The methods of exploration of the Russian Federation have become more inventive, and the tasks remained the same - FT
According to representatives of Western intelligence and analytics, Russia returned its spies, which Europe managed to expel in 2022, and, as one of the special services officers noted, the "game in the Cats" returned. "Russian intelligence is a huge car, and it is doing what she always did again," the insider of the edition said.
According to FT, another secret operation is almost every week, which shows how far the Russian intelligence services have penetrated into the Western countries this time. Yes, the sixth Bulgarian has been charged with participation in the Russian spy network, spread in the United Kingdom. Two weeks ago, a Russian military pilot was found in Spain, who overtook a helicopter to Ukraine. A week before, a network of 193 sites designed for a powerful misinformation campaign was discovered in France.
In addition, the European Parliament has started an investigation into the Latvian deputy, who was probably the Kremlin agent. However, the apogee of the leakage of information to Moscow was the publication of telephone conversations of Luftwaffe officers, who were used by Russian propagandists in a hybrid war against the event, accusing Germany of preparing an attack on Russia.
German officials stated that this leak and further accusations of Moscow of developing "cunning plans" were "a flashy attempt by President Vladimir Putin to split allies of Ukraine. " Undoubtedly, Western intelligences do not sit back, and they recently published detailed Moscow scenarios to invade Ukraine. However, as early as 2022, immediately after full -scale aggression, the European capitals sent 600 Russian diplomats, 400 of which are considered spies.
Several "illegals" - agents without diplomatic cover, spy networks in many countries have been revealed. According to FT experts, it became a catalyst for the FSB and the CPD - they were regrouping, upgraded to increase Russia's chances of conducting ordinary military operations. At the same time, Western special services write, priorities remain the same as before the war: to steal the Western secrets, to strengthen the differences within NATO and undermine Ukraine's support.
But the methods have become more resourceful to compensate for the destroyed spy network in Europe and bypass restrictions on the work of Russians on the continent. "They (Russian special services. - Ed. ) Really have to change their methods of work . . . to resort to other tools," - comments the situation insider of the publication. One of the greatest changes in the Kremlin, as experts note, has become a wider use of "proxy" of intelligence structures.
Prior to the war, Western agencies were mostly taken care of by operations conducted by Russian citizens throughout Europe. Today it may not be true, FT notes. Russian secret operations are now involved in a number of foreign citizens involved in politics, business and organized crime, such as a Serbian gang, which organized last year the escape of Artem of the USSA, connected with the Kremlin Businessman, arrested in Italy on suspicion of selling US military technologies. . "(Prox.
The Kremlin also put pressure on Russian immigrants to co -oppose them and other opponents of the regime that fled abroad after the war. "We know the cases where Moscow relied on the relatives of the emigrants who remained in Russia," said Andrei Soldatov, an expert of the Russian special services. According to analysts, for Russian spies conducting operations at a distance using remote work and recently published proxies have its pros and cons.
On the one hand, there are more opportunities for denial. Proxy servers can also be effective for operations such as theft of commercial secrets, creation of export schemes bypassing sanctions or penetration into computer networks. A USB drive connected to the computer can, for example, provide information as valuable as information received from a person that has been collecting an "illegal" curator for years. "Russians still work remotely. But they consider it unreliable.
The goal now is to develop legitimate cover or legends so agents can penetrate target countries," Jack Wotling, one of the co -authors of the analytical center report Royal Institute of Joint Services in London. In order to solve this problem, the GRU began to recruit so-called "pure" agents-without any military experience, to imperceptibly penetrate into target countries and establish personal contacts.
At the same time, to some extent, the old model of "legal" Russian spies operating in the embassies is still stored in traditionally neutral countries such as Austria and Switzerland. "Representatives of the security services of both countries have stated that about 150 well -known Russian agents are still operating there under diplomatic cover.
Almost a third of Russia's intelligence operations throughout the continent are now being carried out from Vienna and Geneva's" Secure Centers "," FT says. In addition, Russian spies strengthened their bases outside the Schengen EU area. According to the official, Turkey and the UAE in the Middle East became important bridgeheads for Russian intelligence operations in Europe.
In addition, several expelled Russian agents also moved to the capital of Serbia Belgrade, which maintains good relations with Moscow. "We expect Russia to try to compensate for the loss of intelligence officers," - describes the new approach of Russia's internal intelligence in its annual report. After the invasion of Ukraine, Western agencies also intensified cooperation, creating a network of databases and ties to catch Russian fighters and agents.
"There is a much closer international cooperation. It has become a priority. Earlier in the fight against terrorism, it was necessary to" decide to share. " It is practically impossible to predict how effective the updated methods of spy activity of Russia will be. In the reconnaissance world, they are always aware of how many are unknown.
"On the one hand, Putin's growing authoritarianism created a" hidden wave of dissatisfaction "in the Russian security services" and enabled recruiting that falls once for generation , said that many Russians are silent today, and "our doors are always open to them. , and potentially recruit them. In any case, the prompt efficiency of suspected illegals, such as Jammira fake Brazilian or Sergey Cherkasov, probable Russian spy, exposed by Dutch intelligence in 2022, is often lower than expected.
" As many people think. Sleeping work alone, do not have much access to secret information and do not have much support, " - adds another insider. This is a Russian intelligence machine sometimes achieved impressive success - as happened in 2021 with Solarwinds cyberattack that broke Pentagon, or with a new The leakage of telephone conversations from Germany. Recall that on February 22, according to Politico, on phones of members of the European Parliament found spyware.