This is not a bug report. It's a lack of a bug report. I am very pleased to have noticed since I updated to 1.96 that the game has not crashed ONCE due to this.

To provide info as to why I'm posting this, I was monumentally frustrated by this bug. I have a habit of quicksaving very often, and I still quicksave before I spy on an enemy planet. This habit was formed because this bug would cause a crash well over a dozen times per game.

I want to thank Stardock for (as far as I can tell) fixing this issue and doing it in a fairly prompt manner. I have played through several games without ANY crashes, but I am especially glad to no longer have to deal with the spy crash. +RL Karma to Stardock.