Vladimir Putin is activating “sleeper agents” who have been under deep cover for decades in Britain and other Western countries as he pursues “riskier” methods of spying overseas, reports suggest.
As the Russian autocrat’s “special military operation” continues to problematise traditional methods of foreign espionage, Putin has been left with little option but to fall back on Soviet-era tactics of using “illegals” to carry out surveillance outside of Russia.
On Tuesday (August 15), news broke that three Bulgarian nationals living near London and Norfolk were arrested in February on suspicion of spying for Russia.
All three suspects had been in the UK for more than a decade, working in roles such as a driver for hospitals, a health professional and in financial services.
Arrested under the Official Secrets Act, they were charged with possessing identity documents with “improper intention” and accused of working for the Russian security services.
The three Bulgarian nationals are just three of the latest alleged Russian spies uncovered around the world.
An Argentinian couple living in Slovenia and a Mexican-Greek photographer who ran a yarn shop in Athens, as well as four more in Norway, Brazil and the Netherlands have all been unmasked.
They are all believed to be “illegals”, Russian operatives for the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) who pose as third-country nationals and spend years painstakingly building up their cover.
Experts warn that these recent unmaskings show Russia is being forced to move away from its traditional methods of spying and fall back on their deep cover agents.
In the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, Western officials expelled Russian diplomats, which the Kremlin had commonly used as spies.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that more than 450 diplomats were expelled from Russian embassies in the first three months of the war, most of them from Europe.
“The time after the war, with all the expulsions, was a fateful time for the Russian intelligence system and they have tried to replace it with different things,” one European intelligence official told the Guardian.
Obtaining visas to travel into Europe and Britain has also become more difficult for Russians by virtue of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 2018 Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury by two Russian security service (GUR) officers using Russian passports issued under false identities, which allowed them to obtain British visas, also backfired on the Kremlin.
The investigative outfit Bellingcat traced their passport numbers to a particular passport office in Russia.
This allowed the identification of many other GRU operatives who used passports with similar serial numbers. It lead to the uncovering of numerous Russian agents.
Faced with all these difficulties and a growing perceived-need to spy on pro-Ukrainian Western states, Putin is being forced to activate his sleepers.
