[cuboidGoat]

To anyone who has paid attention to any of the history of Russian/UK spy scandals, the idea that homosexuality would prevent someone from being a GRU officer, is frankly almost as hilarious as some of the Russian buzzfeed style sites posting articles about how Salisbury is the center of UK gay nightlife.

[obmelvin]

I admit ignorance in this regard - simply restating a theory that seemed to make sense to me. I suppose being a parrot is bad, but it makes more sense to me than what the GP posted.

[cuboidGoat]

The two ideas aren't mutually exclusive. There is then the audience that knows it is all bollocks from the start, many of whom treat it as a massive in-joke that they can take part in, rather than an actual attempt at lying, which wouldn't be the case if the lying was any good.

[romwell]

Very much this; in other words - the officials are trolling the world, with their electorate in on it.