Wetwork

{{Short description|Euphemism for murder or assassination}}

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Wetwork ({{langx|ru|мокрое дело|mokroye delo}}){{ cite book | author = Becket, Henry S. A. | title = The Dictionary of Espionage: Spookspeak into English | publisher = Stein & Day | year = 1986 }} is a euphemism for murder or assassination that alludes to spilling blood.[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wet%20work wet work]. Definition on Merriam-Webster (accessed Feb 2024) The expression and the similar wet job, wet affair, or wet operation are all calques of Russian terms for such activities and can be traced to criminal slang from at least the 19th century{{ cite book | author = Maksimov, S. V. | chapter = Музыка или словарь карманников, т. е. столичных воров (Music or a dictionary of pickpockets, i.e. metropolitan thieves) | title = Сибирь и каторга | trans-title = Siberia and Hard Labor | publisher = S. V. Maksimov | location = СПб. | date = 1869 | language = Russian }}{{ cite book | author = Dubyagin, Yu. | year = 1991 | title = Толковый словарь уголовных жаргонов | trans-title = Dictionary of Criminal Slang | location = Moscow | publisher = Inter-Omni | isbn = 5-85945-002-8 | language = Russian }} and originally meant robbery that involved murder or the spilling of blood.

The operations are reputed to have been handled by the CIA and by the KGB's SpecBureau 13 (Spets Byuro 13), known as the "Department of Wet Affairs" ({{Transliteration|ru|Otdel mokrykh del}}).{{ cite news | author = Barkdoll, Robert | title = Russian Terror Agency Described by Defector | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | page = 16 | date = November 22, 1965 }}{{ cite book | author = Price, Anthony | title = Colonel Butler's Wolf | publisher = Mysterious Press | year = 1972 | isbn = 9780445402249}}

{{Citation | last = CIA | author-link = CIA | title = Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping: A 1964 view of KGB methods| journal = Studies in Intelligence| volume = 19| issue = 3 | orig-year = 1964 | year = 1993 | language = english| url = https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100327044025/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm| url-status = dead| archive-date = March 27, 2010}}