A series of acts of sabotage at defence enterprises in Europe, murders, sabotage, bribery of political elites and large-scale subversive work by Russia on the territory of Europe forced European countries to significantly clean up the Russian secret army, mass expulsion of the countries’ agents of special services who worked under diplomatic cover.
The ABN Correspondence wrote about this in the article “Russia’s Secret War in Europe” https://abn.org.ua/uk/analityka/yurij-syrotyuk-tayemna-vijna-rosiyi-v-yevropi/.
The liquidation of the leadership made it somewhat more difficult but did not stop the subversive work of the Russian special services on the territory of Europe. Russia is sparing no expense when it comes to increasing subversion in Europe. In each of his speeches, the main agent Vladimir tries to sow a split within the European Community, turn the population of European countries against their elites, exacerbate the confrontation (supporting the country’s trends) and bring chaos.
After the loss of the management link of the intelligence and subversive networks, Russia rushed to vigorously restore work in the environment of “enemy” countries. The network of agents of deep influence had to be dismantled. A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal: “Russian Spies Next Door” uncovers a deep conspiracy in Slovenia of highly professional, high-ranking spies who allegedly operated as a pair of émigrés from Argentina. Maria Rosa Mayer Muñoz (Anna Valeriivna Dultseva), according to legend, is the manager of an online art gallery from Argentina, her husband Ludwig Gish (Artem Viktorovych Dultsev), is the head of an IT startup. The couple had well-prepared documents, they found special software for secure communication with Moscow in their house in Slovenia, which neither European nor American specialists managed to crack. There were hundreds of thousands of euros in the secret vault. The “spouses” task was to coordinate the restored spy network and transfer tasks and funds. After the Dultsev couple was discovered and arrested, similar emigrant spouses began to disappear en masse from radars in Europe.
The convenient geographical location of Slovenia and the weakness of the country’s counterintelligence agencies have turned it into a convenient base for the formation of an intelligence octopus. Schengen rules of visa-free and uncontrolled movement within Europe simplify the work of Russian agents.
Another strange anomaly was discovered by the Slovenian special services with the abnormal influx of students from Russia into the country’s universities. Young people aged 40-50 began en masse to enroll in higher educational institutions.
Russia very quickly “flooded” Europe with new intelligence personnel under the guise of refugees and illegal migrants. Very often, Russian special services resort to outsourcing, for money and ideological reasons, hiring low-skilled agents to perform a wide variety of tasks. The environment of emigrant “good Russians” is teeming with those who maintain contacts with the Russian special services and are ready to perform various tasks, from participation in information and psychological operations to real actions of diversions and sabotage.
“Runaways” who are used to living comfortably at home do not miss the opportunity to make extra money by carrying out small errands. Moreover, most of them support the preservation of Russia as an empire, speaking only against the so-called Putin regime and sometimes for the apparent democratization of the “united and indivisible” country. Moreover, all Russian emigrants know very well how long the hands of the Russian special services are for destroying enemies in Europe. The examples of Berezovsky, Lytvynenko, and the Skripals are very clear so that in case of a request to help not Putin, but the country, they could refuse. Therefore, it is precisely from these environments that one can very often hear slogans “Ukraine has already lost”, “intolerance and corruption” are in Ukraine, and “denial of great Russian culture” is unacceptable.
The environment of apolitical subjects and people of culture is favourable for agency work. Opera singers, owners of cultural salons and clubs, and artists have always been a favourable environment for the actions of Russian agents.
Russia does not shy away from attracting outright members of the world of crime for money to perform dirty work.
The reserve branch of the agency network is also working hard. The legendary priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, using the protection of freedom of religion, conduct active subversive activities in Europe. The representatives of the Service of “foreign intelligence and the Federal Security Service” in cassocks are a powerful link in the secret war that Russia is waging in Europe.
Only recently, several high-profile cases of criminal activity by agents in cassocks, which could not be hidden, surfaced. Thus, the Bulgarian authorities expelled the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Sofia, “Archimandrite” Vassian Zmeev from the country, for espionage activities and for “implementing various elements of the Russian Federation hybrid strategy for purposeful influence on socio-political processes in Bulgaria in favour of Russian geopolitical interests.” In response, the Russian Orthodox Church accused the Bulgarian authorities of Satanism. Instead, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov aptly replied: “Russian priests were not expelled, only people who worked against the national interests of Bulgaria.” At the beginning of 2024, Estonia did not extend the residence permit of the head of the Estonian Orthodox Church Yevhen (Valery Reshetnikov), obliging the latter to leave the country by 6 February. In May 2024, the Estonian Parliament condemned the ROC’s actions in justifying and supporting the war in Ukraine and declared the institution’s activities as concealing threats to public and constitutional order in Estonia. The Estonian Parliament also called on all states and the international community to prevent the hostile activities of the Russian Orthodox Church from exerting sinister influence. The sensitive topic of freedom of religion remains an excellent cover for the Russian residency for its activities. Activities are not only informative and provocative. European intelligence should have in front of their eyes the bitter experience of Ukraine, in which the ROC network became a place not only for open subversive and collaborative activities but also an active recruiting centre, a place for stockpiling weapons, collecting and transmitting sensitive information.
Another line of work is the infiltration of European politics and society by its own agency. Despite the well-known stories of the agent activities of the member of the European Parliament from Latvia, Tatyana Zhdanok, and the discovery of a Russian spy, a consultant to two parliamentarians from the Alternative for Germany party, Vladimir Sergeenko, Russia is trying to infiltrate with its agents even organizations that, for example, declare themselves to be pro-Ukrainian. The collapse of any coordinated activity among the nations enslaved by Russia or the loud, outrageous, obtrusive, apparently pro-Ukrainian position – the purpose of which is to divert the West’s favour – is also in the Russian agents’ field of view.
However, the ice pick and polonium as tools of Russian intelligence work have come to the fore. They say that such work is personally supervised and coordinated by the Russian spy Vladimir. And he gets a lot of pleasure from it. Well, the purpose of this work is perfectly expressed in the words of his buffoon Dmitry Medvedev: “Are they afraid of transferring our weapons to the enemies of the Western world? It is necessary to transfer all possible types of weapons to them. Are they afraid of anarchy and the outbreak of crime in big cities? We must help in the disorganization of their municipal government! They are afraid of social explosions. Let’s arrange them. We need to throw all the most sinister night terrors into their media sphere and use all their phantom pains… Are they screaming about our use of fake news? Let’s turn their life into completely insane horror, in which they will not be able to distinguish wild fiction from reality, infertile evil from the routine of life. And no rules regarding the enemy…”.
The words of the ex-leader of Russia and the closest ally of Putin are not just the delusions of a madman, Russia seems to have declared war without rules on Europe. Until its advanced units – intelligence and sabotage networks – have not united with, say, the sleeper networks of ISIS, gangs of illegal migrants and have not led the war of all against all, the West must resort to a preemptive strike, regardless of what the saboteur’s epaulettes are hiding under: under the robe of the Russian Orthodox Church, or the neckline of an opera singer…
