Russia’s spy network in Europe has been dealt the ‘most significant strategic blow’ in recent history after the coordinated expulsion of diplomats in connection with the invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, in Great Britain alone, 100 diplomatic visas have been refused in recent years, according to the head of the British Security Service, MI5, Ken McCallum. CNN writes about it.
Details. The director-general of MI5 said in an annual speech that 600 Russian officials had been expelled from Europe this year, 400 of whom his agency had identified as spies.
‘We continue to work intensively on making it as difficult as possible for the covert operational activities of Russia on the territory of Britain, – said McCallum. — Since we expelled 23 Russian spies posing as diplomats, we have denied more than 100 diplomatic visas for national security reasons. What is important is that Great Britain must be ready for Russian aggression for many years to come.’
According to him, after the expulsion, Russia’s espionage capabilities in Europe halved. He added that in recent months, several Russian spies were also exposed and arrested, operating under deep cover and masquerading as ordinary citizens.
‘What I hope won’t change is that a lot of the trained and experienced talent – if I can use that term – of Russian intelligence will be much less useful in most other countries and regions of the world for years to come.’
On June 16, the Dutch intelligence service revealed how it prevented an agent of the Russian military intelligence (GRU) from completing an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. His real name is Serhii Volodymyrovych Cherkasov, his fake name is Victor Muller Ferreira. To stand up for himself, he called Vladimir Putin a ‘cancerous tumor’ and retweeted Bellingcat’s posts about the GRU.
