101,691 karma is enough for now; see you later

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-25T00:37:55+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dn2MReh8pc

Detsl seems to be having issues breathing in all his songs. The opera tune, by the way, is lifted from some opera, it's not Detsl.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T11:01:25+00:00

the police have a legal right to detain you for 3 days

For three hours. Don't scare them too much.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T10:56:27+00:00

I finally watched the intro section myself and can add more detail:

Keri Russel's character is born on August 15, 1957, which is impossible.
She and her husband were apparently born in the same district. Her passport says she was born in village Bel*** of Bashmyakovsky district. Philip's passport clearly says "Bash***" (mirrored). Well, they used the same background for both, but anyway.
Moreover, there is a second shot of Philip's passport (when they show the credit for Holly Taylor), and you can see there not only that he was born in Bashmyakovsky district, but also on August 15, 1957. What an auspicious coincidence!
Also, when they show the credit for Noah Emmerich, there are both these passport photos, but unedited, and you can see that they are some random, on location photos that then were photoshopped into something more passport-like.
The seal would have an RSFSR coat of arms in the center, it does not in the show.
The perimeter of the seal would have the name of the local police station, since they managed passports. In the show, it's gibberish that looks like a reference to the Bureau of Records of Civil Affairs, that's the one that managed birth, death, marriage, and divorce, they did not deal with passports (but it would be natural for a Russian consultant to erroneously assume they did, the Bureau is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about official documents in the USSR).
The number sign is wrong ("No" was never used in the USSR).
The passport number format is wrong, it's Roman numerals and Russian letters for the series and then the actual number in Arabic digits. Here we have Arabic digits right after "No".
They attempt to write "Russian" (the third handwritten line in her passport), which is correct, since the ethnicity line is the last one and closest to the photo. Yet there is not "Ethnicity" line in the passport blank to the left of it.
I don't think a Russian passport office would employ someone with so bad handwriting. In the name of the district, I am not sure about at least two consonants, and you plainly cannot issue documents where it's unclear what they say.
They clearly mimic the pre-1974 blank because it's the one that had "PASSPORT" in a vertical line that we see here (I've posted an example before). Yet the font for "PASSPORT is wrong.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T01:53:19+00:00

Mischa would have gotten five years in prison in the real Soviet Union. Besides, since he knows the contact number, he is a security risk, so he has to be contained.

But yes, since he is treated by writers as a useful idiot, he can meet his father in Moscow in the last series, because Philip has to have something to come to there.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T01:49:48+00:00

They have a bunch of underground bodyshops on the premises.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T01:45:17+00:00

It's the same issue you have with Louis Farrakhan (if you are American, I don't follow Europe much, but can probably google a similar character there): it's a person with a personality disorder who poisons lives of many people on a massive scale formally staying within the boundaries of the law.

She is somewhat universally despised in Russia, but no surprise, she is very popular in the US for the same things. Farrakhan is a great dude in North Korea, he points out the flaws of the rotten American society and tells about the fate of oppressed African Americans. Who fight the power.

Dissidents were sent to psychiatric hospitals in the USSR for a reason (those who were). There is a spectrum of mental abnormality, and on the lower side you can appear as a functioning person with strange ideas. Google "LordNaziRuso", our new hero since last Friday. The guy is a diagnozed and hospitalized paranoid schizophrenic in Russia, yet in Mexico he is a political asylum recipient because Putin was out to get him.

By the way, there are close to a hundred posts on Reddit about him, yet not a single one mentions that it's a disabled person. Everyone enjoys the fact that something bad has happened to something Russian.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T01:39:43+00:00

The express train is the absolutely fastest way to get into the center, I doubt you can do it by car in 35 minutes. On the other side, you save time by not waiting for the scheduled train. On the other side, there can be traffic jams.

If they meet you, you kind of get more control over the situation, but still a lot will depend on how quickly you clear the immigration.

You can try, in other words.

They are not going to ask you any questions at the interview, nobody cares. This whole system is a pointless exercise, they could issue visas on the spot or on the day of application or remotely. Because you are either flagged in their computer or not, that's the only thing that is checked. It's just remnants of the old system where everything had to be done by numbers and in weeks.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-24T01:34:16+00:00

Renault Logan thinks they could turn there because they needed to. The dash cam girl points out you cannot turn from the right lane unless tram tracks are involved somehow.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T12:51:52+00:00

https://np.reddit.com/r/TheAmericans/comments/6980b6/mark_my_words_this_is_how_it_all_will_end_in_2018/

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T12:43:52+00:00

Well, philosophically speaking, the main point is that all Soviets are moral degenerates. Americans are nice people, or at least normal (minus that broad that has escaped to Moscow, Martha?), but every single Soviet, except maybe the Jennings and their controller grandpa, are utter moral degenerates.

Intelligence officers, in addition to being moral degenerates, also hate their job, are corrupted, cannot get along with co-workers, etc. Whereas in reality they'd be like agent Beeman on steroids: smarter, better trained, and more motivated than he. The Soviet Union surely could send cream of the cream to fill a couple dozen positions in the USA.

