Dead Drop: September 8

WHERE’D THEY PUT PUTIN?  Ukrainian military intelligence chief Major General Kyrylo Budanov likes to play with the heads of Russians – so we are not entirely sure what to make over his comments about the head of Russia. In a recent interview, Budanov engaged in some speculation that Vladimir Putin might be hiding, ill – or maybe even dead. Budanov told Radio Svoboda that “The Putin who everyone used to know was last seen around June 26, 2022.”  There are lots of reports that Putin is using body doubles and eyebrows were raised recently when Putin (or a Putin-lookalike) was seen on looking at his right wrist searching for a watch – which the valid Vlad always wears on his left wrist.

NOW THAT’S AUTHENTIC: Current and former military personnel and intelligence officers often criticize motion pictures for getting the details of their professions wrong.  For the military, that might include misplaced ribbons on a uniform or people running around saluting each other at the drop of a hat. For intelligence operatives, it might be characters using personal cell phones in a SCIF or calling a CIA officer an “agent.”  But spies tell us that Denzel Washington’s newly-released Equalizer 3 nails some true-to-life details thanks to former CIA officer (and current Cipher Brief expert) Marc Polymeropoulos who is credited as a technical advisor on the film. Denzel plays a former intelligence operative who takes revenge on those who do wrong in the world.  Dakota Fanning co-stars as a CIA case officer, who is sent to Italy to investigate carnage (of course).  So, what did they get right in the film? In quite a few scenes, the station chief in Rome, named Frank Conroy, (played by David Denman) is wearing a Vienna Inn baseball hat.  That (less than swanky site) is an unofficial watering hole frequented by CIA officers and is located just down the road from the Agency HQ. Our spies tell us that Polymeropoulos (who has logged more than a little amount of time in the Vienna Inn himself) made sure the head gear was FedExed to Italy to cap off the character’s authenticity.