Russian “sleeper” spies activated in many in Europe and the Americas: the Kremlin dusts off Soviet Cold War strategies. The Guardian argues against this, explaining how Moscow has begun to turn to sleeper cells deployed in Western countries or to unofficial agents and operatives, third-national or “illegal” people, Russians posing as such who have spent years building a cover without do no intelligence work for years. The “illegals” are the legacy of a Soviet program, recalls the British newspaper, which cites episodes such as the arrest, just last year, of at least seven alleged illegals in Norway, Brazil, Holland, Slovenia and Greece. Some managed to escape, probably to Russia, others are still trapped in the West.
The return to riskier and less easy spying methods was enforced by the expulsion of 450 diplomats in all from western countries in the first three months of the war in Ukraine alone, many of whom were agents of the FSB, GRU and Sver – the various Russian agencies of intelligence – under diplomatic cover. Even the possibility of passing over operatives such as tourists and businessmen disappeared in the face of the tightness in granting visas. The investigative work of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism collective, following the Salisbury poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018 has also blown up many agents, with passport numbers close to those of agents sent to England with novichok and unmasked.
In Britain, three alleged Bulgarian spies were arrested last February along with two other people, two months after the arrest in Ljubljana of “Maria Meyer”, the official name of an art gallery owner, and “Ludwig Gisch” , two Russian SVR (foreign intelligence service) agents posing as Argentines. The trial against the three will begin in January. They are joined by a photographer with dual Greek and Mexican citizenship with a yarn shop in Athens. A security guard at the British embassy in Berlin has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after being accused of carrying out various tasks for Russian intelligence.
Source: IL Tempo
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
