Foreword

When Russia sent its troops in Ukraine for the first time in 2014, when it occupied Crimea, the Kremlin deployed its spies. The spying game of the Russian secret services intensified. It is aimed at the entire European continent, as well as the USA. At the same time, it employs various methods, techniques and procedures – from cyberattacks to poisonings and sabotage.

European countries tried to counter and cause long-term significant damage to Russia’s intelligence gathering capabilities. These actions were confirmed by no less than 500 unprecedented expulsions – Russian officials were thrown out of western capitals.

Many were practicing traditional espionage – they created a contact network and recruited agents that could provide classified information – and took diverse actions: propaganda, disinformation, undercover aggressive operations. Such an example is Poland’s which advertised that the 45 Russians it expelled were involved in “undermining state stability”.

We have witnessed recently a continuous Russian espionage activity in Europe, but also an intense counterespionage activity of the targeted countries.

Espionage Activities in Sweden

On January 19, 2023, a court in Stockholm convicted a former Swedish intelligence officer to life in prison, and his younger brother to a ten-year sentence, after having been found guilty of spying for the Russian Military Intelligence Service, for more than a decade.

42 years old Peyman Kia served in the Swedish Security Service (SAPO), as well as in the military intelligence services, including in the Military Intelligence and Security Service and the Bureau for Special Acquisitions, as well as for a secret unit that handled Swedish spies abroad.

Following the investigations, the Swedish intelligence officer was found guilty of espionage and unauthorised access to classified information. Judge Måns Wigén, stated that P. Kia was in breach of trust with the purpose of serving Russia, a country labelled as “the greatest threat to Sweden”.

His 35^th years old brother was convicted for espionage as well, but also for having maintained contact with the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (formerly known as the Main Intelligence Directorate, or as the GRU). He delivered 45 of the 90 documents that were identified as having been stolen by Peyman. The court ruled that they “both orchestrated unauthorised activities to aid Russia and the GRU, and they procured, delivered and shared information with a foreign power actions detrimental to Sweden’s security”.

The two brothers were born in Iran but they had Swedish citizenship. They denied their charges and they are expected to appeal. They were arrested in 2021, having been accused of spying for Russia since 2011.

Most of the evidence against them, part of the court sessions and the court ruling were not made public due to security reasons, but the court admitted that despite existing evidence, including memory sticks, laptops and cell phones, “some pieces of the puzzle were still missing”. It highlighted that in 2016-2017 P. Kia managed a cash fund that amounted to almost 550,000 Swedish crowns (almost 50,000 euros) most of it in USD, which was said represented payment coming from Russia.

The case led to a change in routine military plans and activities, in order to improve security and the head of SAPO, Charlotte von Essen, stated that her institution had taken action “to handle the prejudices” caused by “an employee in a serious breach of trust”.

The verdict for the two citizens came after a different “spectacular” arrest that had taken place in the end of last year, 2022, in a rich Stockholm suburb. A Russian couple were arrested under suspicion of carrying out “illegal intelligence activities” against Sweden and the USA, for more than a decade.

Moscow seems to have assigned to carry out espionage activities. Their names were made public by the investigations site Bellingcat. They were Sergey Skvortsov and Elena Kulkova. According the Swedish press, the two were managing import-export companies that sold parts for electronics and industrial technology. Skvortsov was placed under temporary arrest. A court in Stockholm ordered that the man should be detained under suspicion of “having carried out illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and a foreign power”. His companion was detained under suspicion of complicity and was released afterwards, even though she remained a suspect in the investigation. The Swedish press speculated that the alleged connections of the couple to the intelligence services in Moscow, labelled them agents, and the prosecutor, Henrik Olin said that the husband had had “ties to the GRU”.

Espionage in German

On the 22^nd December 2022, German prosecutors announced to the press that on Wednesday, the 21 December 2022, an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) was arrested in Berlin, under the suspicion of having provided Russia with classified information.

