The European Union, apparently, is now trying to minimize the number of Russian spies on its territory. The most recent case is Poland, where on March 16, officials from the Internal Security Agency announced the arrest of nine people who were filming Western military equipment entering Ukraine from an airport in Rzeszow. With an explanation: they were engaged in intelligence in favor of Russia.
Moscow has two divisions: the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Main Directorate of the General Staff. Both the former and the latter often use the documents of Russian diplomats for cover. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least six hundred Russian diplomats have been expelled from the West. This was reported in January by the state Russian agency TASS. However, these people are returning to Europe again, at least according to the investigation of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty.
“Documented the transportation of weapons for Ukraine.” How Russian diplomats expelled for espionage from the EU return to Europe.
“Documented the transportation of weapons for Ukraine.” How Russian diplomats expelled for espionage from the EU return to Europe
– Is it possible to say now where the most Russian intelligence officers are? From the report, we learned that there may be many of them in Belgrade, for example.
– Serbia, Montenegro, Austria did not join the sanctions on the expulsion of diplomats. And there were vacancies. After the invasion of Ukraine, approximately 750 diplomats were expelled from Europe. A third of them are regular officers of the GRU, SVR, FSB Fifth Service. Neither Soviet, nor even Russian intelligence knew such a failure. They all came to Moscow – they need to be attached somewhere. Now, the States, Canada, Great Britain, the EU, Australia, and partly Japan are closed to them. Those who were expelled before the war have not yet been attached. And then there are new ones. But the embassies are already busy. They are now trying to attach in Africa, Latin America, and partly in Asia. Again, it’s all busy.
As my source tells me, there is a very nervous atmosphere in the GRU right now. People have arrived, there is no work, and there is nowhere for wives to attach. Well-known brands have left Russia, there are no good jobs, banks are cutting staff. And I have a letter that the wives of the gereushniks wrote to Putin in the spirit of “to the village of grandfather.” They complain that “here we have arrived, there is no work, they give us a school or a kindergarten on the other side of Moscow, we need to travel.” And they offered the wife of one diplomat to deliver pizza – a vacancy. So she was offended: “How am I? I was in Belgium, and now I have to deliver pizza?”
The position is lousy. The European residency has been almost completely frozen. That is, these agent chains have been violated. The same source from the GRU told me how the agent stopped contacting him. He finally found him and said: “What’s the matter? Why don’t you come out?” And he just said: “Bucha.” If earlier, when Putin occupied Crimea, it was still all right, there were reservations: “Crimea belonged to Russia after all, back and forth.” Now the agents saw what Russian troops and atrocities are in Ukraine and simply stopped all communication.
Investigative journalist Sergei Kanev on the collapse of the Russian intelligence network in the EU and the mass expulsion of diplomats to Moscow
– This is the recruitment of engineers, military, and diplomats. The scientific and technical intelligence of the SVR collects everything, including how new video cameras, washing machines, and combines are arranged. Everyone scoops it up and then sends it to the research institutes – secret research institutes, where they look where they can apply it. But often, when Russian spies steal, Russian engineers have not yet reached this point. So while everything is gathering dust. They sent a lot of coders from the embassies, these are key people, they send encryptions, they sent graduates of rocket institutes, they are missile gunners. At each Russian embassy, there is a missile gunner who builds these routes, in case of war, where the missiles will fly. A lot of people were expelled: technical workers, not all Russian spies worked there under the roof of diplomats. They were caretakers, drivers, janitors, by someone else – they were all expelled, too. Therefore, the current situation of Russian intelligence in Europe is catastrophic. It’s impossible to work. That is, Putin destroyed the entire European residency with his own hands.
– You can often see news that an agent network was uncovered in one country, uncovered in another, expelled from one, from another. Are European countries starting to work so well? Or did Russian agents began to work poorly and leave traces?
– Here is the situation. If, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European counterintelligence turned a blind eye to the tricks of Russian spies, they thought: “Well, yes, there are spies everywhere, you need to work.” In general, they did not take such drastic measures, but they figured it out. I just looked at the lists: they had already been calculated a long time ago, but they were not touched. But after the invasion of Ukraine, the lafa ended: they began to expel them, to raise all intelligence and operational cases. And those who have remained now, for example, official spies, are military attachés: they are now working under the tight control of European intelligence services. It is simply impossible to work. Outdoor advertising is built right behind them. And how do they work? How to meet agents? In general, I say again that not a single intelligence service in the world, especially neither Soviet nor Russian, has known such a grandiose failure.
The main hotbed of Russian agents is Rossotrudnichestvo. All cash flows go through Rossotrudnichestvo to bribe, including Italian politicians, loyal journalists, bloggers. What is the role of Russian structures, which, perhaps, are not directly connected, for example, with embassies, I do not mean consulates, but one way or another they are trying to introduce them through them?
– As for Rossotrudnichestvo, they have a lot of GRU officers embedded in the structure, the Foreign Intelligence Service, and the Fifth Service of the FSB, the so-called international cooperation. But I would not say that Rossotrudnichestvo is the most active structure. No, they are more engaged in propaganda and promotion of soft power: they are invited to study the Russian language on May 9, Pushkin, Tsiolkovsky – this is how they drag the youth.
– And then more serious people work with them.
– They choose. Their preference is given to people under 35 years old. Of course, then a lot of people are weeded out there. Some are recruited, brought to Russia at the expense of Russian embassies, and Rossotrudnichestvo. This is how, in general, an agent network is created. By the way, Rossotrudnichestvo, Primakov’s grandson, came there, and he tried to throw intelligence officers out of Rossotrudnichestvo. In general, he had plans to stop this balalaika diplomacy, even change the name “Rossotrudnichestvo,” because foreigners do not pronounce it in any way. But they gave him the hand and the ear of this Primakov. The war began in Ukraine, and he curtailed all the reforms
