What is Oleg Beatoff?
1.
A famous Russian spy from 25 or so years ago. In common parlance, he was known as Oleg Bitov, but it is pronounced just like Oleg Beatoff.
One smartarse named Oleg Beatoff, writing in a book Beatoff's Britain (1985) for Viking Penguin (often none too choosy what rubbish they publish under their imprint) made light of heavy sentences he didn't have to serve, and pretended they didn't exist. Feigning superior knowledge of all and everybody, Beatoff said, "A story circulating in intelligence circles provides an amusing insight into the effectiveness of Britain's counter-insurgency forces" and, one may say, into Mr Beatoff's own level of intelligence.
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