# Russian arrest Diplomat/CIA agent in incredibly amateurish caper - Plausible?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-arrest-diplomat-cia-agent-in-incredibly-amateurish-caper-plausible/658372>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 15, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-arrest-diplomat-cia-agent-in-incredibly-amateurish-caper-plausible/658372 "2013-05-15T02:56:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-arrest-diplomat-cia-agent-in-incredibly-amateurish-caper-plausible/658372/1 "2013-05-15T02:56:38Z")

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.The NYT pic has to be seen to be believed. It looks like a college kid playing Halloween dress up. Is this really the way professional spy craft is done in 2013 with a wig and a compass?

[Wash Post story here](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-expels-a-us-diplomat-accused-of-spying/2013/05/14/b6cb31a8-bcc1-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html)

[NYT story here](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/world/europe/russia-detains-american-saying-he-is-cia-agent.html)

[Video with wig here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXCf6iUXiA)

> [@](#):
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> MOSCOW — He arrived at the meeting with two wigs — the blond one on his head held in place by a baseball cap, a brown one in his knapsack, which also held a compass, a Moscow street atlas and $130,000 in cash. He was an operative for the Central Intelligence Agency, Russian officials say, and his goal was to recruit a Russian security officer as a spy.

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**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-arrest-diplomat-cia-agent-in-incredibly-amateurish-caper-plausible/658372/2 "2013-05-15T03:59:13Z")

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It does seem hard to believe.

It doesn’t appear that the US is trying real hard to deny he is a spy. Not saying he is, but they seem to be acquiescing to the idea.

Sometimes I wonder if these things are set up to make the other said look good for internal political reasons. Suggestions are that he had something to do with investigation connections to the Boston bombing.

I don’t get why they wouldn’t spread out the 500 euro notes…

What the heck is the compass for?

The wig doesn’t look very discrete…

Does he really need an RFID shield? For what god awful reason? He shouldn’t be carrying anything that could be read if he is a spy anyway.

Then again - the whole Anna chapman thing was pretty unbelievable too, but at least they were using encryption and stuff.