Explosions, Expulsions and Explanations of Russian Active Measures
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2021
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
The Russian GRU Unit 29155 is in the news again. Czech authorities pin the blame on it for a series of explosions in 2014 that killed two people, and then they expelled an unusually high number of Russian diplomats, dramatically reducing Russia's diplomatic presence in Czechia and perhaps harming its intelligence efforts across Central Europe.
To talk about it, David Priess sat down with Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter with the New York Times based at the United Nations whose most recent reporting has shed important light on the events of this shadowy Russian military intelligence unit, and John Sipher, the co-founder of Spycraft Entertainment and a retired 28-year veteran of the CIA with significant experience against the Russian target. They discussed this Russian military unit's active measures, Putin's motivations and possible miscalculations, and intelligence collection against and cooperation to thwart this unit, along with the bigger picture of Western relations with Russia.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
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| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | If they see weakness, they will continue to push. |
| 0:36.3 | And so that's why I credit the checks for pushing back hard because we've learned over |
| 0:40.9 | the last five to eight years that these small steps don't deter player pool. |
| 0:47.2 | I'm David Prius and this is the LawFair podcast April 27, 2021. |
| 0:54.9 | The Russian GRU unit 29155 is in the news again. |
| 1:01.4 | Check authorities pinned the blame on it for a series of explosions in 2014 that killed |
| 1:07.2 | two people and then expelled an unusually high number of Russian diplomats, dramatically |
| 1:13.8 | reducing Russia's diplomatic presence in Czechia and perhaps harming its intelligence |
| 1:20.1 | efforts across central Europe. |
| 1:22.9 | To talk about it, I sat down in the virtual jungle studio with Michael Schwartz and John |
| 1:28.8 | Cipher. |
| 1:30.6 | Michael is an investigative reporter with the New York Times based at the United Nations |
| 1:35.3 | but with plenty of experience reporting on Russian activities across Europe. |
| 1:41.6 | His most recent reporting has shed important light on the events of this shadowy Russian |
| 1:46.7 | military intelligence unit. |
| 1:49.1 | John Cipher is the co-founder of spycraft entertainment and a retired 28 year veteran of the CIA with |
| 1:56.8 | significant experience against the Russian target. |
... |
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