In the last year, Russia’s intelligence services have encountered the most serious reduction in the potential of its spy network abroad since the Cold War. This is another consequence of the invasion of Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin probably did not foresee, giving an order to enter the troops. So writes The Washington Post with reference to sources of newspaper in US and European Security Services.
The material of the publication notes that the scale of the response to the war in Ukraine, apparently, found Russia by surprise. As a result, Moscow capabilities were weakened to maintain contacts with informants in Europe, conduct espionage operations and collect intelligence on the key topics for the Kremlin, including on the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
Despite this, Russia retains significant potential for spy activity abroad, the same sources warn.
Western intelligence services expect that Russia will restore its spy network in Europe. According to a senior representative of one of the Western intelligence services, not one of the well -known attempts to re -implement Russian agents “was not crowned with success.”
The Russian special services, judging by some signs, on the verge of despair, the unnamed employee of the FBI believes. Russia is also trying to compensate for its losses, relying more on cyberspiration and using refugee flows.