Former KGB Spy Rates 9 Russian Spy Scenes In Movies | How Real Is It?

Felipe: My wife, Isabel. Paige, Enrique. Paige: Hello. Philip: And what do you do, Stan? Stan: I'm an FBI agent. Jack Barsky: This scene is very

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istic. Hello, my name is Jack Barsky. I spied on behalf of the KGB for 10 years, from 1978 to 1988. And in 2014 I became an American citizen. Today I am going to play a film critic based on my experience, my

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experience in espionage. This is something that could have happened in real life. How to clear a dead spot. There were those types of fake coins. The way he then opens the coin using tools that are readily available, and the fact that there was a small piece of paper with some information on it, is quite realistic because, you know, I got bits of information via shortwave radio. , and transmitted information on a film cartridge where I photographed what I wrote down on paper.

Every once in a while I would wander through a park and, oh, wow, here's an oil can, it was a crushed oil can. I'd take it, take it home and then use pliers and screwdrivers to open it and voila, there was a passport and money there. I know this story quite well. Abel was considered a hero in the KGB while I was training. I don't know if he was still alive when I was in Moscow. This has been documented by both sides with much exaggeration. Both the Americans and the Soviets extolled the value of him, what he really did and what he accomplished.

What happens in situations like that? You can use agents once they are caught by propaganda services. I doubt the FBI would break into his apartment like he did. He seems unprofessional. Because you're running? What you do, if you want to search someone's apartment, you wait until they come out and then you do it secretly. This is how they searched my house. While I was on vacation. The FBI made a mistake: once inside, allowing Abel to touch anything. I'd probably give it an eight. It does a disservice to the professionalism of the FBI. Everything else is actually very realistic.

Alex: Your profile interests us. You have talents and skills that we can help you develop. Anna: Are you offering me a job? Alex: I'm offering you a new beginning. One year of military training; four years operational in the field. Jack: Recruiting and training people who would do things like, you know, go to another country and do bad things to good people. I only know this from second-hand reports. The KGB had a very, very murderous history, especially in the beginning. After Stalin died, they became a little more civilized, but they still did bad things. My recruitment was completely different.

It was a very, very soft approach, and it took me a long time, almost two years, to finally ask myself if I was willing and ready to join them. I was a junior in college when someone showed up. His cover was, at the time, to say: "I am a representative of a local company." And he just wanted to know, because he said to me, "We know you're a good student. What are your plans after you graduate from college?" At that time, in East Germany, you were assigned a position after graduating from university. At that moment, when he said that, I thought it was the Stasi, the East German secret police.

For me, it was a great honor, because, you know, in those days the Soviet Union was, in terms of strength, at least in the way we perceived it, equal to the United States, and the KGB was probably the most powerful. . secret service around the world. I still think it's very unrealistic. I would give it a zero. Stan: Hey! Philip: Phil Jennings. Stan: How are you? Stan Beeman. Felipe: My wife, Isabel. Paige, Enrique. Paige: Hello. Felipe: What are you doing, Stan? Stan: I'm an FBI agent. Jack: This scene is very realistic. There were 10 of us. We were supposed to live the lives of ordinary Americans.

Now, how do the two kids fit in there, especially at that age, there were some agents that had kids. I know a friend of mine who was an undercover KGB agent at the same time I was there, and in fact, he was there with his wife. They had a son who was born in Brooklyn. My own experience was a little different in that the FBI, when they started investigating me, they managed to buy the house next door. The agents occupied this house for several months just to keep an eye on me, but they never showed up.

This was just for observation purposes, which, when I became a public person, the producers of "The Americans" were really giddy because it seemed like life was imitating art in that sense. Spies are people too. You form relationships. There wasn't even a hint that anything like that was ever being considered. Philip: Nothing. You get nothing from us. She's trained for this. Me too. Elizabeth: We will die before we speak. Philip: And we know how to do it. Jack: Americans are pretty civilized. This is a quote that I remember. One of the guys told me: "They won't torture you.

The worst they can do to you is slap you a couple of times." Alright? Therefore, this scene is unrealistic from both ends. This is not how American counterintelligence ope

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, and this is not how a trained agent would respond. That's crazy over the top. The way these two agents supposedly operated, running a travel agency full-time, being parents full-time, and then doing all kinds of operations that require a lot of work, a lot of preparation, that require being in three different places at the same time. , all this is totally unreal. I told him, every time I see one of those main characters running around in a wig, I wince, because that's the last thing you want to do, because God forbid someone sees you and says, "Wait a minute." moment, I know this guy." .

It looks different. That? That's weird." Wigs, I mean, that's a total no-no. With one exception. People who work in surveillance sometimes change the way they dress. They change their jacket or put on a scarf. But that never happens. It's recommended for someone who was supposed to be a long-term undercover operative. As for content, I'd give "The Americans" a five. Rosa: Training is helpful, but there's no substitute for experience Morzeny: I'm. agree; we also used live targets. Jack: This was very entertaining, especially at the line: "We use real targets." I had bad guys, but this guy in a leather jacket;

I never met a KGB officer in a leather jacket. If you met them today as they were then, you would think they were ordinary people. That's the point of being a. spy. You don't want to look like one. This guy looks like a commissar, based on the way they dressed during the revolutionary era in Russia. The KGB was too compartmentalized. You know, I knew nothing but gentlemen; gentlemen operating on behalf of the Soviet Union for a cause, and we were all committed communists. But if they had tried to form a military unit with the people I worked with, we would have lost the first battle.

