A spy war is unfolding between Russia and Western countries as Russian agents, expanding their network abroad, eliminate individuals the Kremlin dislikes on the territory of EU member states.
Moreover, Russian intelligence services took advantage of the moment to build up their network of agents abroad, when many young Russians of military age left Russia for Western countries due to fear of mobilization, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Russia eliminates defectors abroad
The newspaper recalls that after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and its Western allies intensified attempts to weaken the Russian state and armed forces by attracting defectors. The Kremlin, in turn, is trying to track down and kill the defectors one by one to prevent new losses.
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So, since the great war, famous Russians have died under unusual circumstances on three continents. Some were considered bearers of politically subversive ideas, others could be drawn into a regular criminal war. Some may actually have died of natural causes. But there are enough of them that Wikipedia created a permanent list of 51 names called “Suspicious deaths of Russian businessmen (2022-2024)”.
Businessmen were found hanged in London and drowned in Puerto Rico. A ruling party boss fell from the roof of an Indian hotel and a 46-year-old deputy science minister died of an unexplained illness on a flight back from Cuba. Spanish police are still investigating the 2022 deaths of Sergei Protosen, the former deputy chairman of gas producer Novatek, as well as his wife and daughter at their home near Barcelona.
A separate example was the Russian military pilot-defector Maxim Kuzminov, who, according to preliminary data, was shot in one of the Spanish cities. Kuzminov is known for having flown to the territory of Ukraine from the Russian Federation and for a reward he handed over a Mi-8 helicopter to the Ukrainian military.
In Ukraine, military intelligence has opened a 24-hour “I want to live” hotline for Russian soldiers who want to give up their weapons and switch sides. More than 260 people have deserted the ranks, another 26,000 have dialed in, and the number of daily calls has risen by about 70% in a short time since Kuzminov made the announcement in September, according to Pyotr Yatsenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's Prisoner of War Affairs Directorate. .
The US Central Intelligence Agency released three videos calling on Russians, especially intelligence officers, to cooperate with Washington; As a rule, these videos receive tens of thousands of views. The agency says it wouldn't have released them if they hadn't convinced Russians to take a step forward.
— I invite them to do what others have done over the past 18 months and join us — our door is always open. Their secrets will always be safe with us, — said British spy chief Richard Moore in a rare speech to a Prague audience last year.
France received Maria Dmitrieva, a doctor who worked for the Federal Security Service (FSB). Gleb Karakulov, an engineer from Putin's presidential guard, secretly fled to an unknown destination through Turkey last year. In a video interview with the London-based Dossier Center investigative team funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, he said he was responsible for the security of the president's personal communications and accompanied Putin on more than 180 trips.
Russia expands its network of spies
According to the WSJ, while Ukraine and its Western partners were developing operations to recruit officers like Kuzminov, the Russian FSB was strengthening the architecture to stop them.
The Third Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, which is tasked with preventing desertions, has grown since the outbreak of full-scale war to become the largest unit of the FSB, the newspaper writes, citing security analysts. This FSB unit is tasked with spying on the Russian military down to the unit level in a country spread across 11 time zones. Even before the recent expansion, the FSB's third military intelligence directorate was quite large, with more than 20 of its agents monitoring troops at one small airbase with just six aircraft in the Kaluga region, according to leaked 2012 FSB documents published on the Russian investigative website Agentura.
The network of domestic and foreign intelligence agencies has regained its confidence and influence after the chaos at the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European security analysts say. Early on, Putin reportedly placed senior FSB leaders under house arrest for misjudging the Ukrainian resistance. European capitals expelled about 400 Russian diplomats, many of whom were considered spies.
— Putin later fired the heads of the FSB, deciding not to purge its ranks. He kept Russia's borders open, allowing hundreds of thousands of Russians to escape mobilization by fleeing to Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, and they were joined by undercover intelligence officers, rebuilding ranks depleted by the expulsions of diplomats, — writes WSJ with reference to European officials.
