As of: March 7, 2024, 5:21 a.m
By: Nadja Zinsmeister
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Press
Split
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is said to be conducting more intensive espionage in Europe than ever before.
Experts explain the new Russian methods.
Berlin – Russia and the West have long been at war – perhaps not on a military level, but on a political level.
This war appears to be coming to a head: new findings from the
Royal United Services Institute
(RUSI), a London think tank, show that the Russian secret service (GRU) is learning from its past mistakes in espionage.
As a result, not only has he recently adapted his methods, but a new phase of political warfare against the West has also begun.
The RUSI study was written by two analysts at the think tank as well as a former adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister and head of foreign intelligence.
It is based on documents “obtained by the Russian special services,” the authors write.
They also conducted interviews with “relevant official bodies” – presumably secret services – in Ukraine and Europe.
It is emphasized that Russia has made serious mistakes in its espionage in the past.
Numerous spies were exposed and expelled from Europe in the years before the Ukraine war.
But the Kremlin has learned from these mistakes.
“The game of cat and mouse is back”: Russia is spying in the West more intensively “than in the times of the Cold War”
“The game of cat and mouse is back,” a Western intelligence officer confirmed to German reporters at the
Financial Times,
according to a report on Tuesday.
“Russian activity is as high or even higher than during the Cold War,” a second is quoted as saying.
A third officer told the newspaper: "Russian intelligence is a huge machine and is back to doing what it always did."
Russia is said to have intensified its espionage in Europe.
(Symbolic photo) © Christian Ohde/IMAGO
The priorities are the same as before the war: stealing Western secrets, deepening the division in NATO and undermining support for Ukraine.
However, the GRU has increased its espionage operations and adapted its methods.
This is intended to compensate for the decimated spy networks in Europe.
In order to intensify Russia's espionage abroad again, the Kremlin would increasingly use “deputy” intelligence actors.
Instead of working with Russian operators in the West, as in previous years, a number of foreigners from politics, business and even organized crime circles are now being used.
As an example , The Financial Times
cites
a Serbian gang that organized the escape of Artem Uss in 2023.
Uss is a Kremlin-linked businessman who was arrested in Italy on suspicion of selling U.S. military technology to Moscow.
Russian espionage activity in Europe: Latest incident from Germany causes concern
Further examples in Europe clearly show how aggressively the espionage war with the West has recently been resumed.
Just last Friday (March 1), a wiretapped 38-minute conversation between German Air Force Inspector Ingo Gerhartz and three other high-ranking German officers regarding arms deliveries to Ukraine was published in Russian online networks.
Details of a possible delivery and use of Taurus cruise missiles in the Ukraine war were discussed.
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Defense Minister Boris Pistorius assured that no Russian spy could have been actively involved in the conversation.
According to the interim results of the investigation so far, there was a data leak in Singapore because a participant in the call did not adhere to the requirements for secure dial-in.
Other German defense politicians, including CDU defense politician Roderich Kiesewetter, had expressed the suspicion over the weekend that a Russian spy or another unauthorized person could have dialed into the online conference.
Is Russia increasingly relying on foreign spies?
Further incidents from Spain and Great Britain
In Great Britain, on February 27, Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev became the sixth Bulgarian to be charged with being part of a suspected Russian spy ring in the United Kingdom.
In Spain the week before, former Russian military pilot Maksim Kuzminov, who defected to Ukraine last year, was found shot dead in an underground car park.
It was a targeted attack on the young pilot, who had handed over secret documents and his plane to the Ukrainian military.
In return he was promised money and high security measures for a new life in Spain.
And in January, the European Parliament opened an investigation into whether Latvian MEP Tatjana Zdanoka
possibly an agent of the Russian secret service.
Zdanoka is accused of having worked for the Russian domestic secret service FSB for years and of trying to promote a pro-Kremlin mood in the Baltics.
Sandra Kalniete, Roberts Zile and Ivars Ijabs of the center-right European People's Party, the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the liberal Renew party, respectively, then wrote in a letter: "There are other MPs... who knowingly Serve Russia’s interests.”
The contents of the letter were available to the news portal
Politico
.
They are convinced that Zdanoka is not an isolated case in the EU Parliament.
(nz)