that no one would discover that the 1912 sinking wasn’t caused by an iceberg…but instead by the “newly created Federal Reserve” perhaps in some insurance scam. We’re guessing that since the CIA was not around in 1912, conspiracy theorists must feel the need to blame the sinking on some other mysterious government agency. But it is not just podcasters sinking to such levels. Several Members of Congress speculated last week, that the U.S. Navy was ordered by the Administration to withhold the news that their undersea surveillance equipment may have picked up the sound of the submersible imploding – in order to distract from coverage of Hunter Biden’s guilty plea. Even Donald Trump wasn’t buying that one.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
AIR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION: In the least surprising news from Russia recently, the annual Moscow air show, scheduled for July, is likely to be cancelled. The Associated Press relayed a story carried by Russian news agency TASS quoting local officials as saying the show, “in all probability” won’t go on in 2023. We imagine locals might be a little jumpy right about now wondering whose side military jets and drones buzzing the Russian capital were on.
WHO’S A GOOD (HOT) DOG? The pet project of a Cleveland, Ohio outfit called “Throwflame” is a robotic flamethrowing dog called the “Thermonator.” You can see the pyromaniac pooch in action in this YouTube video. The hound from hell can purportedly fling fire for a distance of up to 10 meters for 45 minutes. The manufacturer calls it the “first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog.” The good news is that you can own one. They say flamethrowers are not considered “firearms” in the US and can be purchased in most states. They can be used for ground clearing, snow and ice removal, grassland management and incinerating weeds and pesky insect hives. Oh, and they are apparently good for “firefighting training” – which, we suspect if you own a Thermonator – would come in very handy. We are grateful to the folks at Task& Purpose for bringing this item to our attention and will definitely put one of these puppies on our wish list. Great way to start your 4th of July barbeque, eh?
WANT TO LIGHT OUR FIRE? Send us tips on news we can include in an upcoming Dead Drop and incinerate the forces of evil. Send items to us at: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