President Putin, a former KGB colonel, has long said he would hunt down Russian defectors. Now its spy agencies are becoming increasingly brazen and creative in suppressing dissent abroad, US and European intelligence officials say.
According to analysts, the boundaries between the three main Russian intelligence agencies — FSB, military intelligence GRU and foreign intelligence SVR — are increasingly blurred, which complicates the task of determining who is responsible for a particular operation.
— The services used to be very separate, but now they share personnel and assets. It's like during the time of Stalin, when the Soviet dictator created a new agency called SMERSH, or “Death to Spies” — says Andrey Soldatov, who has been writing about Russian intelligence services for more than 20 years.
Russia is also increasingly using foreign nationals in its operations.
Last year, British law enforcement arrested five Bulgarians accused of spying for Moscow, including spying on Russian exiles in London. In April 2023, Artem Uss, a businessman and son of a close Putin associate, escaped from house arrest in Italy with the help of a Serbian crime gang and avoided extradition to the United States. He was being held on criminal charges of violating military technology sanctions.
Murder of Kuzminov
The operation to lure the Russian defector pilot Kuzminov became one of the trial options that was conceived by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR), writes WSJ. In the following months, they tried to see if the defector could stay alive in the comfort of Western Europe, surviving on money and a new identity card that Ukraine provided him with.
To piece together the picture of his desertion and murder, The Wall Street Journal spoke with the pilot's neighbors and acquaintances in Spain, including witnesses to his murder, as well as Spanish, European and American police and intelligence officials, and Ukrainians , who participated in the operation to remove him and his helicopter from Russia.
Returning to the day Kuzminov flew his Mi-8 from Russia to Ukraine, the WSJ writes that only one person in the helicopter knew where he was going. This man was the pilot Kuzminov. On August 9, he turned off his helicopter's radio and took his chance when, as Russia believed, he was supposed to be transporting spare parts for fighter jets and two pilots from the Russian border city of Pskov. As he flew over the front line, his two crewmates in the cockpit realized his plan and began to protest loudly.
WSJ writes that Kuzminov tried to calm the crew members, giving instructions that he later recalled his Ukrainian handlers told them: “When we land, don't run away”. However, as soon as the helicopter landed, Kuzminov's two comrades — Nikita Kiryanov and Khushbakht Tursunov — ran towards Russia. Ukraine claims its troops ordered them to stop. When the Russian crew members did not do this, both were shot and killed.
After details of the operation became public, anger among Russians towards Kuzminov: “We will find him. I don't think he'll live long enough to face trial”, — said one intelligence officer in an interview with a Russian show.
Ukrainian special services assured Kuzminov that he would be safe in Ukraine, moreover, if the Russian pilot wanted, he could even fly on Ukrainian Air Force planes. Or he can leave Ukraine.
— We cannot keep you on a chain here in Ukraine. But we also need you to be aware of the risks to your safety — one of the officials told Kuzminov.
However, WSJ writes that Kuzminov decided to try his luck in Spain. On departure, Kyiv handed him a Ukrainian passport. Kuzminov chose the Mediterranean town of Villajoyosa, whose population is 36 thousand people, including more than 800 registered residents from Russia. His home in exile was the ninth floor of a four-tower condominium overlooking the beach, most of whose residents, according to the building's manager, — foreigners.
— The building's new resident quickly began renovating his apartment, often dressing in construction clothing as he escorted another worker in and out of the building. One day he asked the condominium manager where he could dispose of construction waste. His Spanish was quite decent, the manager thought. A short time later, this manager was sweeping the parking lot when he heard screams and then the screech of tires driving away. He ran and discovered the body of Kuzminov, who was looking at him from the roadway with his mouth open, — writes WSJ.
The manager, according to the newspaper, said that Kuzminov was already dead when attempts were made to call the rescue service.
