4.6 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Introducing... Rogue Russia: Agents of mayhem
Last October, the head of MI5 said Russia was on a mission to cause "sustained mayhem" on European streets. It might be hard to spot at first, but it is there in plain sight. This is the unpredictable, violent world of the modern Russian intelligence services. You can listen to the episode on the Slow Newscast here.
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0:00.0 | Hi, it's Alexi here. There will be a brand new series very soon. Do keep an eye out for it. |
0:06.8 | But while you're waiting, I wanted to tell you about a story I've been working on for our other investigative show, the slow newscast. |
0:15.1 | Along with my producer Gary, I've been looking into the story of an unusual arson attack |
0:21.0 | carried out against a small Latvian museum |
0:24.3 | and what it reveals about the dark world of Russian secret agents. |
0:30.3 | Here's a small snippet from the episode. |
0:32.6 | It's called Rogue Russia, Agents of Mayhem. |
0:38.5 | If I have a telephone call at night, I understand that something happened, something awful happened. |
0:47.6 | It's the middle of the night in the Latvian capital, Uyga. |
0:52.0 | Solvita Vibar is woken by a phone call. The person on the other end has |
0:57.0 | some alarming news. It's about the Museum of Occupation, a museum that Solvita runs. It's one of |
1:04.6 | Latvia's most famous institutions. To many in the country, the museum is a symbol of resistance to the Soviet Union and to the Nazis. |
1:13.6 | And now, Solvita is being told, come quickly, there's trouble. |
1:18.6 | And fire in a museum, this is the most awful thing in the museum. |
1:26.6 | And I was shocked, but I immediately ran to the museum. |
1:33.5 | It's a cold February night last year, but Solvita makes her way to Riga's old town at once, |
1:39.4 | to see for herself. Soon enough, she learns what took place. At around 1 o'clock, a window of my office |
1:50.0 | on the ground floor of the museum here, you can see it, was smashed and a Molotov cocktail was thrown in, |
1:59.0 | and my office was exploded. |
2:04.7 | I've seen photographs from the scene. |
2:06.7 | They show Solvita's office covered in shattered glass. |
2:10.0 | The walls are blackened with smoke. |
... |
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