I expected to see something along the lines of vans with directional antennas driving around Moscow listening for spurious emissions from local oscillators of superheterodyne receivers 465 kHz away from the number station frequency, as in Operation RAFTER.
To me the most remarkable thing about this story is that the KGB was apparently stymied for an extended period by the fact that Filatov had a "difficult" lock of "foreign origin" on his apartment door, to the extent that they had to steal and copy a key carried by his wife using an elaborate setup. It seems odd that an agency known for its skilled spycraft apparently was unable to pick a door lock.
>> When Filatov was at work, the operative workers infiltrated his apartment and installed technical surveillance resources for video surveillance and photography.<p>1977. Video equipment was VERY different then, especially on that side of the iron curtain. It would have had moving parts, motors, probably requiring a degree of soundproofing. I want to see pictures of where/how they hid this stuff because it wasn't easy.
Hello everyone. This is a translated excerpt from a desecretized KGB operations manual that offers an example on how their counter-intelligence division caught a spy using a numbers station for one-way communication.
> To compensate this issue a new optic surveillance system “Negus” with 300-400 meter range that was capable of detecting, when objects entered the house, what he did in the stairway and some of the main areas of his apartment.<p>Seems like the "Negus" device is a photo-camera with a large magnifying attachment, sturdy base, stereo viewfinder, and knobs for focus. I found a description and some pictures here: <a href="http://ussrphoto.com/Wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=46&ParentID=1&ContentID=1273" rel="nofollow">http://ussrphoto.com/Wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=46&ParentID=...</a>
I've sometimes wondered why the Hershey Fonts have such a nice set of cyrillic vectors. Maybe making things like <a href="https://i1.wp.com/www.numbers-stations.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200224_141721-scaled.jpg?ssl=1" rel="nofollow">https://i1.wp.com/www.numbers-stations.com/wp-content/upload...</a> is something one would prefer to do on an in-house plotter, rather than sending it out to an ordinary print shop?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_fonts" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_fonts</a><p>Edit: the bus stop has been replaced, and the kerbside tree is gone:
<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Druzhby+St/@55.7139414,37.5237665,3a,75y,79.32h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1srsOzcsVPtYRIf_3fYOQGfg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DrsOzcsVPtYRIf_3fYOQGfg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.gws-prod.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D79.316605%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x0:0xfae7174706dad052!2sMoscow+State+University!8m2!3d55.7039349!4d37.5286696!3m4!1s0x46b54c73b2e759b3:0x4e37c4dc72181b0!8m2!3d55.7139492!4d37.5238828" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/place/Druzhby+St/@55.7139414,37....</a><p>(it was conveniently located between an "embassy row" and a nice park with scenic overlook)<p><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@55.709541,37.5422738,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOKxdlwq3Kkyh8vCxfq0GZmDeVyaa9vpUwSPD0B!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOKxdlwq3Kkyh8vCxfq0GZmDeVyaa9vpUwSPD0B%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya255.63419-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/@55.709541,37.5422738,3a,75y,90t...</a>
What stands out for me after reading this is the number of civilian lives disrupted to carry out this operation. Whether mass surveillance or moving neighbors, the system successfully rooted out a single mole but paid little mind to the impact that doing so had on the rest of society. Short-sighted strategic excellence can conceal long term self-sabotage and risk.
> To intercept the agency letters sent by Filatov or to detect if he has made new places to hide or send documents, a event called “Ruby” was carried out in his work cabinet, his living place and his mailbox by using a special chemical agent.<p>Do you have any idea what they are talking about here?
I'm imagining dispersing some invisible chemical (or isotope maybe?) in his house and then looking for increases in concetrations in areas where he might have been to.
Morals of the story:<p>1. Do not try to sneak stuff past the Russians in invisible ink.<p>2. If you are a spy and your friendly neighbours suddenly have to move, consider taking an unscheduled vacation in GTFO.
Today we're seeing number stations move off of ham radio and onto protocols like MQTT.<p>Additionally a lot of "weather stations" around the world are simply number stations. They vary the numbers reported, and wherever they diverge from whatever is determined in advance as the "canonical" source is how information is communicated. This paragraph and the above are just my personal observations please note.<p>Lastly good examples of weather stations in general (not actual spying things please note) can be found here [1] and here [2].<p>[1] - <a href="http://weewx.com/stations.html" rel="nofollow">http://weewx.com/stations.html</a><p>[2] - <a href="https://joesdatacenter.com/hvac/" rel="nofollow">https://joesdatacenter.com/hvac/</a>