August 14, 2026

Spies, Spies, Everywhere Spies


Spies, Spies, Everywhere Spies
Igor Rogov X

Russia's War on Ukraine has inaugurated a new era of spy craft that has ratcheted up all previous efforts at exploiting industrial espionage and dual-use technology smuggling so as to supply the Kremlin's voracious war machine. Last month, The New York Times published a stunning article about a GRU spy using Aeroflot's shuttered office in Tokyo as a base for smuggling high-tech weapon components out of Japan. A few weeks later, the Times reported that the article's publication caused the spy at the center of it all to flee the Land of the Rising Sun.

If you like to read with your ears, catch this episode of the Times' Daily podcast, in which the author talks sources and methods. A great listen. Best quote from the author: "Japan has been known for years as a kind of spy Paradise."

Finally, in the event you live under the comfortable, Oblmovian delusion that bizarre spy gadgets are only found in Bond films, have a read of this long (but very satisfying) article in the Guardian about Igor Rogov, a Russian political activist who was either a super spy or a super fool. Teaser: there are marker pens with 1980s Soviet-produced detonators concealed inside, unwitting accomplices who are "just good at breaking men's hearts," spousal betrayals, bomb threats, and, of course Alexei Navalny shows up. There's sure to be a Netflix series in the offing...

 

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Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

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Bears in the Caviar

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