Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Estonia’s domestic intelligence agency has one piece of advice for European peers unsure about how to handle saboteurs hired by Russia: prosecute them as publicly as possible.
Officials at the Kaitsepolitseiamet (Kapo), Estonia’s internal security service, told the FT that European governments should be faster and more aggressive in calling out Russian-backed attacks, and use the courts as much as possible to deter further recruitment efforts.
“Russia and its services are doing things as long as we let them,” said Harrys Puusepp, Kapo’s head of bureau. “We can’t deter them from trying, we can’t stop them . . . but we can make it as difficult and costly as possible to carry them out.”
Deterring would-be recruits with tough prison sentences was working in Estonia, Puusepp said.
“We have confirmed intelligence that it has deterred the actors that Russia is trying to recruit.
“It’s a good idea for everyone,” he added. “Part of our international operation is to share experience, share what works.”
“It’s important to take action early on so it doesn’t develop into something worse . . . We can’t overstate the importance of legal tools,” Puusepp said.
For much of the past two years, Europe’s security services have been struggling to respond to a Moscow-backed campaign of hybrid warfare on European soil.
Via social media and through criminal networks, Russian intelligence officers have recruited hundreds of marginalised European citizens and refugees, often for small financial rewards, to conduct violent attacks, sow disinformation and facilitate espionage operations.
It is a shadowy campaign that has led to a bout of hand-wringing among European governments about whether such actions constitute a threat in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine and how they should respond.
While European spy chiefs have talked publicly in general terms about the seriousness of the problem, they have been divided on the issue of pursuing matters through the courts and drawing attention to attacks publicly.
Estonia has experienced a range of attacks by Russian operatives, from low-level acts of vandalism — such as attacks on politicians’ and journalists’ cars — to potentially life-threatening arson attempts against targets such as supermarkets and restaurants.
Alongside Estonia, Poland has been notably aggressive in pursuing prosecutions against arsonists, cyber attackers and people hired by Russia to place explosives on railways.
Others have been more equivocal in their responses.
In the UK, attacks in May last year against a vehicle and property previously linked to the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are being prosecuted as acts of arson but not espionage, despite a belief by British intelligence that Russians commissioned the attacks.
Other European countries have been even more timid, according to one Brussels-based security official. Some countries were afraid of provoking Russia, even when they had high confidence Moscow was responsible, they said.
Criminal and public prosecutions are not part of the standard vocabulary of many western spy agencies, which prize their secrecy above all else.
The typical playbook for counter-intelligence operations is quite the opposite: on discovering covert activity, most spy chiefs prefer to sit back and watch. Sometimes, they attempt to turn the operatives, hoping to gain further leads rather than make arrests.
Absent a more coherent response, the number of Russian-sponsored attacks across Europe is rising. That is a problem for all European states, said Puusepp. “Because Russia just looks at Europe as the same operating area.”
Source:
www.ft.com
