"A Cheap Agatha Christie Novel"

If anyone knows just what these guys were doing, I'd love to hear it. The Russians are predictably denying involvement, but in this case it rings true. The USG seem to have offended their sense of professionalism!


From the FT:


Mr Kovelav said the overall shoddiness of the operation indicated it had nothing to do with the Russian government. “Illegals who launder money, live on forged documents and get money from glass jars buried in the earth. These cannot be employees of a Russian intelligence service. That is totally ridiculous. It’s like a cheap Agatha Christie detective novel.”

But more importantly, said Mr Liubomov, it was unclear what the goal of such an operation was.