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Michael Weiss Profile picture
@michaeldweiss
Jul 25, 2024 • 19 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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NEW: @InsiderEng and its partners @lemondefr and @derspiegel have identified the French chef arrested on suspicion of working for Russian intelligence to disrupt the Paris Olympics. Meet Kirill Griaznov, a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, reality TV star and FSB officer. We have his emails. Oh, and he's been to New York too! theins.press/en/politics/27…Image
The Perm-born Griaznov has resided in France for 14 years. He only decided to become a chef suddenly in 2010 after years working as a lawyer for financial services companies. While in Luxembourg, he met Lord Robert Skidelsky, a British peer. He was very excited about this and wanted to meet Skidelsky again in Moscow. Skidelsky seemed keen.Image
(Skidelsky was suspended from the House of Lords last year for not properly disclosing his ties to a think tank bankrolled by sanctioned Russian oligarchs. He's very critical of the UK's security assistance to Ukraine and was against Swedish and Finnish NATO membership.) thetimes.com/world/russia-u…
Griaznov's social media is awash with food porn, selfies, and reels where he goes Dr. Strange/Salt Bae on ramen. He also appeared on "Choose Me," Russia's answer to "The Bachelor," where he was described as a successful businessman and restaurateur. Image
Alas, all was not well here. According to his ex-girlfriends, he's got a drinking problem and the booze, so says one of them, would be his downfall. How right she was. Image
Griaznov was unmasked because he got tanked while trying to return to Paris from Russia via Turkey. The Turks didn't let him on the plane in Istanbul. So what did he do? He called a friend in Bulgaria to pick him up at the Turkish-Bulgarian border. The friend obliged.
Griaznov cooled his heels in St. Vlas, dined with the friend, got hammered again, and boasted of his special operation to disrupt the Olympic opening ceremonies in Paris on April 26. The friend was incredulous. So did what any deep-cover chekist would do: he whipped out his FSB ID.Image
Then, en route to Varna from St. Vlas, he took a call from his FSB boss and confirmed everything was on track for Paris and he'd even recruited “one more Moldovan from Chisinau." (Moldovans working for Russia were previously caught scrawling Stars of David all over Paris to ramp up fears of anti-Semitism.)
We have other evidence of his ties to the Russian special services. His brother, Dmitri, is chief of staff at the secretariat of the Belarus-Russia Union Assembly (a clearinghouse for FSB types). Dmitri he lives at the same address as Denis Sergeev, the Unit 29155 operational commander for the Skripal poisoning.
Griaznov also has a sensitive military dossier in his inbox belonging to a GRU airborne Spetsnaz colonel -- you know, the sort of thing a lawyer-cook would have hanging around in their attachments.
The FSB spy came to NYC in 2013 and appeared to stay at the Hudson Hotel in Columbus Circle. He ate at Marea, went to Carnegie Hall, took in a Knicks Game. He's also traveled around the world: Switzerland, Czechia and Bulgaria, along with shorter ones in the United Kingdom, China and India.Image
Here he is in Prague enjoying himself.
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Contacted by Le Monde, Victor, an old friend of Griaznov can't believe it. “I know his whole family and vice-versa," Victor said. "I went to his house in Moscow and Perm. He came to France because he hates Putin and does not want to go to the front, lol."
Griaznov's decision to get into the culinary arts reminded us of another late-in-life chef we profiled and whom you may have seen in March on @60Minutes. Vitalii Kovalev, once a military engineer with clearance, was arrested after a high-speed car chase in Key West. After two years in a U.S. prison, he went back to Russia, got mobilized and killed somehow in Ukraine: theins.ru/en/politics/27…
@60Minutes .@lemondefr's story: lemonde.fr/societe/articl…
@60Minutes @lemondefr .@derspiegel's story: spiegel.de/ausland/zugrif…
And @the_ins_ru's story (in Russian): theins.ru/politika/273341
Here's a clip of Griaznov on the reality dating show.
Lonely heart in Moscow seeks Moldovans from Chisinau for exciting trip to Paris. Tell you more later. Image

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More from @michaeldweiss

Michael Weiss Profile picture
Jan 14
I read everything Dexter Filkins writes and so should you. His profile of Marco Rubio is no exception. I'll share a few highlights in this thread: Image
During the campaign I said J.D. Vance seemed like the sort of populist redneck a gaggle of South African tech bros might cook up in a Silicon Valley laboratory. Almost AI-generated. Anti-charismatic. Awkward in the extreme. And a hard sell absent the Trump juggernaut. Well, lookee here. Vance is not "a guy's guy" like Rubio. Trump thinks he's a bit weird, a bit wussy, and highly unlikeable. He even has buyer's remorse picking Vance as VP. The Maduro op and the past and future military action Iran show Marco's stock is up, J.D.'s is down. Vance gets to own the mess in Minnesota. Rubio gets to be viceroy of Caracas.Image
Here's a little something special from Sen. Mike Rounds, who not only confirms Rubio's call to his former Senate colleagues at the Halifax Security Forum last November, but emphasizes that the Dmitriev-Witkoff plan was really the Dmitriev plan: "... we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives." Indeed. And it was laundered, Rounds might have added, through a gullible press corp, which relied on Dmitriev, Witkoff and Kushner as sources (this when Witkoff played an active role in deceiving the same press corp about supposed daylight between Trump and Netanyahu on striking Iran) and didn't bother asking why the Secretary of State/NSA or CIA director were written out of a coalescing U.S. deal with Russia. Those sorts of things demand inter-agency buy-in. Instead, amateur diplomats made an end-run around the actual diplomat, and Rubio got his retaliation in by letting a group of bipartisan legislators do it for him. He then initiated a de-Russification process of Dmitriev's 28-point plan in Geneva, and lo and behold it's now a Ukrainian-coauthored 20-point plan, certified by Witkoff and Kushner and Trump in successive rounds in Florida. The Russians will inevitably reject it and more or less have already. This was very well played.Image
Read 7 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Jan 12
Well, well, well.

