According to the reports, at least 20 Russian official-cover officers were active in the Netherlands in early 2022. The reporters said they spoke with intelligence sources and the Dossier Center.
As
intelNewsreported earlier
this week, a joint investigative effort by Dutch and Belgian media
exposed details about a group of alleged Russian intelligence officers,
who were expelled by Belgium and The Netherlands in March 2022. Dutch
state broadcaster
NOS and its flagship current affairs program,
Nieuwsuur, aired the names, photos and backgrounds of 17 Russian intelligence officers, who were
expelled
from the Netherlands in March of this year. According to the Dutch
government, the expelled diplomats were involved in counterintelligence
and in espionage targeting the country’s high-tech sector.
According to the reports, at least 20
Russian official-cover officers were active in the Netherlands in early
2022. The reporters said they spoke with intelligence sources and the
Dossier Center. That organization is financed by banned Russian oligarch
and Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and claims to have access to
leaked databases that contain information about the education and
background of Russian intelligence officers.
Eight of the expelled officers work for
the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), while the other nine
work for the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff
(GRU). Some of them presented themselves as trade representatives in
Amsterdam, as military attachés, or as diplomats at the Organisation for
the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Two of the expelled officers were young
attachés who worked in the so-called “referentura”, a secured room
inside the Russian embassy in The Hague, which is used for encrypted
communications with Moscow. Only they and their 52-year-old supervisor,
Sergey Pyatnitskiy, an alleged encryption specialist for the SVR, had
knowledge about encryption keys and were allowed in the room. The GRU is
believed to have its own, separate referentura inside the embassy. Six
of the persons expelled by the Netherlands were encryption experts,
according to NOS and Nieuwsuur.
Furthermore, an expelled vice-consul and
first secretary of the embassy, both linked to the SVR, were reportedly
tasked with counterintelligence. Their tasks centered on monitoring the
Dutch intelligence services and trying to recruit sources inside Dutch
intelligence. According to information provided by the Dossier Center,
Pyatnitskiy’s home address refers to an address in Russia that officers
of the KGB-era First Chief Directorate (foreign operations) used to
declare as their residence. Pyatnitskiy was reportedly one of the top
candidates for expulsion, together with other encryption experts from
the SVR and the GRU.
Among the other expelled officers, one is
an alleged member of the SVR’s department for espionage on chemical and
nuclear technology. Another one was a GRU-trained officer who may have
been especially interested in Dutch companies that manufacture
microchips that can be used in Russia’s weapon industry. Two others are
members of technical directorates of the SVR, with one of them being
responsible for collecting signals intelligence via a satellite dish
located on top of the Russian embassy building in The Hague.
Three known intelligence officers were reportedly not expelled. Two of them are rezidenty:
one is the head of the SVR department at the embassy; the other is the
head of the GRU department. Their presence is said to help “keep open
lines” in case of emergencies, such as terrorism threats. The third
person is an SVR officer responsible for personnel security at the
embassy.
On the same day that the Dutch reports were published, Belgian newspaper De Tijd published details about the expulsions of 21 Russian intelligence officers from Belgium. The report follows a similar report in July by other Belgian news outlets, which revealed the names and backgrounds of Russian alleged intelligence operatives.
According to De Tijd, seven of
the expelled persons were technicians, some of which were tasked with
exchanging encrypted communication with Moscow. Another was identified
as Georgy Kuznetsov, the consul-general of Russia’s embassy in Belgium,
whom the Belgian government considered to be an “agent d’influence”
who was involved mainly in political influence operations and the
distribution of propaganda. Prior to Kuznetsov’s expulsion, Belgium’s
State Security Service had allegedly taken an interest in ties between
him and “extreme-right circles” in Belgium.
The Russian embassy did not respond to a request from De Tijd
for an interview. The Dutch intelligence agencies, the General
Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) and Military Intelligence and
Security Service (MIVD) were contacted by the journalists, but did not
comment on the disclosed names and their positions in Russian
intelligence. The ministry of foreign affairs and the Russian embassy
also did not comment on the report.
It has also been reported that, according
to Western intelligence officials, the expulsions have made it more
difficult for Russian intelligence officers to communicate with the
Kremlin’s assets on the ground. In response to the expulsions by the
Netherlands and Belgium, Russia expelled twelve Belgian and fifteen
Dutch embassy staff in April of this year.
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