S9 Ep24: Espresso Martini | The GRU’s New Black Ops Unit, Russian Hybrid Warfare in Britain, and Listener Questions

Russia’s latest covert warfare escalations take center stage in
this week’s Espresso Martini. Chris and Matt unpack the emergence
of the GRU’s Department of Special Tasks, a new clandestine unit
coordinating assassinations, sabotage, and hybrid warfare
operations against the West. They also break down an alarming
report on a Russia-linked Telegram network inciting terrorism and
hate crimes in the UK—just another front in Moscow’s war of
destabilization. Plus, listener questions on the dilemmas of
counterterrorism, the future of Five Eyes under Trump, and top
spy books, both fiction and non-fiction.

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geopolitics, and current affairs.

Watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/O_uErvzy13o

Articles discussed in today’s episode

"A New Spy Unit Is Leading Russia’s Shadow War Against the West"
by Bojan Pancevski | The Wall Street Journal:
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/russia-spy-covert-attacks-8199e376


"A Russia-linked Telegram network is inciting terrorism and is
behind hate crimes in the UK" by Gregory Davis | Hope Not Hate:
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/02/10/exclusive-a-russia-linked-telegram-network-is-inciting-terrorism-and-is-behind-hate-crimes-in-the-uk/


Recommended Spy Reads

In this episode, we share some of our favorite spy books—both
fiction and non-fiction. Whether you’re looking for deep dives
into real-world espionage or classic spy thrillers, these picks
have you covered.

Chris’s Picks: A mix of gripping true stories
and classic spy fiction, covering Cold War betrayals,
intelligence tradecraft, and covert operations.

Fiction: Agents of Innocence (David Ignatius), Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Spy (John le Carré), Ashenden (W. Somerset Maugham), The
Deceiver (Frederick Forsyth), Damascus Station (David
McCloskey)

Non-Fiction: Next Stop Execution (Oleg Gordievsky), The Art of
Intelligence (Henry Crumpton), The Black Banners (Ali Soufan),
The Good Spy (Kai Bird), Spy Master (Helen Fry)

Matt’s Picks: Essential reads on espionage,
covert ops, and spycraft—plus some of the genre’s best
novels.

Fiction: The Cardinal of the Kremlin (Tom Clancy), The Sum of All
Fears (Tom Clancy), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John le Carré),
The Honourable Schoolboy (John le Carré), Smiley’s People (John
le Carré), The Quiet American (Graham Greene)

Non-Fiction: Spycraft (H. Keith Melton), Rise and Kill First
(Ronen Bergman), Relentless Strike (Sean Naylor), Killer Elite
(Michael Smith), The Targeter (Nada Bakos), Dead Drop (Jeremy
Duns), The US Intelligence Community (Jeffrey Richelson)

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Music by Andrew R. Bird

Secrets and Spies takes you deep inside the world of espionage,
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