They'll tell you who they are.

Trying to rehab the rep of Iron Felix is certainly a tell...

Today, however, the Chekists run Russia again and Putin’s tenure has witnessed nostalgia for the KGB become state policy. A big tell was the restoration of December 20, the Cheka’s “birthday” in 1917, as a holiday, in Soviet fashion.

Now Dzierżyński’s statue is back in a place of honor. The placement of this new statue is revealing. It’s a slightly smaller replica of the statue torn down 32 years ago in front of the Lubyanka, but its new home is in Yasenovo, a southwestern suburb of the capital, at the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR.

[SNIP]

Imagine the head of German foreign intelligence unveiling a statue of Heinrich Himmler in front of BND headquarters, while citing the SS boss as a virtuous moral example to follow, and that’s where Putin’s Russia is today.