"A number of months ago, the U.S. captured a weapon that has been associated with Havana Syndrome. Both said it was seized by U.S. Special Forces during an operation...the weapon is under the Defense Department’s Intelligence & Security unit." sashaingber.substack.com/p/exclusive-us…
CNN now reports the device linked to Havana Syndrome was purchased by Homeland Security in the waning days of the Biden administration. And DoD has spent a year testing it. It has Russian components and fits in a backpack. cnn.com/2026/01/13/pol…Image
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Two years ago, @InsiderEng, in collaboration with @60Minutes and @derspiegel, published a lengthy investigation into Havana Syndrome, and found links to GRU Unit 29155. You can read it here: theins.ru/en/politics/27…
Read 5 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Dec 8, 2025
Suggest European friends and allies read not only the National Security Strategy but also the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2026, which was published last night. It's very long, so skip to this section: rules.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…Image
Here, for instance, we see several amendments written in direct response to what Elbridge Colby has been doing at DoD while Pete Hegseth does chin-ups and tequila shots. Note the provision about reclassifying aid to Ukraine as needed U.S. stocks -- this cannot be done, per this draft, unless the kit is so badly needed for a contingency op, its absence could result in mission failure or loss of American lives:Image
Let's say Trump wants to punish Zelensky again for not wanting to forfeit Donbas by cutting intel sharing to Ukraine. He would have two days to notify Congress on this decision. And he'd have to explain why he did it and what the anticipated consequences to Ukraine would be. "Because I'm an asshole and I don't care" might not even suffice in this fast-changing political environment!Image
Read 8 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Nov 22, 2025
U.S. officials now confirmed what I wrote yesterday -- this whole thing was a Russian active measure, leaked to the press to sow panic and confusion and be conflated with U.S. policy in an administration where incompetence and dysfunction are evidently features, not bugs. macspaunday.substack.com/p/he-got-this-…
Utter fucking embarrassment for the United States, and it certainly explains the muted/cautious response by the Kremlin. I do hope Europe is paying close attention. *This* is the government they think they need to kowtow to.
Question now is who was pushing this "Russian wish-list" as a do-or-die plan of action to the Ukrainians from the American side? I think we know the answer. And why is the admin suddenly backing away from this thing?
Read 9 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Oct 28, 2025
New: I acquired the private memoir of Gen. Alexander Zorin, a senior GRU officer who was Putin's envoy to Syria and is now leading POW exchanges with Ukraine. A feature film, "Porcelain Soldier," is set to debut in Russia next month, all about Zorin's adventures -- sort of a Stierlitz meets Bourne production, which was green-lit by former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…Image
In all, I've acquired over a thousand pages of documents: Zorin's 186-page memoir, which he titled "The Negotiator" (watch your back, Sam Jackson), some of the ancillary production material for the movie, and five iterations of the screenplay, each more cartoonish in plot and dialogue than the last. The first draft is actually rather nuanced and ends with Zorin weeping upon learning a rebel commander he persuaded to evacuate was subsequently killed by the Russian army after Zorin gave his word that would not happen. (Who says the GRU is a heartless organization?)
The memoir is a fascinating portrait of the life of a still-active Russian spy, made more fascinating because in his pursuit of self-aggrandizement Zorin inadvertently reveals things his masters in Moscow might not like. These include the sorry state of the Russian Air Force in Syria (as in Ukraine, jet pilots used store-bought Garmin GPS devices to navigate, causing near-miss mid-air collisions and much else). The shoot-first-ask-questions-never disposition of racist Russian military commanders. And the Mad Hatter illogic of Russian disinformation schemes about Syrian chemical weapons attacks.Image
Read 9 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Oct 22, 2025
Re: Trump's denial of the WSJ story, read this paragraph twice. Transferring authorization from Hegseth to Grynkewich is almost the scoop itself. Cuts Elbridge Colby out of the process, and one wonders how and why this decision was taken -- note, taken before the Ze visit to the WH -- given all Cheese's unflattering press. Trump recently called him "J.D.'s guy." (Second screenshot from prior WSJ piece on Colby pausing deep strike authorization under this review process.) wsj.com/politics/natio…Image
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Not the first time Grynkewich v. Colby has popped up. When PURL was announced, Grynkewich was the guy named running point with DoD (logical enough given he's SACEUR). This was around the time of the Colby memo diverting USAI kit meant for Ukraine back into U.S. stockpiles. cnn.com/2025/08/08/pol…Image
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Which led to articles such as this one in The Hill: Image
Read 4 tweets

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