zlacker

Just read the same in Wikipedia. This is extremely strange. Harrods bag and Mars candy in 1985 Moscow would be a telltale the size of Kremlin tower. Kutuzovsky avenue was a KGB owned turf, lots of Communist apparatchik lived there, including late Secretary General Brezhnev.

It reminds me a joke about Soviet spy arriving in Berlin and caughting stares from everyone around. What's wrong with my cover? Is something gives me out? Maybe it is a parachute? Or AK-47? Ah, it should be blue Slavic eyes! And he wears a sunglasses just in case.

>>SergeA+(OP)
> Harrods bag and Mars candy in 1985 Moscow would be a telltale the size of Kremlin tower. Kutuzovsky avenue was a KGB owned turf, lots of Communist apparatchik lived there, including late Secretary General Brezhnev.

I took it to mean that the MI6 agents were under diplomatic cover. It would not be strange for British diplomats to carry or eat British things, right? And it's also a decent defense against an accidental signal, since non-agents would naturally not have Mars bars nor bags from Harrods.

>>SergeA+(OP)
Not every agent has to conceal their national identity, the UK had an embassy in the USSR so there were plenty of known Brits wandering around for one to randomly walk through the area. Embassies are classic points to run out of because there's an official reason for being in the country and some protection against retribution.

>>functi+A8
This is correct. The KGB had several known agents working out of their embassy during the Cold War. Diplomatic cover gave them protection for their activities.

>>functi+A8
Like I said, Kutuzovsky avenu was (and probably still is) under massive state surveillance. English MI6 agent with diplomatic (under)cover will be spotted in minutes and their engagement and eye contact with highly ranked GRU officer will not pass below radar.

>>SergeA+4M3
I think choosing a street chock-full of high level Soviet functionaries might have been genius. How many of them would the MI6 agent "interact" with during a walk down the street? Would opening the Mars bar wrapper as he passes some general be the signal? Or the bite in front of the bakery? Or disposing the wrapper? Or the cough as the agent crosses paths with a Soviet diplomat? That's a very high noise floor. I suspect counter-intelligence would never figure it out until long after exfiltration was completed, unless they knew exactly what the signal was.

>>SergeA+4M3
The whole point of this signalling scheme is to prevent eye contact, or any engagement. To an observer who's unaware of the system, it just looks like a local embassy official out for a stroll. Or doing some other routine thing that a lot of other diplomats also do. Meanwhile, Gordievsky is probably never even at that bakery. Or he is, but at random times that rarely overlap with British diplomats in the area. The only reason he would visit it at 7:24am on a Tuesday would be to signal for exfiltration. If and he's doing that, then the risk is worth it.

It's also only once a week that the timing is enforced, so they can vary things up throughout the week to hide that pattern in noise.

And the candy bar/Harrod's bag doesn't come into play unless Gordievsky needs an exfiltration. So it's not like they're noticing this weird thing where British diplomats always eat Mars bars every Tuesday. It would only happen once at most.

They know they're being surveilled. They can't change that. So they make their signal as mundane as possible.

>>sangno+0S3
Now, that makes sense. I didn't think of it.