“Vladimir Putin’s spies have been working at NATO headquarters for years,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, according to reports. Russian secret agents were found working at the headquarters in Brussels and removed on espionage charges, Das Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.
Mr. Stoltenberg told the German tabloid that “We were evicting Russian personnel from NATO headquarters.”
“In fact, we found that they were engaged in activities that were not actually diplomatic work, but intelligence work. NATO allies have done similar things. This is an issue that arises among NATO allies. In fact, from the moment of the expulsion of the known spies, who were being monitored, the Western intelligence services were left without sources and targets for monitoring.
Stoltenberg recalled the incidents of 2021 to emphasize the need for unity
“NATO allies have done similar things (ie expel pro-Russian spies). This is an issue between NATO allies.” In recent weeks, the threat of Russian espionage has become more prominent with German authorities warning Tinder users against dating in the country. While in Brussels, Le Soir spoke of far-right MEPs bought by Russia who were “paid for interviews” on a pro-Russian website.
Vladimir Putin’s foreign intelligence chief has also visited the pariah state of North Korea to deepen ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. Mr Stoltenberg added that more would be done to prevent Kremlin spying.
“We are taking a number of measures to make it more difficult for Russian intelligence services to conduct illegal activities between or within NATO allies,” said the NATO chief. “So as long as we’re united, we’re safe.”
Who were Russia’s 8 spies in NATO
A lieutenant colonel with high Kremlin connections, a counterintelligence agent and a Big Data expert revealed the identities of 8 Russians expelled from NATO headquarters in Brussels, according to EUobserver.
The eight cases claiming to be “diplomats” at the Russian embassy in NATO headquarters in Brussels were in fact “undeclared intelligence officers” who were carrying out “activities inconsistent with their credentials”, the secretary-general of NATO had said. NATO Jens Stoltenberg.
NATO never mentioned them by name, which meant they could quietly return to Russia and then be sent on missions to other non-NATO countries, again under diplomatic cover.
The eight Russian diplomatic spies were Sergei Chesnokov, Oleg Demekin, Vasily Episkin, Dmitry Filippenok, Igor Kovalev, Nadezhda Obukhova, Alexander Smusko and Stanislav Telegin, according to information obtained thanks to a joint investigation by the London-based Michael Khodorkovsky Dossier Center and EUobserver.
The closing of the Russian embassy in NATO which meant “blackout” and preparation for war
But after that moment, Russia closed its entire embassy at NATO headquarters.
Her reaction was seen as an attempt to defy the Western alliance as Russia and NATO have begun talks over the threat that Russia could launch a new war against Ukraine over the US-Ukraine agreement on NATO membership and bases in the “soft underbelly” of Russia.
They showed the importance of the NATO headquarters as a target in the eyes of Russia. And the biographies of these people shed light on the kind of people Russian spy services were sending to Belgium, targeting both EU and Belgian institutions.
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