Question of the week #49

[treonb]

At the end of the season finale, Stan saw Nina taken away, to be returned to the USSR. What do you think will be his next step?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first two seasons in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[quantumreality]

I don't see how he could. She's going to be locked up and under heavy guard in what at the time was one of the more advanced police states (excepting possibly East Germany) which waxed and waned with scrutiny of entrants to the USSR*, but almost certainly would red-flag him if he tried to enter the country as a "tourist".

* There was a time in the 1950s when they didn't bother inspecting tourist carry-on luggage. Presumably at the time, Khrushchev and his Politburo colleagues were anxious to promote the USSR's image and decided to go softly.

[treonb]

Of course. I'm not saying it's easy, but I meant a rescue attempt before she left the US. I did expect him to at least follow her to see where she was being taken.

[sistermagpie]

I think he does know to an extant--she's being taken to the airport to go to Moscow, presumably.

[treonb]

I expected more from a guy who claims he loves her.

I can understand Oleg not having a choice about it, but he at least left his desk, which was already dangerous for him, to see her off as far as he could.

[sistermagpie]

I think he made the choice to do nothing once he refused to give Arkady the plans for Echo. At that moment he knew that he was choosing his country over any love he had for Nina and leaving her to her fate in the USSR. I think he knew that any gestures he made after that would have been ineffectual, weak posturing, in a way.

[apolla_savre]

When I went in 2010, they didn't inspect anything when we got off the plane. We were all prepared to have a long wait and the guys just looked at us and were like, "Have anything to declare?" We said no, and they waved us on through.

They inspected our baggage when we flew out, though, but that was for security. You're not supposed to take rubles out of the country, but I left with about $50 of rubles. Those were a pain to exchange back to dollars, but I didn't even think about finding an exchange in Russia because we left at about 5 in the morning.

But there's no way Stan could get in as a tourist. There's just no way. The procedure would take too long and he'd have to submit info about his job with his application and they'd see "FBI" and go, "Oh, hell no." And who knows where they'd take Nina? She might go to Moscow for trial, but her guilt's already established. She confessed. Stan would have to have an itinerary clearly established and there's no way he could break that to go running around Siberia (which is huge, he'd never find her on his own.) Plus, his Russian is terrible. He'd be recognized as a foreigner immediately and the locals would either avoid him like the plague or turn him in.

[quantumreality]

Am actually surprised Russia enforces exchange controls even now, but I imagine they could be concerned about offshore rubles screwing up the exchange rate (Malaysia did something like this in 1998; when they slammed down controls over capital flows, they effectively demonetized all offshore ringgit, which meant that the fixed exchange rate to the US dollar became easier to defend).