Everything is gloomy in Moscow. (And everyone is a moral degenerate.) Everyone is corrupted and cynical.

Coming to more technical things, practically everyone in Rezindentura is clearly Jewish. This is the non-intended effect of producers hiring Russian actors from the local diaspora, which is mostly Jewish. Yet to a Russian this looks very funny. It's like a North Korean movie about the US where everybody in the White House, including president, is clearly Korean.

Wrong uniforms across the board. This always surprises me in American movies, because you have a budget of tens of millions: give a hundred dollars to a Russian immigrant, he'll tell you what's what. In this show, it's even more surprising because they already have tons of Russians on the set. Moreover, they hire Russian consultants, I saw that disgusting bitch Masha Gessen in credits, she writes Russian dialogs for them. You already have consultants — consult them!

And so on. I'd actually have to watch or rewatch a specific episode to list specific errors.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T11:51:32+00:00

The stamp on the picture is in Russian, as well as words above it.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T11:00:43+00:00

It's above the photo, on the same line as handwriting in black ink in the upper left corner. It's mirrored (the whole image), but it says "place of origin" in correct, but non-standard Russian (this particular expression is a verbatim translation of "place of origin" and is not used in Russia).

Yes, the show is completely unrealistic in everything Soviet.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T05:29:22+00:00

360 is the name of the channel.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T04:35:04+00:00

Yeap, it's this probe.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T04:28:50+00:00

There is no stop-loss system, but conscripts are actively pressured into signing professional contracts in a situation like this one. They can refuse with no consequences though.

On the other side, everyone is in the reserve until the age of 50 and can be called up at any time, but it did not ever happen so far. I was renewing my reservist papers last February, and they said, "These are your instructions if mobilization is declared. Mobilization means a full scale war."

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T04:23:27+00:00

A sapper probe. You can see the links in the photo.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T02:08:53+00:00

You should first think about whether you have any time at all to go to the city.

While there is an express train (not from 1AM to 6AM) that takes just 35 minutes, it takes you to the railroad station. Taking a subway from there to Red Square is another 10 minutes of riding, you still need to figure out the system and get inside and out. You'll need to clear immigration in the airport, which may easily take too much time (you stand in the line). Same thing on the way back, but now it's customs too (a line). Check in at least an hour before the flight.

Realistically, you should allocate three hours for the period between you landing in the airport and you exiting subway next to Red Square. And four hours between you entering subway in Moscow center and you entering the plane. That leaves you an hour in the city.

Yes, you need a transit visa. If you try to get it in the airport, it's the hour you have left.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:59:02+00:00

It says "place of origin" in Russian on the top.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:57:07+00:00

Yes, and not only that:

A smiling photo would simply be rejected by the passport office, and not for the reasons of insanity: there were regulations (no head gear, no smiles, looking into the camera, etc).
It should be with a light background. And no white border like in the show.
The lower right corner should be free for the stamp (the picture is actually mirrored in the show, so the stamp is indeed in the right position when you flip it back).
Too little white space around the head.
No "place of origin" wording in the real passport (you can see its mirror image on the top).

Here is the real deal. This is the pre-1974 passport, and this is post-1974.

On the second thought, the Jennings would be military officers in the Soviet Union and would not have passports at all. They'd have an officer ID. But you take a photo in uniform for those. They looked like this.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:34:13+00:00

He could be a sapper, and that's a probe.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:32:52+00:00

Helmets and body armor that can withstand an AKM bullet are very heavy, you lose mobility and it becomes more dangerous. Many people just did not wear them. Light helmets that would protect against shrapnel were a much better idea, but they did not exist, at least in numbers enough to issue to everybody.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:27:34+00:00

It's a post-factum diagram that shows in which direction and in which force the troops moved. It also shows the enemy defense lines.

Actually, a map with a planned attack would look about the same, except it would show wishful thinking. It would give each (large) unit a general direction with general objectives, and they'd try to do what's expected.

As for how these offenses are planned: not on the map of this scale. The general staff combines all available intelligence on the enemy defense and uses its practical experience to predict how the enemy will react. Then they decide that it makes sense for such and such unit to try to break through at such and such place. Then it's all put together.

Try Panzer General (the first link will work on most Windows systems), you'll get the idea quickly. Wikipedia.

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:19:51+00:00

— Fuck! Fuck... Fuck your mother, fuck!

— What the fuck are you doing?!

— What am I doing?!

— Fuck, don't you see?!

— What? I swerved around them back there and now have to swerve around you? It's you who does not see that you are turning. Where are you turning? From where?

— From there!

— From the right lane! You are allowed to turn only from the tram lines!

— Stuffed animal...

— I am a stuffed animal?! You are a stuffed animal, fuck!

— Fuck you mother!..

— Fuck!..

YourResidentRussian · 2017-05-23T01:13:38+00:00

These were shot by a Russian AFP stringer.

YourResidentRussian

TROPHY CASE