YOUNG MEN NEEDED: You have to hand it to the TV talking heads in Russia for not sugar coating things. Well, some things. Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis came up with another gem recently where two commentators were talking about the Kremlin’s recruiting challenges. In this video, you can see one of them argue that Russia should send its very young men into combat because when they get killed – there won’t be as many widows and orphans to pay off. Not only that, but older Russians – those over 40 — are not able to “run, jump sleep on the cold ground” in part due to their consumption of alcohol. So, there is a need to create a “normal people’s army” they say and “Children will have to go serve in the army.” Things must be getting tough.
DON’T WORRY, WE’LL MAKE MORE: Meanwhile, the Moscow Times has a report about the misfortune of a Russian priest who not long ago advocated women having more babies so they wouldn’t feel so badly when their older kids are sent off to war and don’t come back. It seems Archpriest Mikhail Vasilyev was performing chaplain duties in Ukraine when a U.S.-supplied HIMARS missile sent him to meet his maker. This immediately caused an eruption on the internet where a lot of people were making versions of the same joke – hoping that Vasilev’s mom had a few spare kids. It also occurred to us that “Archpriest” sounds like a very appropriate title. Vladimir Putin reportedly gave him another title, “Hero of Russia” (posthumously.)
OLD MEN NEEDED: The Russian army is not the only military outfit struggling to fill its ranks. This week, the U.S. Navy announced that it has raised the maximum age allowed for someone seeking to enlist to 41. There was a time when sailors called “old salts” simply meant that they had been to sea a lot…but now that may refer to the hair color of recruits. The move was made because the sea service has been struggling to come up with sufficient sailor wannebees. At last report, the Army is cutting off enlistments at age 35, and the Air Force at 40. The Marine Corps apparently is a young person’s game – and folks older than 28 are not eligible. One person we know suggested that the Navy should have made the max age 45 so that they could recruit Tom Brady who may be finally looking for a new line of work after this NFL season. Someone else suggested they go after Rob Gronkowski who is only 33. If he joined, he’d be eligible for that USAA membership he is always talking about on TV.
OLD TRAITORS NOT NEEDED: Last week’s Dead Drop had an item about NSA cybersecurity director Rob Joyce’s quirky twitter posts. This week, Joyce posted a tweet with a meme of John Cusack holding up an old boom box with the caption “We want you back!” and news that NSA is now fast tracking applications from former employees who want to return to government service. And then Edward Snowden responded saying simply, “Thanks, I’ll pass.” Snowden probably feels safer in Moscow now that he may be too old to send to the front in Ukraine.
MIDTERM-INATORS: You may have heard that the U.S. held a midterm election this week. It certainly didn’t escape the attention of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who responded to journalists in Moscow who asked whether Russia would be meddling in the election by saying: “Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere,” Prigozhin proclaimed. “Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once,” he added. Although he is popularly known in Russia as “Putin’s chef” in this case, he sounded more like a butcher. Whether the Russians really tried to manipulate anything here remains unknown. Perhaps they are just trying to live rent-free in the heads of Americans – and given the state of the Russian economy we can understand why they might be short on cash.
HIRE A VET OR NOT: While the results from the expected “red wave” are still dribbling in – we were interested in an initial look at how candidates with military or intelligence community experience did as candidates. Military Times kept a running account of vet winners. There were quite a few former military candidates. Last we saw – close to 80 won their elections and about 100 did not. In some cases, two veterans were running against each other. For example, in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans, a nurse practitioner and former Navy helicopter pilot, beat Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), a former navy surface warfare officer. On the intelligence side – two former CIA officers, Reps. Allison Spanberger and Elise Slotkin won reelection. In Utah, former CIA officer Evan McMullin lost his bid for a Senate seat.
THAT’S A RELIEF: There has been a ton of speculation about whether Vladimir Putin is serious about his threats to employ nuclear weapons as part of his “special military operation” in Ukraine. The folks at Business Insider tracked down former KGB officer Jack Barsky (who was a Soviet-run illegal living a double life in the U.S. before being caught and changing sides) to get his take. Barsky’s bet: “Vladimir Putin is not a suicide bomber. Vladimir Putin wants to live.” That was reassuring until Barsky added that Putin might be a “maniac” – just not one looking for self-destruction. Emory University professor Dan Reiter offered a somewhat similar view in Foreign Affairs saying that Putin is desperate but not foolhardy and “The good news is that history suggests that Putin is unlikely to fulfill the West’s worst fears.” So, not to worry. The consensus is Putin is no worse than a desperate maniac.
CRUNCH TIME FOR PEANUT BUTTER SPY DUO: We have mentioned many times the sticky situation former Navy civilian engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his wife Diana got themselves into. The couple got it into their heads to try to sell secret U.S. information of nuclear submarine propulsion to a foreign country – widely reported to have been Brazil. Well, this week after several false starts, the couple was sentenced in a West Virginia federal district court to lengthy jail terms. Surprisingly, the Judge, Gina Groh, gave Ms. Toebbe the longer sentence – just short of 22 years, while her hubby got only 19 years. While not a Jif, the sentences are shorter than the max penalty of life in prison that the charges allow. Diana got the stiffer sentence because she reportedly tried to sneak handwritten letters to her husband in jail urging him to lie about her involvement. No word on whether those letters were hidden in half-eaten peanut butter sandwiches.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
AIRBNB’S WITH SCIFS: The Federal government, just like business, is looking for new models for providing people places to work. When your stock in trade is classified information, however, your options are a bit more limited. Work-at-home and TS-SCI don’t play well together. The Federal News Network recently reported that the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) is pushing agencies to fund and certify shared Sensitive Classified Information Facilities (SCIFs) to give their workers more flexibility. The idea is that such spaces would not just be for federal employees but also for certain cleared contractors.
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