Acts of sabotage against western arms supplies for Ukraine, pro-Russian propaganda and even murder: the list of Russian intelligence operations in Europe is getting longer. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, according to a survey conducted by the Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands, there have been more and more specified cases.
Bart Schuurman, manager of research, sees the investigation of his squad as a "warning signal" for politicians in Europe. safety expert heads a investigation group on terrorism and political force at the University of Leiden.
Terrorist attacks on aviation
According to Schuurman, Russia is liable not only for "significant harm to European energy and telecommunications infrastructure", but besides for "terror attacks on civilian aviation and threats to public utility facilities that could affect thousands of people".
The arson of the container belonging to the German logistics company DHL shortly before loading on the aircraft shows that suspected Russian attackers are besides prepared to accept the body's injuries.
As in the Cold War, Russia uses a full set of intelligence tools, as Gerhard Conrad says, a erstwhile agent of the German national Intelligence Service (BND), in a conversation with DW. It is about "disturbing the population", as well as "spying targets of military importance, i.e. from the defence manufacture to the Bundeswehr base," says Conrad.
‘One’ Agents
Former peculiar Services Agent presently sits on the board of the “Gesprächskreis Nachrichtendienste in Deutschland”. erstwhile agents there may talk more openly than professionals in the service.
Recruitment of alleged "single-use agents" is new, says Conrad. They are frequently Russian sympathizers who are recruited in EU countries in exchange for cash to make unrest. If specified workers are detected, the harm to Russian peculiar services is minimal.
In Germany, before the elections to the national parliament, the Bundestag, is increasingly heard of specified partisan saboteur- amateur actions. But Russia is now besides recruiting them to spy on military objects utilizing drones.
Russia: a increasing threat
According to Gerhard Conrad, the increasing threat from Russia is recognisable “not only from 2022 but not from 2014 at the latest”. During this time Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimea Peninsula after the pro-European revolution of Majdan and sent troops to the Donbas region in east Ukraine.
As ex-BND worker points out, Europe must realise that Russia's threat "will not pass tomorrow" and Germany and Europe must prepare for long-term "defence against hybrid threats". EU countries will gotta arm themselves not only militarily but besides with their intelligence services.
– To do so, it takes many employees, many method options, including legal ones, to admit these attacks at an early stage," explains Gerhard Conrad. This is the only way to prevent Russian hybrid attacks from happening early.