According to the German laws related to the violation of state secrets, the man (a German citizen identified as Carsten L.) and another unidentified person had their houses searched. The BND employee also had his office searched. No further details were provided regarding the second person.

It transpired that the BND employee delivered to an unknown Russian intelligence service, in 2022, “information acquired during his professional activity”. It was also said that the information was classified, a “state secret”, but no further details were provided. The suspect was taken on the 23^rd December 2022 in front of a judge that ordered he be detained awaiting indictment. The investigation was conducted “in close cooperation” with the BND, the head of the institution, Bruno Kahl mentioning that the intelligence service he was managing called the prosecutors right away, and after internal investigations they concluded it might be treason. He said that they conducted searches and controls over at two of BND’s properties.

In a previous case were a double BND agent was involved, the former employee of that institution was sentenced (2016) to eight years in prison for having breached the German national secrecy status and for having given away classified information.

Taking into account the context these things occur, it is important to highlight that Germany is one of the countries that has given military support to Ukraine, while the country was facing the Russian military invasion.

Espionage in Albania

On the 21^st December 2022, four Czech citizens were detained by the police after having been caught taking pictures near a weapons factory and an ammunition depot in Poliçan, in southern Albania. The incident occurred around 08.40, after the citizens were seen in one of the access tunnels of the above-mentioned area.

The suspects were detained for questioning. The four claimed they were tourists visiting Albania. The head of the regional police, the representatives of the military police and at least two vehicles belonging to the rapid intervention forces were seen arriving in Berat, the region’s capital.

We must highlight that the arrest of the four Czech citizens comes after two Russians and a Ukrainian were caught in a similar incident at a military power plant in Gramsh, in south Albania. The Russian, Mikhail Zorin, 24 years of age, was detained after having entered the courtyard of the power plant in Gramsh, 80 km south of Tirana, and took photographs.

Two military guards that were securing the facility were wounded with what it was assumed to have been a paralysing agent or pepper spray, used by the Russian citizen, while he was resisting the arrest. Another Russian, Svetlana Timofoeva, 33 years of age, and a Ukrainian citizen, identified with the initial F. A., 25 years of age, were arrested outside the complex and their vehicle was identified as an orange Chevrolet, with Ukrainian license plates.

The information regarding the two arrests seems to be unrelated, despite the fact that Gramsh and Poliçan are in the same area, in southern Albania, only 90 km of each other.

The three suspects arrested in Gramsh claim to be “bloggers photographing buildings from the Communist era”.

The arms factory in Gramsh was opened in 1962 to manufacture products based on licensed copies of AK-47 Kalashnikov. After the fall of Communism, in 1990 it stopped production and started to disassemble the old Kalashnikovs and other small weapons. They are also repairing other types of army weapons. At present, the machineries in the factory are tested for conversion for the production of 5,56 mm NATO cartridges. The factory in Poliçan made Kalashnikovs as well, and now it is making 7.62. The rifles and the pistols made in the former Soviet Union and its satellite countries, such as AK-47 and Tokarev usually use this calibre.

Albania, a NATO Member since 2009 disproved and firmly criticised the Russian invasion in Ukraine and joined the EU and the USA’s sanctions against Moscow.

As a conclusion we can safely say that…

There is an intense Russian espionage activity in Europe, especially after Vladimir Putin’s public announcement on the 20^th December 2022, when he ordered Russia’s counterintelligence services to intensify their hunt for “traitors, spies and saboteurs”, and to prevent foreign threats.

Speaking on the occasion of the Day of the Security Agents, a professional Russian celebration, V. Putin expressed his “high hopes” for all Russian security structures that they should respond to the “latest threats and challenges”.

“You must definitely stop the activities of the foreign special services and promptly identify traitors, spies and saboteurs”, he said when addressing his state and military counterintelligence services, on the 300^th day of the war in Ukraine.

Putin asked his Federal Security Service and his Antiterrorism National Committee to take together “special control” over strategic facilities as well as over transport and energy infrastructures.