The most recent news we have seen in relation to some of these odd russia/diaspora "ex-kgb" tales, most often around the investigations surrounding the "polonium incident" ( yesterdays sunday times piece was a good example ) is a reminder of that old london-based SF dystopia referred to in the play "a" , in a sort of "play in a play" bit of it.
( the gist of it was that a bunch of old covert-ops second tier of "defence of the realm" types, ( seperate from the state, the relics of 1920s paranoia about the "bolshy" mobs rising up, then taking over trains, storming the City of London, etc ) had "gone rotten". Burrough by burrough, in fact, then misused some old "crowd control" under pavement electro-tech, with the greater "tuning" that modern computers allowed, to machinate peoples actual reactions - in that sort of "frogs leg" old schoolkid experiment - but with a little burst of EMP to a bit of the brain to get, say, the tongue to flop out, or the little finger to wobble - but with the pretence at "diabolic possession", by using a bit of tacky mesmerism, to create entire "pseudo-groups" that could get used as either minions to do dirty jobs cheaper, or "bogey-person" groups to claim as the "threat" that these rotten burroughs of semi-dads army twisted neighbourhood watch type fraudsters were protecting their sponsors from.)
In the play, this "cash from chaos" theory - a sort of "fightclub" with a few QWERTY-user little wizard of oz meets the sadder, nastier version of the fraud from "bedknobs'n'broomsticks" goes as far as trying to get loads of people into Westminster, to offer "researchers" to the highest bidders, dropping phrases into the mouths of MPs, functionaries blackmailed to smooth the way for dodgy supermarket permissions, procurement budgets "for sale", war-creation schemes for the dodgier multi-national "MYNDERBYNDER" corporations, buying up Hotels to launder deals, or listen in to City trader types to "put a few side bets" on. They had got as far as putting old concentration camp experiment "slave labour" MKULTRA tech into use to offer "employment training" !!!!
In Russia, though, it seems that this "1930s chicago" chaos situation was caused by the deregulating fetishists that came over with "western aid" post gorbachev - but it seems the dystopia there is waking up to those facts too - ( as yet uncovered by the "daywatch/nightwatch" series - though perhaps "twilight" or "sun-up" might !) - as, too, it seems the "west" is. As the initial casualties of "infowar" are, in actual fact, so often the "customer", the "free west" was quite distorted too over time of the cold war. People that knew what they were talking about said the "irish war" couldnt end due to the fact that the criminal rackets were too ingrained into all sides . . . . this seems that sort of situation, worldwide. But when "Northern Rock" costs the taxpayer QUITE this much - ALL from a few dodgy snake-oil mortgage sellers raking off commission as 200,000 poor people get thrown out of their houses in the states . . . . when it seems possible that certain "opinion-influencer" types (see the AEi piece in the International Herald Tribune last week) are attacking the current USA administration for having "gone soft" to try to pre-wreck the crucial middle east peace process . . . . when the "war of errorism" (as the "remembereach eleventh" campaign used to call it) has cost the USA taxpayer $1,000,000,000,000 - all, as Eisenhower used to say, stolen from the mouth of hungry kids - when the top brass in the UK were saying YEARS AGO that the Iraq campaign CAUSED MORE TERRORISTS. . . .
These days, if you DONT think there are dodgy things going on "under the surface" its YOU thats a bit odd.
(reminder of the old secret-police lightbulb joke: How many . . . . 100. 1 to swap the lightbulb, all the others to say to you that . . . . you are mad. The light was never off! )
The question, of course, is WHAT.
But its good that, these days, it is the "establishments" that ask these questions too.
It actually does seem quite possible that Sasha was onto something about the "playing of one side against the other" in the cold war , the sort of thing that comes up by accident to people in his situation - ( to hear that people thought "your lot" did so'n'so, but with the sort of background for certainty that they DIDNT might get you wondering about things, if you were researching it or not!) . But it seems certain that a few people in the media are getting spun to PLAY it as "amping up the cold war" again.
War, what is it good for. Insert list of usual suspects, sift, etc.

mmmm