Intelligence alert: Russia is planning attacks on top EU defence officials
The assassination of European civilian targets – once considered taboo even by Russian intelligence agencies – is playing an increasingly significant role in these plans. According to the Financial Times, which spoke to officials from five different intelligence agencies, CEOs and other senior executives have become targets for Kremlin agents
Key points
Moscow is stepping up its efforts to assassinate European defence officials. It is this warning from Western intelligence agencies that has prompted companies to tighten security measures around their senior executives. The assassination of European civilian targets – once considered taboo even by Russian intelligence agencies – is playing an increasingly significant role in these plans. According to the Financial Times, which spoke to officials from five different intelligence agencies, CEOs and other senior executives have become targets for Kremlin agents.
Defence chiefs in the firing line
According to sources, executives at smaller companies are also being targeted, particularly those at firms involved in the manufacture of drones or their components. “The threat level in Europe has risen – not only to property, but also to people,” said a senior official.
Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), has significantly stepped up its contacts with the “staff and executives” of German defence companies, going so far as to recommend the use of private security teams, an official said. Several defence industry executives told the FT that they had stepped up their close protection measures over the past six months, following specific recommendations from government security services.
Gru changes strategy
Others claim to take such measures only when travelling abroad. Responsibility for this type of plot – referred to in Russian intelligence jargon as ‘wet work’, a term denoting violent operations, particularly contract killings – lies largely with the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. And, according to the secret services, the GRU is adapting its methods. Its officers are collaborating ever more closely with organised crime groups, utilising networks of agents operating across national borders, and dividing up reconnaissance, logistics, planning and execution amongst different cells or individuals, rather than relying on individual ‘expendable’ agents recruited online in exchange for money. In some cases, plots already at the operational stage have been identified and foiled. In others, suspicious activities have been detected, including forms of surveillance aimed at mapping people’s daily routines, both at home and at work. Security officials have emphasised that a central element of the Russian strategy is that assassination attempts do not necessarily have to be carried out for the campaign to achieve its desired effects.
“From the Russian perspective, the main objective remains psychological,” said an intelligence official. “It is enough to make people believe they could become a target to achieve the desired effect. They want people to think twice before doing business with Ukraine.”
