How the West Defeated Russia's Deep Cover Spy Networks

When an agency with a sizable counterintelligence department like MI5 identifies suspected undercover espionage, they secretly spy on and follow them after them. their contacts — their names are rarely released to the press.

So when a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur and a middle-aged couple living in an unremarkable Harrow apartment were accused of spying for Russia, some eyebrows were raised.

Orlin Russev, Bizer Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova reportedly had three dozen ID cards from several European countries and spent seemingly innocuous years in the suburbs of London.

But their arrest and public exposure by Scotland Yard may have not to be. in years past.

Since the war in Ukraine began, the West has been uncharacteristically transparent in its efforts to catch those accused of spying for the Kremlin.

The renewed effort to catch spies in the UK is half of a double whammy on Russian intelligence networks that has forced Vladimir Putin's spy agencies to resort to riskier forms of espionage: undercover agents and even so-called «illegals» who spend decades cultivating fake identities for top-secret operations.

Since 2022, at least 705 diplomats suspected of espionage have been expelled from Russian embassies around the world — almost twice as many as in the entire previous 20 years.

Some Russian diplomatic missions are completely ruined. Bulgaria expelled a staggering 83 Russian diplomats and Poland expelled 45. Faced with a shortage of diplomatic corps, Russia was forced to close consulates in several countries.

While it lacked the drama of publicly exposing a daring op spy, the diplomatic purge dealt a heavy blow on the day-to-day activities of the Russian spy network in Europe.

“The expulsion has definitely done a lot of damage because it is the loss of a lot of people with diplomatic cover and these diplomats are banned from moving to another EU country,” Andrey Soldatov, Russian investigative journalist and senior fellow at the Center for European Political Analyst who studied Russian intelligence at for two decades, The Telegraph said.

“Russian intelligence agencies are forced to produce results, and now the remaining agents have to [do] double work for those who are no longer sitting in these embassies.”

Not all of the exiled diplomats are Russian intelligence agents, but some of them were likely key intelligence officers building a network of local agents. The disruption has likely severely affected many of the long-running operations involving such agents, which are carefully cultivated by the now exiled Russian officers.

“What happens when you have a sudden mass exile? A certain number of assets simply disappear from the scene. Others just wait, but no one challenges them or collects information,” Mark Galeotti, author of “Putin’s Wars: From Crimea to Ukraine,” told The Telegraph.

“The point is not only that the embassies were kicked out. It is undermining the network they have developed and nurtured.”

Exiled diplomats, some of whom are considered undeclared agents, are often transferred to other countries as Moscow's resources become increasingly limited.

p

While missions elsewhere were downsizing, the Russian embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, was expanding, receiving some diplomats expelled from other countries.

The Russian government does not appear to be bothered by the fact that some of its diplomats have already been caught red-handed: two years after Yevgeny Umerenko was detained and expelled for trying to steal trade secrets from Sweden's Volvo and Scania, a truck maker, he has resurfaced in Russia's representative office in South Korea.

< p>When they called the Russian embassy in Seoul this spring, the Swedish public broadcaster SVT found that Mr. Umerenko was working again.

Expose and destroy

In addition to cracking down on Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover, the West sought to expose and destroy the Russian network of «illegals».

In less than a year, EU countries arrested or exposed at least six Russian citizens living under fictitious names and allegedly working GRU military intelligence.

In the Netherlands, authorities in November identified and exiled a Russian agent posing as a Brazilian graduate student as part of a plot to infiltrate the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In Slovenia, police arrested a couple in January who posed as Argentine art gallery managers who reportedly spied for the GRU. A few days after their arrest, local media were full of stories about illegal immigrants, describing them as model neighbors who «looked like everyone else» and took care of stray cats.

The alleged spies detained in Britain last week were also described as «quiet and unremarkable» by neighbors. They also lived near the RAF Northolt Air Base, which was often used by the royal family.

Experts believe that Western governments have decided to publicly arrest deep-cover agents because they have become a bigger threat.

“By arresting these people, counterintelligence is losing a potential source or recruit,” Mr. Soldatov said. “But these illegals are now more dangerous, because Russian intelligence has actually switched to combat mode.”

Without staff in their embassies, Mr. Soldatov said, the Russian spy network has been forced to shift from routine intelligence gathering to prioritized «special operations» that can be anything from targeted assassinations to acts of sabotage.

< p>Some, however, be warned that revelations, arrests and deportations are already too late.

“The arrest of these three people is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer, referring to the three Bulgarians arrested in the UK. number of agents and intelligence officers in societies across Europe, including the UK,” he said.

Intelligence sharing

Security experts say intelligence-sharing in Europe has greatly improved since the poisoning of former KGB agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, helping smaller European countries with no MI6 or CIA capabilities to access intelligence that allows them to identify and catching Russian spies.

There may also be a «keep up with the Joneses» element in expelling «illegals» as European countries compete somewhat over who can act tougher on Russia, Mr Galeotti said .

While the exposure of Russian agents may seem like a major counterintelligence achievement, it actually shows how concerned the European intelligence community is about potential subversion by Russian agents, he said.

The West's attempt to destroy the Russian intelligence network could also force the Kremlin to spread a network to search for potential agents — for example, family members of officials.

Artyom Uss, 40-year-old son of a Russian A striking example is the governor, who escaped house arrest and was secretly transported to neighboring Serbia, and then back to Moscow.

Uss, the son of the governor of Krasnoyarsk, was awaiting extradition to the United States for stealing secret military technology.

Putin, he says, has shown over the years that he has the ability to ask Russian citizens and companies, or all suits for favors to help the Kremlin. “Putin created a draft state: in other words, no person, no institution can [refuse] when the state says we need you to do something.” — especially if this is a person who had some kind of access — to be told: “this is your chance to show your loyalty to the Motherland.”