Author: Robert Břešťan, HlidaciPes.org
Russia has fully gone into Soviet mode. “It is following the Soviet tradition of waging war, strengthening its own power and weakening the West,” says Czech national security adviser Tomas Pojar. In addition to purposefully building anti-Western alliances around the world, the Kremlin is openly committing subversive actions, including acts of violence, on the territory of European Union and NATO member states.
The crash of a DHL plane in Lithuania at the end of November brought to mind several cases where trapped parcels were burned prematurely at Leipzig Airport, where the plane had taken off, before they could be loaded on board.
The information about the foiled attacks with a Russian trace was given by the heads of the German intelligence services during a hearing in the Bundestag in October. The head of the British counter-intelligence agency MI5 made a similar public statement recently on the subject of Russian efforts to “cause chaos on the streets of Britain and Europe” and cases of arson and sabotage orchestrated by the Kremlin.
“I have never heard such strong, repeated and urgent statements in my 33 years in the intelligence service,” Michal Koudelka, director of the Czech counterintelligence agency BIS, commented at a conference in the Chamber of Deputies focused on Soviet and Russian subversion in Europe.
He himself added many warnings about Russia, including a description of the activities of the Russian secret services in the Czech Republic and Europe.
Masking sabotage activities
According to the BIS, the main threat in Europe is posed by three Russian intelligence services: the SVR and GRU intelligence services and the FSB counterintelligence service.
“The GRU in particular has not undergone any significant change since the USSR. All of them can conduct subversion operations abroad and liquidate opponents of Russia. These services were among the best in the world and cannot be underestimated. The methods are no different, but they are influenced by advances in technology. They are not constrained by law or public scrutiny,” Koudelka says.
Murders and attempted murders of its opponents abroad are no exception in the Russian arsenal. There are the well-known cases of the murder of the defected Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium and the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal with novichok poison on British soil, or the attempted murder of the Bulgarian owner of the arms company Dunarit, Emilian Gebrev.
Members of GRU military intelligence unit 29155 were behind both the aforementioned acts and the explosions in Vrbětice in the Czech Republic in 2014, in which two Czech citizens died.
“Since Vrbětice we have witnessed a systematic escalation. The Russians have new methods and tactics to mask their sabotage activities. Examples are the packages at Leipzig airport, but also other attacks – the explosion in Wales, arson attacks in London, attacks on military bases in Germany,” summarises Jan Paďourek, chief director of the Internal Security and Police Training Section of the Czech Interior Ministry, adding that this is a series of coordinated attacks.
In the Czech Republic, according to the BIS, there is a clear Russian trace in the attempted arson attack on a bus depot in Prague. This too was a reflection of changing Russian tactics and capabilities after a number of Russian spies, until then working under diplomatic cover, were expelled from both the Czech Republic and other European countries. The Kremlin has been recruiting and hiring foreigners or members of the underworld for operations – most recently, arson attacks.
“The fact that Russia is using foreigners to carry out such attacks is not a sign of desperation but, on the contrary, an adaptation to the new situation after the wave of expulsions of Russian diplomats and intelligence service personnel. It is the change in the modus operandi and our slow adaptation that makes our response difficult. The new wave of Russian veterans with experience of the war in Ukraine, who perceive the West as an enemy, will also play a role,” Paďourek added.
“Subversions are cheap, get results and carry little risk. This is also because the GRU also uses criminal forces in each country,” pointed out another guest at the conference on Russian subversion, former director of Russian intelligence MI 6 Richard Billing Dearlove.
Wiretaps from the Russian Embassy
According to Luboš Veselý, who was one of the Czech diplomats reciprocally expelled from the embassy in Moscow, Russia makes no secret of its goals.
“The goal is not just to subvert Ukraine and try to turn it into a satellite state, but to subvert the security architecture in the whole of Europe. Russia itself presented this in its letter of December 2021: Russia is serious about the demands listed there, including the cancellation of NATO membership for the countries of Central Europe, including the Czech Republic,” says Veselý, who is now the State Department’s special representative for policy coordination towards the Russian Federation.
In many ways, today’s Russia is building on what worked during the Cold War. “The West has forgotten how real the threats of sabotage were during the Cold War – that is, sabotage and sabotage operations against targets antagonistic to USSR interests. The aim was also to weaken the resolve of governments, to undermine public support. The current Russian leadership was educated and trained during this period,” points out Jan Padourek.
“It is naive to think that the threat will pass with a possible ceasefire in Ukraine. This is a long-term and well-thought-out strategy to destabilise Western society,” he said.
The Kremlin is also using modern technologies that the world did not know at the time of the Cold War.Technological advances have also greatly increased the use of sophisticated eavesdropping – phone calls, computers and other means of communication.
BIS Director Michal Koudelka points out that this is a common occurrence under the active direction of the Russian embassy: “An example of this are the structures on the roofs of Russian embassies around the world, including the one in Prague, which allow for the monitoring of telecommunications.”
According to David Dlouhý, rector of the Czech Police Academy, the ruling Russian regime has more people in the security services than it did in the USSR: “In 1991, there was one KGB officer for every 593 Russians; in 2022, there would be one representative of the Russian secret services for every 402 Russians.” But Russian intelligence services build on their past and, as Dlouhy says, stick to „best practices“.