Suddenly, he has a gun in his shoe. There is a KGB museum in New York City and it has some real devices that were used by the KGB. They would be given, most likely, only to very special people who were performing a particular, very special task. Just go out and kill someone or poison someone. But this was not standard equipment. Any of these devices are proof if counterintelligence checks your house and even finds something with a secret compartment. I was operating within the universe of what is normal, and you can find a lot of things that you can use like tools and toys that you can buy in any store.

It's a minus one. Happy: Rule number 1, never take your eye off your... Pepper: Oh my god! Jack: Yeah, I like acting. It's interesting. My self-defense training was significantly less aggressive. I learned some moves. I got some self-defense training, not to attack the FBI or, you know, counterintelligence, but to defend myself in case I end up at some point in a dangerous neighborhood with some things on me, like money or compromising materials. That's all the weapons training I received. What we are seeing is a spectacular training. The KGB contingent was called Spetsnaz. Special forces, like the marines.

They were trained for this special type of operations. We get ahead of ourselves by thinking that anything that comes out in the media,

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, podcasts and anything else will be very close to the absolute truth. Even... a five. It's well filmed. These are top-notch actors. Orlov: The Russian agent's name is Salt. Evelyn Sal. Sal: My name is Evelyn Salt. Orlov: So you're a Russian spy. Lie Detector: Truthful. Agent: So far, the fMRI records the truth in everything he said. Jack: This is pure fiction on several levels. First of all, the sleepers were completely isolated. In other words, he couldn't betray anyone even if he wanted to.

The Russians did very well; We call this compartmentalization. There is no brain scan to help you discover the truth. I was still given a lie detector test, which the FBI still likes a lot, but which can be passed. You have to truly believe in lies and be a congenital liar. There were double agents, and there were a couple of cases where the KGB had a mole inside the FBI and the CIA who did a lot of damage. If I may, I'll give you double zero. Questioner: Do you work for the Americans? Dominika: I love my country.

Jack: This is taking the KGB practices of the '30s, '40s and early '50s and bringing them into some kind of contemporary scene, and that's not valid. The KGB was absolutely brutal in interrogating people, shooting them in the back of the head and using all kinds of brutality, which is unimaginable. It was very similar to what the Nazis did. This is one of the methods of torture. You put a board or something to avoid real injuries, bruises and things like that. But at the head? Questioner: The last time. Did you give Boucher to the Americans?

Jack: The media is much more subtle and much more psychological than this kind of thing. You threaten someone with a gun and if they get away with it, they'll hate you forever. There are several ways to make someone change. A threat to his family; That is a very, very strong incentive. When you have someone like me, I lived in the United States for 10 years and I had become accustomed to something... a significantly improved lifestyle. I had become an American in many ways. I think sexpionage is reality. I would be surprised if there were major intelligence services that didn't somehow recruit women to do their dirty work.

I wouldn't recommend this. Ricki: Then the message comes. "We read you." Jack: This thing starts writing and it turns out that the guy is in the place where he starts writing. Well, how do we know he's there? There is no real way for someone who was truly isolated to give someone an urgent message. The quickest way for me to have received an urgent message in those days was through signs. And that would be with a possible delay of about a day or at least half a day. Let's say that at night the agent sends the signal.

In the morning I read it. Is it possible to intercept a teletype message? I don't know, because I think at that time radio transmissions would have been preferable and they wouldn't come on spontaneously. If you want to deliver documentation on, say, a weapons system, how do you do it? The easiest way is, if you can, to steal it and put it on an electronic medium. But if it's just a really short message, like "Get out of here," a phone call, now you have to be aware that phone calls are tracked. There is also the communication that messages are compressed and transmitted in bursts, in short bursts, and then decompressed at the other end.

But, I repeat, this has to be programmed. Number stations, if you go into a short radio receiver and scan short waves, you'll occasionally hear something when someone says, "Five, eight, six, nine." It's a secret message for someone to decipher. Ricki: I looked everywhere for her. I couldn't find her at the airport and I even checked all the flight lists. I went down to the port. Man: Faster! Jack: In this business, if you have an asset, and we're talking about asset, it's a human being that works with you, you want to do everything you can to protect it.

You know, we're talking about an agent who was trying to protect a Russian who worked with him. I think that's completely realistic. Tom: Hey, Jim, Eileen and I thought you could use some entertainment. Petrofsky: Yeah, okay. Thank you, that would be wonderful. Jack: Well, the so-called agent is too handsome. We think Brosnan is actually Russian. He doesn't have an accent. There is no such thing as a Russian born in Russia, raised in Russia, being able to speak English without an accent. Tom: Damn! Eileen: You're pretty good, Jimmy! Tom: Yeah, too good. Jack: You'll be yourself. You know, if you're good at something, you brag.

You play along. That was the whole idea. You want to make friends with a lot of people and you just want to fit in as best you can. You don't want to stand out too much. You know, I made a big mistake. I went back to college in the US and had excellent results throughout the program. But, you know, show off your bowling skills, why not? If you are a good golfer, you maysomeone wants to play golf with you and that's how you meet people who might be of interest to you. This was very entertaining. I laughed, especially at the line: "We use real goals."