As long as there are states, there will also be spies, that is, people who obtain classified information in the territory of one country for transmission to the competent authorities of another country. Accordingly, any sovereign state considers espionage as a direct threat to its national interests, and is constantly engaged in identifying spies.
Instruction manual
1
In old films, the spy was portrayed as a subject wearing dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat pulled almost over his very eyes. Add to this his habit of raising the collar of his cloak, hiding his face and often looking around. Of course, if all the spies were so stupid, they would have been caught right away. In fact, in order to expose an enemy agent, it is necessary to pay attention to a lot of small details. As the saying goes, "the devil is in the details."
2
The illegal spy is fluent in the language of the host country. But, even with phenomenal abilities and memory, he is unable to remember all slang, slang words, all little-used definitions that are inherent only to a particular locality or occupation. Therefore, for example, if, according to the documents, a person was doing military service at such and such a time, has such and such a military specialty, and in conversation with colleagues did not understand the slang designation of weapons or ammunition known to any serving man, this is an occasion to beware.
3
Any conditioned reflex can be “slowed down” and controlled. But if a person gets tired, thinks or relaxes, he can manifest again. For example, it is common for Russian people, counting out loud, to automatically compress their fingers into a fist. Inhabitants of Western Europe, on the contrary, unclench their fingers openly when counting. Similar subtleties are inherent in literally everything. Any nation has its own rules of reflexes, the rules of how to say hello, have a conversation, go to visit, eat, pay the bill in a restaurant, etc. That is, if a person posing as a Russian behaves in everyday life, simply speaking, not in Russian, pay attention to this. There is reason to think seriously.
4
Finally, if a person for some reason stubbornly does not want to talk about his childhood years, to remember his neighbors in the house, yard, first teachers, to talk about the places where he was born and raised, this should also alert you. The fact is that spies deliberately avoid such conversations so as not to be caught in ignorance of local characteristics. For example, he would begin to remember not recalling how he had fished fish in a local rivulet as a child, and a native of the same places would be surprised: "Why, in those years she was completely shallow, there is ankle-deep water! What fish?"
