SBU Major General: Russian Intelligence Deliberately Involves Belarusian KGB

• 24.04.2024, 13:12

You have to work in a new way.

The number of Russian agents detention cases has grown in Europe. Last week, saboteurs who were preparing explosions at military facilities were arrested in Germany. Earlier, a network controlled by Putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk, was exposed. It was influencing European politicians.

How serious is the Russian intelligence network in Europe? How can the West resist it? Charter97.org spoke about this with the former Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Reserve Major General Viktor Yahun:

— The Russian special services have switched to aggressive operation mode. Previously, their main task was to collect information through representatives of diplomatic missions and search for sources among journalists, politicians and opinion leaders, trying to influence certain processes. And after the open aggression began and in fact the bulk of those representatives of the special services who worked in the embassies were expelled, the Russians switched to a completely different system of work.

I will not mention military intelligence, which deals with the elimination of so-called traitors. The question here is that there is a system that the Russian special services are working on, no matter who is behind it — foreign intelligence, internal intelligence or the part of the FSB responsible for intelligence. They actively began to use, firstly, those people who had already been recruited, and secondly, they began to raise the Russian diaspora, which over the past 30 years has grown very much in Europe.

Also, the special services began to actively use those people who had just recently left Russia. There is irrefutable evidence that there are thousands of so-called forced agents among them. Why forced — firstly, they were allowed to leave, secondly, they are dependent on Russia, because there are property, relatives, some businesses, if they are artists, then some royalties. Something's holding them there. Any movements in one direction or another can simply worsen their financial situation. These are dependent people, if you need to say something to someone or support something somewhere, they are always ready.

This is the basis, the Russian special services are now actively working on it, working aggressively and quite actively.

— Last week, a Belarusian who hired Poles to attack Russian opposition leader Leonid Volkov was detained in Poland. What is the role of Lukashenka and the Belarusian KGB in the Kremlin's special operations in the EU?

— Russia is actively using proxies. Belarusian special services are also proxies in this regard. It is clear that if there are any claims, then the Russians "have nothing to do with it" — there are Belarusians, there are Poles, unclear in general. Like "They don't like Navalny either."

Trying to get rid of something, they are actively using the capabilities of the Belarusian special services. This is a well-known tactic when friendly special services were used to cover global operations, first by the Soviet and then by Russian intelligence. You can remember when they killed someone somewhere or did some things, and then it turned out that either Bulgarian or GDR intelligence was behind it. Nothing new.

— How can the West resist the Russian agents? What steps should be taken?

— We must clearly understand that there is a war now. You can recall not very democratic actions that they did at the time, for example, the United States on its territory. They, despite all the traditional rules, simply created, so to speak, filtration camps and separated from their population some of those people who had recently obtained citizenship, being of Japanese, Italian or German origin.

I'm not saying that now we need to create some kind of filtration camps in Europe and drive all the Russians there. But it is necessary to separate them from public activities and clearly put them in their place. We see that these people get into politics, into some protest things, comment and promote Russian ideas. At the same time, some basic things are often used, for example, sports clubs or interest clubs.

There are still community centers in some countries that are funded by the so-called Rossotrudnichestvo, there are church parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church, which are actually basic intelligence centers. What we call "cells of the Russian world" in Ukraine, all this must be brought under control. I'm not saying to be radical, but to keep them tight.