So this one is going to be a double header. When it comes to Russia and her security and intelligence services, it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same…and, well…change. Between the wildest graduation celebration that the spy world has ever seen (or not seen, if they do their job right) and Russian conservatives blasting the new Pokemon Go craze as “satanic” and (yep, you knew this was coming) a CIA plot, one has to wonder just how much crazy can this world stand. So strap yourself in and get ready to Poke-GO! (sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

I remember most of my graduations. High school, college, Marine Corps boot camp. I also remember my graduation from the various schools and courses I attended while at CIA. For high school, the celebration consisted of a few friends and a few forty ounces of Old English malt liquor in the park (tell my mother and I will hunt you down.) Marine Corps recruit training graduation was all of the pomp and circumstance that you would expect, and once I got home for my obligatory 10 days of leave, it was time spent with my infant daughter and family. College was pretty much the same (I graduated late in life, and helping to raise three kids was all of the partying I needed.) My CIA graduation(s) were no less raucous. “Hey great job and thanks for being the tip o’ the spear…” then it was in my car to drive home and see my kids before reporting to my new home office the following Monday. Shaken and stirred martini’s all around – not.

Not so for the newest class of graduates of the Federal’naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii; or FSB, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. According to a 15 July article in The Atlantic this class of graduates not only celebrated what is likely a long and arduous training course, but they went, as the youngin’s say “buck wild.” Buck wild as in they rented 30 blacked-out Mercedes trucks and booze, which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t also drive said vehicles down main streets and HIRED A VIDEOGRAPHER TO TAPE THE WHOLE THING. Oh, did I mention that they said to hell with the whole purpose of “blacked out windows” and hung out of said windows for the camera to capture in all of their ill-advised glory. You can watch the video here .