Russia is trying to recover from a series of humiliating blows to its intelligence activities abroad after hundreds of Russian spies in Western countries were expelled or arrested, Western media reported.
Poland arrested nine Russians last month, accusing them of plotting to sabotage a rail line carrying Western military aid to Ukraine. Also last month, US authorities released details of an indictment against a suspected Russian spy who posed as a Brazilian graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and who prosecutors said tried to get a job at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Sweden, Norway and Germany also claim to have exposed Russian espionage attempts in recent months, and officials in Greece have announced that the owner of a knitting shop in Athens is actually a suspected Russian spy.
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO) recently announced that the expulsions of Russian intelligence officers and the refusal of visas for their replacements have significantly weakened Moscow's intelligence operations in the Nordic region.
In what Ken McCallum, the head of Britain's MI5 security service, called "the most significant strategic blow" against Moscow in recent intelligence history, more than 400 so-called undeclared intelligence officials have been kicked out of Europe since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, dramatically reducing its reach and capability Kremlin to carry out espionage activities in Europe.
European intelligence services, according to "Politika", are aware that Russian spy chiefs are trying to find ways to compensate for the huge loss of intelligence officers in embassies, who, among other things, had the task of "spotting talent" and recruiting locals, coordinating the activities of "mole" and other "human resources" as well as to logistically assist "active measures" operations such as the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain in 2018.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are helping allied countries capture an unusually large spies, targeting Russians who operate as "sleepers" under fake names and passports, unlike Russian intelligence officers stationed in embassies, who have legal protection .
The German Constitutional Protection Service, as Deutsche Welle reminds us, predicted last year that the Russian secret services would send more and more disguised sleeper agents, who operate without diplomatic status, often living in the country for years with a false identity. Last year, such spies were exposed in the Netherlands, Slovenia, Norway and Greece.
Among the more famous cases of "sleeper" agents is that of Gerhard Daniel Campos Vitich, whose girlfriend in Rio de Janeiro launched an extensive search after she suddenly lost all contact with him.
Posing as a Brazilian of Austrian origin, Campos Vitic managed a series of 3D printing companies in Rio. Since all trace of him was lost en route to Malaysia, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Facebook community in Malaysia mobilized to search for him.
However, "The Guardian" writes that the shocking news came to him from an unexpected source on the other side of the world, in Athens.
Kampos Vitic is allegedly a false identity, Greek media reported, citing sources in the Greek intelligence service. According to these statements, he is not, as he told the Brazilian girl, the child of an Austrian and a Brazilian woman, who was raised by his grandparents in Vienna.
He is allegedly a Russian undercover agent who worked for an elite intelligence program and was trained for years in Russia to impersonate a foreigner. He is said to have secretly married a female spy posing as a photographer of Greek-Mexican descent named Marija Cala who owned a knitting shop in Athens. Both were said to be part of a decade-long mission to serve Russian intelligence.
Last December, Slovenian authorities also arrested a couple posing as Argentici and running an online art gallery in Ljubljana. Sources told The Guardian that they were officers of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and that they operated throughout Europe.
At least six such suspected illegals have been exposed in various locations over the past year, which, according to the Guardian, indicates that there may be defectors passing information to the West.
The British paper states that it is also possible that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian intelligence services have been asking more of their undercover agents, thus exposing them to additional risk, precisely because so many "legal" spies in Russian embassies have been expelled because of the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with Politiko, Dairujus Jauniškis, director of the Lithuanian State Security Department, said that "Russian intelligence services are trying to renew or create new opportunities for intelligence activities in Europe", and they are exploring "other methods of data collection".
According to Jauniškis, key European infrastructure is the main target of Russian intelligence efforts - with the priority being monitoring "the production and supply of Western weapons to Ukraine" and Russia seizing every opportunity for recruitment. "Lithuanian citizens are approached and recruited on their way to Russia or Belarus," he said.
"Deutsche Welle" states that there are concerns that Russian intelligence could plant transmitters in Western weapons systems in order to later locate them in Ukraine. Likewise, it is possible for drones to capture cell phone signals of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany, in order to find those signals later in Ukraine.
European intelligence services suspect Russia of being behind a series of unusual sabotage incidents last year - including the cutting of cables in northern Germany, used by train conductors to communicate, and the cutting of undersea cables supplying electricity to a Danish island. Both Norway and Lithuania have reported unauthorized drone overflights over airports and energy infrastructure.
Last year, two Russians and a Ukrainian were arrested while trying to enter an Albanian military compound and take photographs. Also in 2022, Bulgarian prosecutors released details of an investigation into a defense reserve general who allegedly passed classified information to Russia since 2016.
Slovak counter-intelligence services arrested reserve colonel Pavel Bučik last year, accusing him of passing information about the Slovak and Ukrainian defense forces to Russia - receiving at least $46 for each piece of information.
Bucik was part of a four-man group run by the Russian military intelligence service (GRU), which also included Bohus Garbar - a writer for a pro-Russian website who was recruited by the then Russian military attaché in 2021, and their meetings in parks were recorded . Among Garbar's tasks was to seek out individuals sympathetic to Russia and to help shape a network of agents of influence.
Last September, a court in Hungary sentenced in absentia former MEP Bela Kovac, a member of the right-wing Jobbik party now in exile in Moscow, to five years in prison for spying for Russia.
Despite that verdict, Politico points out that neighboring EU states consider Hungary a weak link in collective counter-espionage efforts, since the presence of the Russian International Investment Bank in Budapest has been the focus of controversy since Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave permission to relocate there in 2019.
At the head of this mysterious bank, which is now struggling for financial survival, is Nikolai Kosov, whose parents worked in the KGB during the Soviet era. Hungarian opposition politicians and former intelligence officials, as well as Western security officials, have expressed concern that the bank is being used as a logistical base for Russian espionage activities, yet enjoys diplomatic immunity, as do its employees and consultants who hold Schengen visas and can freely to move within the European Union.
"Politico" points out that the large number of arrests across Europe is certainly a testimony to Russia's determination to gather as much information as possible about defense installations and NATO military plans, and to locate and train potential recruits, including those who may not be in direct contact with sensitive material but have access to individuals and organizations that are.
Russia accused an American journalist of espionage
Investigators of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officially accused journalist Evan Gershkovich of espionage on Friday, while the Wall Street Journal journalist rejects the accusations and claims that he was working as a journalist, Russian media reported.
The FSB, the successor to the Soviet KGB, announced on March 30 that it had arrested Gershkovich in the city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage for allegedly collecting state secrets about the military-industrial complex.
"Gersković has been charged," the Interfax news agency announced on Friday, citing informed sources. FSB investigators are said to have formally charged Gershkovich with espionage for the US. "He categorically rejects all accusations and claims that he carried out journalistic activities in Russia," Tas reported.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist arrested in Russia on charges of espionage since the end of the Cold War, Reuters reminds.
The "Wall Street Journal" rejected the claims that Geršković was spying and demanded the immediate release of the "dedicated journalist".
The Kremlin claims that Gershkovic was spying "under the guise" of journalism, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Gershkovic was caught in the act. US President Joe Biden called for the release of Gershkovic.
Gershkovich, who speaks fluent Russian, was born into a family of Soviet immigrants and grew up in New Jersey. He moved to Moscow in 2017 to work for the Moscow Times, and later worked for the French news agency AFP.
When Russia launched a "special military operation" in February, Gershkovich was in London and was supposed to return to Moscow to work for the Wall Street Journal's correspondent there. It was decided that he would live in Moscow and travel to Russia to report as a correspondent accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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