Crazy Ivan

Conference Call Anatomy™ Go Premium {{{2}}} Index — Click ᐅ to expand: Conference calls Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Crazy Ivan was a Russian submarine manoeuvre in the Cold War, popularised in the The Hunt for Red October, in which a rogue Soviet sub-commander from Dundee would unexpectedly turn hard left to clear his baffles and ascertain whether he was being followed.

The sudden, unexpected nature of the manoeuvre led to the term being popularised in the conference-calling world, especially since the advent of Skype, to denote the practice of maliciously taking another participant off mute in order to reveal her “clatter signature” leaving defenceless, unwitting and broadside to any conference call ambush another participant cares to mount.

A boss, but all the same dick, move.

See also

• Skype problems