Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the closure of the base, which housed around 1,500 Russians, due to the high cost of maintaining it. According to Putin, the base cost roughly $200 million dollars a year to keep the station running. For that amount, Russia could afford to launch 20 spy satellites into space.

The closure also will reflect the new mood of cooperation between Russia and the US since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The base has been a sore point in relations between the US and Russia during the cold war. But the benefit of saving vast amounts of money for the Russian government appears to be a major factor in the decision to close the base. A naval base at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam will also be closed for financial reasons.

Some numbers monitors have speculated if the closure of the Russian listening post means we won't be hearing the E17 "Russian Woman" numbers station any more. While it remains to be seen whether or not the Russians will be shutting down E17 as a further cost cutter, it's highly doubtful that the E17 transmitter site is located at the listening post. The last thing you want near a listening station is a high-power transmitter.

Since the end of the cold war, the US has shut down numerous listening posts that were used to collect Russian radio traffic, mainly due to military cutbacks.

James Bond rides again. That's right, the world-famous spy will be hitting movie screens again for the 20th Bond film. The film, as yet untitled, will star Pierce Brosnan in his fourth movie as the British spy.

Normally, I wouldn't mention anything from Hollywood here, but I found an interesting claim on the internet about James Bond films. The claim is that not only has half the world's population seen a Bond movie, but that they used to be compulsory viewing for KGB agents who were fascinated with Bond's special gadgets.

We all know that Bond's special gadgets, made by Q, are fantasy. James Bond never bothers with copying numbers coming over his shortwave radio, instead, he uses fancy communications equipment.

Well, not everyone seems to always know that movies equal fantasy. In the movie Thunderball, Q gives Bond a little pen-sized device that would allow him to breath underwater for a short time. Someone associated with the movie claimed to have received a call from the British Royal Navy. The caller was extremely interested in the device, and asked how long you could stay underwater with it. The reply was, "As long as you can hold your breath." The story is related on the DVD of Thunderball.

Some numbers monitors have noticed in the movie Vanilla Sky, at certain points of the movie bits of numbers transmissions can be heard. Apparently, a brief snippet of the E3 Lincolnshire Poacher station shows up at one point, but I haven't personally seen the movie to confirm or deny this.

One last movie mention: The movie Enigma will be out soon. The movie is the story of a Bletchly Park cryptanalyst. While fiction, it should be somewhat interesting. At least the book was.

See you all next month.